University of North Texas 
“Moving On” is a collection of 22 hand pulled prints created by artists across the country. Each print included within this exhibition is the unique interpretation of each artist when faced with examining their coping mechanisms in response to death. In total there are 23 complete editions of the portfolio. This is edition 23.
The theme of the exchange, “Moving On”, is a dissection of how we cope with grief and loss. Death is never easy, and our coping mechanisms can either numb the pain, fill a void, or heal us. The process of moving on can provide unique opportunities for growth or change as well as a sense of freedom from whatever is interpreted as a dead subject. However, we may also in this process find our inability to move on to be detrimental and unravel us at the seams. Death isn't necessarily relegated to the physical loss of an individual and is a concept open to all aspects of our lives whether this be a sense of self, geographical relocations, the ending of a relationship and so on. Moving On asks, what do we do that allows us to hold together when death presents itself? How do you cope?
Participating Artists:
Diana Abourchacra
Dematerialized
2021
Screenprint
11” x 14”
Diana Abouchacra is a Lebanese American multimedia artist. She works in a variety of mediums including video, printmaking, installation and sound art. She loves incorporating experimental strategies and techniques into her studio practice. Themes that her artwork touches on include grief, vulnerability, ephemerality, multiplicity, and transformation. Art making is an intuitive exploration for her that helps to process emotions where other approaches have failed. She views her artmaking as a safe space to delve into the depths of her wounds - to witness, understand, reflect, and perhaps find resolve.
“Dematerialized evolved from a visual journal I made in late 2020. A visual journal acts in the same way any diary or journal would, but instead of writing, I create a painting of what I am feeling at the time. The entry is a response to my emotional state. In the years following my mother's physical death, I found it extremely difficult to think of her although her absence impacted all parts of my life. Daily tasks were extremely difficult to complete, and my body often would find itself in auto-pilot mode. My mother being taken suddenly from my immediate reality was a traumatic event that had pulled the rug of stability from under my feet. Throughout the years, many methods have helped me process the heartbreak and trauma. One particular process that has helped me profoundly cope with the grief is artmaking. My studio practice became a safe haven where my grief could be expressed freely and seen in a different light. I found myself choosing techniques and concepts in my making of the work that simultaneously supported my healing, i.e., repetition, ritual, and soundscapes. Artmaking has given me the tools to explore unknown territory, beyond my hurt and suffering, aiding in reconstructing the narrative I tell myself surrounding my mother and grief.”
Stephanie Alaniz
Repetitious Sequence
2021
Lithograph
11” x 14”
Stephanie Alaniz (they/she) was born in Corpus Christi, Texas where they received their Bachelor of Fine Art from Texas A&M-Corpus Christi in 2016. Alaniz went on to receive their Master of Fine Art from West Virginia University in 2019. They have shown their work internationally in places such as Egypt, France, and Nepal. “They are a fat artist fighting socially created beauty-norms and want to break down the stigma towards fat bodies, general fatphobia, and normalizing insecurities. Through this work, they analyze our relationship with insecurities in the hopes of creating a conversation with the intent to not only normalize our collective insecurities but create understanding, solidarity, and comfort with ourselves and each other. Through doing this they also intend to create an opportunity of reflection on systematically taught self-hate, eurocentric ideologies, and fatphobia.”
Samantha Bares
By Dying You Opened the Gate/By Dying You Closed the Gates
2020
Silkscreen
11” x 14”
Samantha Bares grew up in Nederland, Texas. Her artist father got her interested in art at a young age, and her mother encouraged this practice all throughout her life. Her work brings in fragments of imagery from her own lived experience, the experiences of her family, dreams, and folklore to construct representational narratives. She is interested in constructing environments that contain a complex amalgamation of emotions brought on by the actions of the figures who inhabit it. After receiving her BFA in printmaking from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette in 2018, Samantha has recently obtained her MFA degree with a concentration in printmaking from the University of Colorado Boulder this past May of 2021. Her work is held in the permanent collections of the SGCI Print Archives, the University of Utah's Art Department Collection, Marais Press in Lafayette, Louisiana, the Jerry Crail Johnson's Earth Sciences and Map Library at CU Boulder, and the Museum of Texas Tech University in Lubbock, Texas. She has been published in Volume 13 of the quarterly print publication, Friend of the Artist, as well as in issue 30 of The Hand Magazine “In 2015, the death of my grandfather created a void not only within my family, but also within the practice of my own spirituality. Growing up, going to church was a family event that included my parents and grandparents. Even after moving away from my family once I began college, I still tried to make the effort to attend mass every so often on my own. At a young age, I knew that many of my own values did not align with that of the Catholic Church, and going to church events always felt like a chore. However, there was also an extreme guilt that weighed over me when I purposefully decided not to attend mass for congregational worship. Once my grandfather passed, I began going to church less and less, to the point that I cannot even recall the last time I went. Physically going to this holy building to pray on a weekly basis always felt like something I did to make my family happy, rather than to find religious content myself. His death did not necessarily help me to forgive myself for the rejection of my family's more openly devout practice. I coped with his passing by somewhat closing off my relationship with God, and as of now, I am not really sure if that is a good decision or not; I just know that I do not feel as guilty anymore.”
Mary Claire Becker
Resolution/Dissolution
2020
Relief
11” x 14”
Mary Claire Becker is a printmaker whose work rearranges and re-contextualizes human-made depictions of Nature. She grew up in Raleigh, NC and currently lives in Stillwater, OK, where she works as Assistant Professor of 2D Studio Art and 2D Foundations Coordinator at Oklahoma State University. She holds an MA and MFA from the University of Iowa, a Certificate of Book Arts from the UI Center for the Book, and a BFA from the University of North Carolina at Asheville. Mary Claire was the 2019 Stephen L. Barstow Artist-in-Residence at Central Michigan University. She has also attended residencies at Iowa Lakeside Laboratory, Jentel Arts, and Kimmel Harding Nelson Center and served as a studio assistant at Penland School of Crafts. She has shown nationally at many galleries including Visions West Contemporary in Livingston, MT, Blue Spiral 1 in Asheville, NC, Manifest Gallery in Cinncinnati, OH, and the Center for Book Arts in New York City. Her work was recognized with a Curator's Choice Award in Mid-America Print Council's 2018 Members Juried Exhibition. “My focus is Romantic-era Nature, a concept that remains strong in contemporary American culture, suffused with desire and nostalgia: the idealized and idyllic pristine wilderness or the lush and verdant forest. From Victorian cabinets of curiosity to contemporary Instagram photos of wilderness vacations, the desire to preserve fleeting experiences of wild beauty is a common impulse in industrial societies. With cultural connotations such as authenticity, purity, and majesty, the ‘untouched wilderness' of our collective consciousness provides respite from the rigidity of the built environment. A connection to nature offsets the stresses of the modern workplace, and in the case of nature-lovers and environmentalists, it mediates our guilt over participating in a society that uses natural resources unsustainably. However, by fetishizing the landscape, we exclude ourselves from any definition of nature and it becomes more difficult to design human systems that function effectively within our environment. My work encourages viewers to pay attention to our conflicting definitions of Nature. This investigation becomes all the more pressing with the knowledge that industrial activity has now irrevocably altered our environment, and “Nature” as we know it is changing. Representations of Nature become memorials to former systems.”
Sasha Bitzer
Ebb and Flow
2021
Lithograph
11” x 14”
Sasha Bitzer was born in 1988 in Northern Minnesota. She grew up outside a small town near the Canadian border, where her family lived and farmed. Her youth was spent tinkering with farm machinery and learning to invest time and effort into creating an environment where land and animals would prosper. The close relationship and attachment to land and interest in machines became a catalyst for her future pursuits in art as a printmaker. Bitzer received her BFA in printmaking and ceramics from Minnesota State University in 2015 and her MFA from Northern Illinois University in 2019 with an emphasis in printmaking. Bitzer now resides in DeKalb, Illinois, near Chicago, and is working as an instructor of printmaking and drawing at Northern Illinois University and Rockford University. “Her recent body of work depicts displaced objects in an environment that conflicts with their expected nature. With this relationship she explores the dilemmas that occur when humans assert control over what they value and wish to preserve, resulting in a self-imposed cycle of desire, fear, and loss. The objects often function as a stand in for people or a reservoir for memory. The work addresses the absurdity of this persistence and reveals the isolated, stagnant existence this cycle creates.”
Magaly Cantu
Life as an Argument
2021
Relief
11” x 14”
Magaly Cantu explores the burden of marianismo, the female complement to machismo which idolizes traditional feminine roles and is perpetuated within Latin culture. Each work uses surreal iconography to express the toll it takes on her self-perception, and how it has formed her identity as an adult. “My work explores the cause-and-effect relationship between Marianismo, which is the idealization of female gender roles and sexualization of the female body. I confront expectations placed on women through the figure and the space where they exist. The figures represented in my work are a symbol of the imperfect women. Gender Roles perpetuated by traditions in Latin culture, are an important part in unraveling a lot of toxic ideas and influencing my work. Ideas such as hyper-femininity, suppressed sexuality, and submissiveness are damaging and unattainable for young women, they encourage conflict within ourselves. My print and painting work is based on that unraveling of personal experiences. I conceptualize images of conflict between strong ‘hyper-female' figures and their surreal environment. That environment is a visualization of the culture experienced through my perception. Although my work is surreal, it is a culmination of reality, the grotesque and the beautiful. I illustrate a narrative using multiple layer printmaking, bold color, satire, and religious iconography. The printmaking process allows me to develop this environment, by making multiples I install to create an atmosphere for the viewer or just a scene on paper. Artists such as Wangechi Mutu and Vincent Valdez's attention to detail and heavy use of iconography is direct and intense and inspire me to continue work dealing with culture and sexuality. Iconography, just like experiences, are ingrained in our memories but their definitions can change through perception. For example, the cactus in my current work is misshapen and overgrown to represent both a phallic object and the burden of sex. My work is meant to normalize the imperfect women and challenge the beliefs of Marianismo.”
Zoe Couvillion
Impressions to Inherit: Letting Go (Front)
2021
Lithography/Blind Emboss
11” x 14”
Impressions to Inherit: Letting Go (Back)
2021
Lithography/Blind Emboss
11” x 14”
Zoë Couvillion was born and raised in Alexandria, Louisiana, within a household of draftspersons, painters, and poets. When she announced her decision to major in Fine Arts at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, it was no surprise to her family. She received her BFA with a concentration in Printmaking in 2019, and immediately packed to start graduate school across the country. Zoë joined Northern Illinois University's MFA program that same year, and is currently under the tutelage of Michael Barnes. She is focusing her efforts toward printmaking still, with especial fervor for stone lithography and paper-embossing. Her MFA candidacy will come to a close in May of 2021, and she plans to continue to make art in whatever new environment she lands in, be it barnyard, bayou, or in-between. “The image-packed border of this print exists as a summoning-circle of sorts. It's a collection I have inherited of similarly-sized objects that previously belonged to my late father. They're pieces of his every-day; he was a pocket-knife-collecting Eagle-Scout, a Radio-Shack employee, and a chain-smoker. Without knowledge of his whittling, scouting, or hunting background, his employment history, or what his keys led to, viewers are forced to conjure-up their own object-associations, and look through the window the drawn objects create into an embossed and somewhat hard-to-read centerpiece of portraits. On the print's opposite side, those once-blank faces exist as smiling lithographs, with the prior bordering objects now floating as haunting emboss. These portraits, contrary to the print's border, all portray my dad as father alone. They solely depict him teaching, holding, and caring for me. The conversation between the print's border and the print's inner imagery speaks to the duality of how I knew my dad while he was living and how I have to know him now. This print asks which is more “real” at present: the images of him that exist in fading memories and old photographs, or the energy still left in the things he used in life. In either case, I cannot experience both realities at once, which is where the double-sidedness of the print comes into play. Either I exist alongside my dad in a childlike memory, and have no need for things that are his— (seeing as I'm able to interact with him) —or he lives through those things he left behind, and I am left to try and imagine his every-day: objects in-hand.”
Lya Finston
I Should've Been Made of Salt
2021
Lithography/Screenprint
11” x 14”
Lya Finston is an artist and printmaker currently based in central Pennsylvania, where she works as Bucknell University's Art Assistant in Printmaking. In January of 2021, Lya relocated to PA after 2+ years living in Chicago, IL. There, she was a fellow at Spudnik Press, a publishing assistant at Hoofprint, and an Access Services Assistant at the Ryerson & Burnham Library of the Art Institute of Chicago. She also holds a BA in Studio Art and German Language from Oberlin College. Lya was born in Brooklyn, NY and raised in Cranford, NJ. In addition to stone lithography, relief, and screen printing, Lya also works in hand-drawn, stop-motion animation. “For the Moving On portfolio exchange, I made a print inspired by the Old Testament story of Sodom and Gomorrah. In Genesis, two angels are sent to warn Lot and his family that God intends to destroy their city on account of its sinful population. As Sodom and Gomorrah go up in flames, the angels cry, “do not look behind you, nor stop anywhere in the plain; flee to the hills, lest you be swept away (19:17).” Nonetheless, Lot's wife looks back and is turned to a pillar of salt. I titled this piece I Should've Been Made of Salt, because, despite her limited biblical airplay, I empathize with Lot's wife tremendously. When I think about moving on as a theme, I think more about looking back, and the many ways my backwards gaze has prevented me from progression and improvement. My biggest question for Lot's wife is whether her decision was truly a mistake — a foolish, irredeemable, and nameless woman, ignorant to the mortal consequences of her actions — or an intentional, emotional decision to sacrifice her life alongside her burning home. It's hard to judge her for either.”
Jacob Taylor Gibson
You Look Just Like Your Mother.
2021
Lithography/Screenprint/Print Reconstruction
11” x 14”
Jacob Taylor Gibson is a printmaker and artist from Lafayette, Louisiana currently residing in Denton, Texas. He earned a BFA in Printmaking from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette and currently is in the process of completing an MFA with a concentration in printmaking from the University of North Texas. Primarily, his work is created through lithography, silkscreen, and print reconstruction/collage. Jacob has exhibited his work nationally and has work in the permanent collections of The Meadows Museum in Tyler Texas and The Southern Graphics Council print archive. “My work uses antique objects as an analogy for familial dynamics and the hand-me-down nature of toxic and abusive behaviors in order to visually illustrate feelings of shame, incompleteness, and inadequacy. The abjection of these objects serves as a direct parallel to the experience of growing up in a household absent of love. Within the work, the aged objects inherited from members of my family inhabit spaces devoid of human presence. The despondence of the items within the vacant spaces, leaves the antiques vulnerable and questions the contradiction of needing to be emotionally distant despite the desperate yearning to feel cared for. Physically deconstructing the print attempts to visually illustrate the trouble associated with deciphering the inherited negative attributes that I may continue to perpetuate, despite attempts to break the cycle of abuse. Reflecting on aspects of myself which I deem as harmful calls into question the deep-rooted nature of abuse and further amplifies negative personal opinions about myself. Through observation and creation of these reconstructed images, it is possible to rationalize and understand the confusion centered around the traumatic experiences which the images are based upon, with the overall purpose of the work being an attempt to cope.”
Paul Acevedo Gomez
Little Goatie
2021
Lithograph
11” x 14”
Paul Acevedo Gomez is a Mexican American artist currently residing in Baton Rouge, LA. He is attending Louisiana State University, pursuing his Masters of Fine Arts degree with a focus in printmaking. He specializes in lithography to create his colorful and isolated compositions. Even though his work is compiled of childhood memories, social interactions in rural and urban settings across multiple locations. He is currently being Influenced by the surreal Louisiana landscape. Which has been a key factor to the development of his identity as an artist and individual. Paul has exhibited in multiple group exhibitions across the US. From the 2018 “Pacific States Biennial North American printmaking exhibition” at The University of Hawaii at Hilo Campus Center Gallery and the East Hawaii Cultural Center, Hilo, HI. To the most recent 2020 “Surreal Salon” exhibition at Baton Rouge Gallery, Baton Rouge LA. He continues to develop his artistic career with his long term goal, to become a college level professor and teach various methods of traditional and contemporary printmaking. “My current body of prints, drawings and sculptures, graft or combine objects that might not otherwise be seen together, purposely altering their expected function as a way to reference elements that are both playful and painful. The images suggest a celebration of cultural identity, vitality, but also inflicted pain - like a finger cut, knee scratch, or bruises - as the viewer questions the combination of objects and the potential danger behind their function. Through the creation of new forms, I question my identity while embodying myself in the entities I create. This particular piece talks about the loss of a dog that was really dear to me, as I remember taking care of her while she was a small puppy all the way to her death. During a visit to the veterinary, she had a stomach surgery and when she was due to come home, she passed away due to a blood clot in her brain. It affected both me and my siblings as we mourned for her, we remember her as a great dog and she will always be with us for the trouble maker she was.”
Matthew Hopson-Walker
Referendum of Labor
2020
Screenprint
11” x 14”
Matthew Hopson-Walker is assistant professor in printmaking at Fresno State University. He has twice been an instructor at the nationally renowned Frogman's Print and Paper Summer Workshop, first in Vermillion South Dakota and then Omaha Nebraska in the summer of 2017. He has been invited to be an artist in residence at the Guanlan Printmaking Base in China during the summer of 2019. Matt has been a visiting artist and lecturer at Colorado Mesa University, Heron School of Art and Design, University of Texas Permian Basin, Northern Illinois University, Murray State University, Emporia State University, University of Alabama, University of South Indiana, Youngstown State, University, Muhlenberg College, Kutztown University, Westminster College, South East, Missouri State University, Oregon State University, University of North Carolina- Pembroke, Arizona State University, Middle Tennessee State University, and California State University-Chico. Giving demonstrations involving his knowledge of screen printing, lithography, intaglio, and prints that combine more than one technique. In 2002 he completed his MA followed by his MFA in 2003 both from the University of Iowa. In 2006 he was recipient of the prestigious James D. Phelan Award in Printmaking given by the San Francisco Foundation and administered by the KALA Institute. Matt has been included in 222 juried or group exhibitions and 14 solo shows since 2006. His work is in the collections of the Franklin Furnace Artist Book Collection at the Museum Of Modern Art in New York, the University of North Dakota Art Collections in Grand Forks North Dakota, the Amity Art Foundation in Woodbridge Connecticut, the Stonehouse Residency for the Contemporary Arts in Miramonte California, the Drawing and Print Collection at The University of Iowa Museum Of Art, and the Tama Art University Museum in Tokyo Japan. “My work is based on investigating myself within the context of American popular culture. The difference between the drawn mark and the appropriated image is a metaphor for the conflict between reality and ideology that many of us experience. I try to create a sense of uncomfortable visual tension by blending thoughts and images that do not fit together. I am influenced by narratives and characters found in contemporary entertainment, which often centers on themes of dystopia and unresolved conflict. I want my work to record and document specific times and places, suggest the selfish motives that lurk beneath socially acceptable behavior and reference the surface qualities and rich graphic aesthetic in the history of printmaking. The contradiction between private and public behavior was a recurring theme in my childhood. While I was raised to admire a strong work ethic and regard growth and excess as markers of success, sprawling industrial agriculture and its accompanying evils [ills] were omnipresent. In the Central Valley region of California unlimited growing potential was paired with the ever-present threat of drug and gang violence. My home county produced 80% of America's table wine and 80% of its crystal meth. I lived in a rural area plagued by urban problems. My daily experiences were set against a backdrop of fictional landscapes like Blade Runner, Mad Max, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, The Three Stooges, and accompanied by a Punk and Heavy Metal soundtrack. I filter the complexities of adulthood through the exaggerated simplicity of narratives aimed at children. The tension between these opposites is a key component of my work. My images also incorporate several subjective elements such as memory, fancifulness, and intuitive connections between personal experiences and universal expressions of experience. The characters in my prints find themselves in situations where their behavior reflects their sense of personal, social, or moral responsibility. The narratives found in graphic novels, movies, and video games are not so different from older morality plays and allegorical art. These works of fiction use over-the-top or exaggerated action to belabor a point or resolve conflict. Beyond reinforcing a narrative, the action in these stories reflect personal aspects that are often sublimated in social situations where maintaining harmony is prized over honest expression.”
Trishelle Jeffery
It Took the Whole World to End This and I Can't Say Why
2021
Lithograph
11” x 14”
Trishelle Jeffery is a printmaker, comics artist, and educator with a B.F.A. and M.F.A. in Printmaking from the University of Utah and Wichita State University respectively. For over a decade her largely autobiographical work has seen critical praise in exhibitions and residencies throughout the nation, including multiple viewings and a solo exhibit at the Utah Museum of Contemporary Art. She has given talks about her work and has extensive experience as an instructor, having taught various workshops as well as working as a professor at Wichita State University and the University of Utah. She currently works at Weber State University instructing Foundational Design. “It took the whole world to end this and I can't say why” is a piece about my last relationship before COVID hit. It was the sort of thing that hardly qualifies as a relationship at all, and more modern parlance might refer to it as a situationship. It was easy. I was wanted, but I wanted out. I couldn't end things without a reason, though, because that meant going back to the loneliness of nothing at all, swiping past pictures of men I'd never meet on my phone instead of being touched. It took a worldwide pandemic for me to finally end this, and it wasn't until I had my vaccine over a year later that I started to look for something else. The pandemic didn't end the pattern, though. Even now, I prioritize the relationships that are easy and simple over anything more rewarding, and I'm not sure I understand or can face the reason why.”
Brian Kelly
Time Wasted
2021
Screenprint
11” x 14”
Brian Kelly is a Professor of Printmaking, Coordinator of Marais Press, and holds the UL Lafayette Coca-Cola/BORSF Endowed Professorship in Art in the Department of Visual Arts at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. Originally from Chicago, Kelly received a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Printmaking from Northern Illinois University, an MFA in Printmaking from Louisiana State University, and studied plate, photo-plate, and waterless lithography at Tamarind Institute of Lithography at the University of New Mexico. Kelly has been recognized as a University of Louisiana at Lafayette Distinguished Professor (2010), received the University Eminent Faculty Award for Excellence in Teaching (2019), received the University Eminent Faculty Award for Service (2017), and has been recognized for excellence in Undergraduate Student Research Mentorship (2017, 2016-2014), and has received numerous artistic and research grants to support printmaking teaching pedagogy development and research in traditional and alternative printmaking applications. Kelly's prints have been included in over 500 exhibitions throughout the United States, Canada, South Korea, Austria, Ireland, England, Scotland, and Poland and has been a visiting artist at over 60 universities, museums, and galleries throughout the United States, Canada, Mexico, and Brazil. Kelly's prints are included in over 70 university and museum collections throughout the United States, Brazil, Ireland, Australia, United Kingdom, and Canada. These include The United States Library of Congress, the Spencer Museum of Art, the Janet Turner Print Museum, the Zuckerman Museum of Art, the Block Museum, the New Orleans Museum of Art, Arizona State University Art Museum, the University of Arizona Museum of Art, , Texas Tech University Art Museum, the Kurt Vonnegut Museum and Library, Louisiana State University Rare Book Library, the Northern Illinois University Art Museum, the University of Aberystwyth, the University of Wisconsin at Madison, The Ontario College of Art and Design, University of Alabama, Iowa State University, Brigham Young University, Old Dominion University, The University of Iowa, among others. “Kelly's work draws its influence from the environments located throughout Louisiana to those he travels to and explores throughout Utah, New Mexico, Montana, Colorado, and Canada. These landscapes feed compositional structure and rhythms within the work. Kelly's work embraces both the representational and abstract and become narratives that first talk about time and place. The prints address and reference specific experiences and places that are both social, and personal in nature. Kelly adopts, and personifies, animal forms as specific characters within these narrative events to speak metaphorically about personal and social issues. The animals and images employed in these narratives are presented in a motionless state, as if they were specimens. These scenes become glimpses of a world outside of, or removed from, the human realm; compositions tend to be overflowing with imagery and seemingly chaotic but always grounded in a strong sense of structural formalism and a pure love for the rendering of form.”
William Kurucz
Winner Gets the Dead Man's Estate
2021
Etching
11” x 14”
Born in Fredericksburg, Virginia, William Kurucz spent his childhood years in the Chesapeake area exploring the outdoors, playing sports, and doodling his way through school. In 2011, after graduating from high school, William headed south to East Carolina University where he would meet Michael Ehlbeck and begin to study the art of printmaking. He graduated with his BFA in printmaking in 2015. He then went on to spend the next few years traveling, spending time working in Chicago and Alaska, and taking trips through Cuba and Guatemala. In August of 2017, William settled in Dekalb, Illinois, where he received his MFA in printmaking under Michael Barnes. William is currently residing and making prints in Chicago, IL. “When a loved one dies, their family feuding over inherited money, property, or other material items is far too common. Winner Gets the Dead Man's Estate is a satirical look into those stressful family dynamics that make an already incredibly difficult time even worse. Luckily, the dead are no longer around to be disappointed in us.”
Neal McCormick
Momentum
2021
Woodcut
11” x 14”
Neal McCormick is a printmaker and illustrator specializing in lithography, woodcut
printing, and watercolor pencil drawings. He is currently based in Portland, Oregon, and is a graduate of PNCA (BFA Printmaking 2019). Neal is interested in the daydream imagery that comes to him without known reason. Following the images that excite or move him the most, Neal allows strange and dreamlike stories to unfold organically. His images are often driven further by his materials, which guide his composition, mark making, and content. Though this practice is playful, it is intended to lead him deeper into himself. The images and stories Neal creates are generally very personal in nature, and often feature different versions of himself (sometimes in disguise) as characters. By creating stories in images, Neal hopes to transmute his personal struggles into a universal context, and by doing so lead others on a journey of their own to accept and love the darkness within themselves. “Momentum is a woodcut depicting a running figure made of ribbons that trail behind him in the wind of his passing. It is unclear what sort of body may be beneath the ribbons, but his spirit is pouring out behind him. The body is held together only by his momentum; to stop moving is to collapse. What will give out first, his spirit, or his energy to continue running? This is the way I have felt at times since moving on from art school. I never feel like I have done enough, and yet pushing myself to do more is draining. It is difficult to find a sustainable pace to work at when life is always finding new things to throw at me, and I must constantly readjust. I've spent a lot of time being really tired and working on art is more difficult than it has been at other times in my life. But to stop making, to stop moving forward, feels like self-denial. Art is often the thing that holds me together, and making art is the main thing that brings me happiness. Soon I hope to find a balance, so that I can combat the ever-present anxiety depicted in this print.”
Michael G. Miller
Ain't It A Sorry Drum to Beat
2021
Lithograph
11” x 14”
After dropping out of college at 20, I cut my teeth working in local restaurant kitchens to make ends meet. Five years later, I returned to the University of Louisiana at Lafayette to pursue a Bachelor of General Studies. It was by sheer serendipity that I found the formidable printmaking program within the College of the Arts. It immediately became a home away from home. With the help of a rich community of local artists and printmakers, I was soon able to foster a practice that interweaves serigraphy, intaglio, lithography, and relief-based print methods. Currently, I am working primarily in linocut and lithography. I find that the physical acts of carving away material from linoleum and chemically etching an image into limestone serves to highlight the incendiary spirit of my work. I am heavily inspired by German expressionism, and the graphic, class-conscious artworks of Käthe Kollwitz and Otto Dix. The 19th-century critical realist movement in Russia, pre-revolution, is also highly informative for my practice. In my narrative-based work, I strive to contribute to a class-conscious dialectic that bears catharsis, if not clear resolution. I will be pursuing an MFA at Ohio University beginning Fall 2021. “With each sunrise, a materially-prosperous horizon seems to spin further out of reach for so many. Stark, empty landscapes and claustrophobic interiors explore the brutal implications of choosing to continue for another day even as a dead-end job greedily devours all waking hours. Relatively innocuous imagery of quotidian life gives way, upon further inspection, to the harrowing, primordial terror of class consciousness. All that remains are stubbornly pervasive aches of paranoia and a mountainous specter of death. Sterile, discordant settings, malicious propositions, and neglected mini-nirvanas epitomize the bleak landscape that so many wage workers inhabit. They are inexplicably stymied in precarious economic circumstances that feel as overwhelmingly omnipotent as they are arbitrary. How do you wake up in the morning knowing that if you miss a shift flipping burgers you won't make rent? Who would humor that bargain if they had a choice? By recreating this harsh reality in a pseudo-realist oeuvre, and then cutting material away from print matrices to construct imagery, the anxieties and pains of the low-wage worker are extricated. The existential dread present in these voyeuristic snapshots is momentarily washed away. What results are the precious moments of succor that pockmark an otherwise unrecognizable humdrum. Daily duration of low-level sensory and emotional pain is a common denominator for the lower classes in America. Taking a second to reckon with this hegemony rewards the viewer with a kiss of catharsis.”
Ryan O'Malley
Sweet Summer Spirit
2021
Lithograph
11” x 14”
Ryan O'Malley is a Professor of Art in Printmaking and Graduate Coordinator at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi. He was born and raised in Laramie, Wyoming and received his BFA in Printmaking from the University of South Dakota in 2002, and his Master of Fine Arts degree from Louisiana State University in 2005. As an artist, educator and member of the Outlaw Printmakers, his work has been included in numerous national and international exhibitions, publications, portfolios and collections. He has exhibited internationally including Russia, Japan, France, China, Mexico, Latvia and Iran. His expertise was recently included in Printmaking: A Complete Guide to Materials and Process, Second Edition, by Bill Fick and Beth Grabowski. “His piece “Sweet Summer Spirit” is elaborated from a tattoo on his left arm, in memory of summers picking raspberries along the Douglas and North Platte rivers in southeastern Wyoming with his mother Cheryl, who passed from breast cancer in 2016. Her ashes are spread under a giant limber pine overlooking the Douglas, a rare survivor from a recent forest fire that decimated the surrounding area in 2020.”
Nathan Pietrykowski
Ghosts of Our Ruins
2021
Screenprint
11” x 14”
Nathan Pietrykowski is a print media artist and teacher. He received his MFA from Louisiana State University and a BS from the University of Southern Indiana. Currently, he is an Instructor in Art at Delta State University in Mississippi. His work has exhibited internationally and nationally in over 100 venues including Highpoint Center of Printmaking in Minneapolis, Big Medium Gallery in Austin, Carnation Contemporary in Portland, Site:Brooklyn, and Manhattan Graphics Center in New York City. “Within my practice I take walks and log my journeys. This process is used as a catalyst for creating prints, books and installations. Over time I came to call these walks a Wandering Party and developed a series of rules for these expeditions which is presented in the form of a zine. Whenever my journey becomes uneventful I randomly open this book and follow that page's instructions. Doing this forces me to make changes to my route, explore buildings, pose for security cameras, or create public sculptures from found objects. Interjecting an element of chance and play into my trek helps me see my surroundings from a new perspective. These excursions are documented through photographs, notes, drawings and collecting objects. I collage and redraw my findings after returning to the studio. Drawing similar to walking, gives me time to make connections and reexamine waypoints. Printmaking is my primary means of production. Working in this medium puts my art in conversation with political posters, underground comics, signage, buttons and pamphlets. Prints can be viewed by a singular person but they are also in circulation. They are hung on walls, planted in front yards and pinned on bookbags. With this context in mind I use printmaking to disseminate my work, foster exploration, contemplation and play.”
Hailey Quick
The Tipping Point
2021
Etching/Drypoint
11” x 14”
“Hailey Quick's work is influenced by her upbringing in rural South Louisiana. Personal struggles with trauma, along with her background in science, guide her image making. Utilizing both the figure and native Louisiana animals in her compositions, Hailey's lithographs and etchings depict a complex personal narrative through a surreal lens. Hailey received her Bachelor of Fine Art in Printmaking from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette (Lafayette, LA) and her Master of Fine Art in Printmaking from Kansas State University (Manhattan, KS). “
Devon Stackonis
Heavy
2020
Mezzotint
11” x 14”
Devon Stackonis is a printmaker specializing in mezzotint and intaglio techniques who often employs model making and paper miniatures in her process. She received her BFA from Kutztown University of Pennsylvania in 2018 with a concentration in painting. Stackonis was the Assistant in Printmaking at Bucknell University from 2018-2020 where she served as a studio technician and led workshops across print mediums. In 2020, she was a fall resident at Guttenberg Arts as part of Space & Time Artist Residency Program and has been awarded an upcoming residency at the Atelier Circulaire workshop in Montreal. She is a member of the International Mezzotint Society and has attended and displayed prints at the Southern Graphics Conference for several years. Stackonis has participated in numerous international exchange and group portfolios and has shown work nationally in juried and invitational exhibitions. In the fall of 2021, she will begin pursuing her MFA in Printmaking at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. “When invited to create a work for a portfolio on loss, grieving, and death, my initial impulse was to address mortality directly. However, when everything shut down in March of 2020, my focus shifted to more intangible losses: control, daily routines, opportunity, future, a sense of self removed from the context of a community. Above the restaurant I had been working at the barstools and tables were piled high in teetering stacks along hallways, taken out of context and rendered useless—waiting. I began using isolated furniture as a metaphor for the inability to function as designed or expected to. Scanning the one-bedroom apartment where my partner and I would be more or less sequestered indefinitely, I sought an object that could express both a sense of heaviness and instability. I focused on our partially broken mid century modern dresser standing clumsily on its little stilt legs. At my cramped workspace in that same apartment, I constructed a paper miniature on top of a friend's abandoned childhood desk, manipulating the model until it met the appropriate state of disrepair which emphasized its wobbly personality. I left the surrounding visual space empty to further a sense of isolation—the dresser as a sole character standing in a black void. Despite the impenetrable, dark nature of mezzotint the process is inherently optimistic to me. As I burnished the plate and pulled details out of the black, I reclaimed a small sense of agency and control, which given the circumstances was a welcome sensation.”
Thuong Hoai Tran
Grandfather's Album
2021
Lithograph
11” x 14”
Thuong Hoai Tran is an interdisciplinary artist who was born in Tây Ninh, Vietnam, and raised in Emporia, Kansas. She explores various disciplines of art including painting, printmaking, fibers, and performance. In 2020, she graduated summa cum laude from Emporia State University with her Bachelor of Fine Arts in Painting and Printmaking. Currently, she is attending the School of the Art Institute of Chicago for her Master of Fine Arts in Printmedia. Art has become a method in self-discovery and exploring the different facets of her identity. Being a Vietnamese immigrant, this part of her identity, informs and influences a large part of her artwork. Most of her artwork features a level of distortion or fragmentation. Often, a portion of the original information gets lost through translation or manipulation of materials. This corruption of data becomes an important component in illustrating her inner turmoil. Her work focuses heavily on the process and labor of making. This becomes an approach of connecting to her heritage, paying homage, and filling in the gaps created through various barriers such as language, displacement, generational disconnect, and cultural complexities. Ultimately, she searches for herself and her sense of belonging in the world through the act of creating. “Grandfather's Album” is a trompe-l'oeil print that speaks upon the brief relationship I had with my grandfather. Shortly after immigrating to the United States with my parents, my grandfather passed away. Not ever knowing the full extent of his personal narrative or past history, I have my grandfather as a subject of many of my works--allowing me to create space and time to physically spend with him and his image. The print itself focuses on a photo album that appears front and center, empty without any content in its sleeves. The photographs themselves are left to be scattered across the print, showing only the backs of each photograph. These photographs were all taken by my grandfather as he was living in the United States. The back of the photographs, while blank and offer little to no information--they also reveal glimpses of small notes he had taken in his own handwriting.”
M. Robym Wall
All That's Left is Forgotten
2021
Screenprint
11” x 14”
M. Robyn Wall is an interdisciplinary artist living in Cleveland, MS. Her prints are made from a collage of drawings, photo documentation and handmade paper. Materials are intrinsic to her work including the use of recycled fiber and locally sourced plants in handmade paper or fabric installations. She graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts with honors from the University of Manitoba, Canada. She studied at the University of New Mexico then received her Master of Fine Arts at Louisiana State University. “By examining my personal history, I am reconstructing locations as reimagined spaces. My prints integrate memories with photo documentation and drawing to reflect an environment of personal narratives. I am constructing a visual history of the transient state of rental properties of my local townscape. My prints depict imagery of residential living through the remnants of tenants. The imagery is void of people. Temporary neighbors are known through their loyalty to pizza brands, age of their children through discarded toys, and the amount of weekly waste produced. Their presence is indicated twice a week on the side of the road as layman still lifes, pragmatic assemblages that wait for garbage day. Transitions of life stages or relocating is signified based on the amount of furniture left on a lawn. Sometimes items are laid out like an estate sale while others are precariously stacked. Objects shift hourly as the best are scavenged. Items void of value have played their part in the cycle of continuous consumption and have now been displaced. The understanding I have of my surroundings are incorporated through landscape, implied narrative, structures and materials. I am working to acknowledge the fluidity of place while reflecting both real and imagined spaces.”
