| DON MESSEC: at Santa Fe Art Institute
February 2009
Registration: Santa Fe Art
Institute
Handeled exclusively through Santa Fe Art Institute
Need help? Apply SFAI for scholarships!
Need Information, you can call me at (505) 820-7875 or
emial makingartsafely@mac.com
Monotype Threshold February 2-6, 2008
Monotype with its’ extensive array of mark making is genuinely
the most personal of printmaking mediums. This course is designed
to give artists an overview of the vast territory that is Monotype,
achieve greater comfort with this medium, and advance each participants
ability to place their ideas into prints. Monotype has the
additional benefit of being a quick medium like drawing yet full
fledge in color and range of mark, making it an ideal medium for
advancing aesthetic and idea development more effectively than many
traditional mediums.
Looking at new processes, materials and approaches that are re-defining
what can be done on paper, this workshop will survey many approaches
to Monotype. Many techniques will be introduced, discussed, and
demonstrated with participants getting an opportunity to make work
and explore ideas. Attention will be given to the expansive
means of expression represented by recent innovations in low-toxic
printmaking. The good news is advances in printmaking have
simplified and opened up printmaking's' expressive nature making
Monotype very accessible and relevant to contemporary artists.
Digital for Artists February 9-13, 2008
Somewhere between the needs of photographers, website designers
and commercial printshop is a lesser known world of digital activity
and knowledge; the world of artists' digital. This workshop will
jump head long into this under-taught abyss, taking on questions
of what we need to understand as artists about this powerful image
and information oriented medium.
From the obvious to the obscure we will tackle digital. Is the end
result purely digital, is it physically tangible or is digital a
way of exploring ideas that take final form away from the computer?
These questions will lead a journey through software, hardware,
wireless, printing, posting, burning, thinking, creating and becoming.
Computers have a breadth and depth that requires us each to define
our own way of working developing a personal set of skills and knowledge
that move us forward, and with a basic understanding of the medium
all of us will better exploit this medium for our own purpose.
For those of you with some experience, this workshop will help fill
in blanks. For the digital novice this workshop will open doors
and build confidence. Each student can expect to leave challenged
yet better prepared to take on digital tools within their creative
process.
You will need to bring your laptop or computer with your own photoshop
or similar software.
Light and Ink February 16-20, 2008
Photo sensitive polymers have the ability to merge photography,
drawing, digital imaging and printmaking into a single process that
readily lends itself to many diverse and creative facets of image
making. The resulting prints are capable of exhibiting a long,
smooth tonal range with extremely high resolution and rich, deep
blacks and colors. With a vast array of printmaking papers
and inks, students will witness their imagery evolve through these
versatile and dynamic processes. Whether the student's interest
is in producing beautiful prints within the tradition of photography,
mixed marks, or other image-making methods, you will find this medium
extremely receptive. Digital imaging has never had a reproductive
process more tactile and tangible, while photography and printmaking
have never been more accessible in a single process. The adaptability
of polymer gives artists interested in exploring new territory the
potential of producing editions of archival prints, or one-of-a-kind
pieces.
Participants need to come with a solid understanding of the basics
of Photoshop or other like software, and scanning. The focus
of this workshop is to help participants learn essential platemaking
and printmaking methods required for producing intaglio based prints
and will cover but not focus on the fine points of digital studio
work.
The polymer process has a straightforward learning curve that makes
mastering the elements of the process user-friendly. Photoshop is
a powerful tool and will be used for image control and transparency
output, consequently playing an important role in achieving the
best possible results. Photoshop and related digital processes
have eliminated the need for a wet darkroom, while advances in polymer
emulsions make the entire process environmentally friendly.
Transparencies needed in the process are printed out using high-quality
ink-jet and other printers or output from service bureaus, then
exposed in contact with a polymer plate processed in water, then
inked and printed, using an etching press.
Polymer processes, while related to copperplate photogravure as
a very high-quality intaglio process, are far simpler, more accessible,
versatile, and safer. Here is a process which brings together
the high aspirations of intaglio printmaking for demanding artists
and the fluidity of a dialectic medium.
Work on Paper February 23-27, 2008
Paper may well be the most transformative media of humankind. Ancient
yet contemporary, what can be readily imparted to paper continues
to grow as human created technologies develop more and more image
dependent communications. Using printmaking as a point of departure
this workshop will focus on getting beyond category defined artistic
effort. Becoming untethered from artificial constraints of what
is allowed to what is needed to make your work carry your ideas
will require seeing work on paper as an overarching platform into
which and from much can be extracted.
We will begin with a discussion of where each participants wants
and is willing to go. From this edge of the aesthetic canyon we
will proceed to develop solutions, skills and strategies to get
there. There is no one answer, one skill set, or set of tools; each
person’s vision will drive everything from the common point
of departure, work on paper. Frustration and elation will come hand
in hand as the work develops through this workshop. Cutting, tearing,
building, destroying, layering and obscuring the journey may well
impart whole new personal approaches to thinking and making. |