The PRINT SHOW

"The Print Show" features the work of 11 exceptional print-makers, all local. The show, curated by painter and print-maker Mandy Howe, features Ilse Buchert Nesbitt, Josy Wright, Dan Blakeslee, Mary Jameson, Lisa Goddard, Peter Marcus, Josie Richmond Arkins, Mandy Howe, Felicia Touhey, Manjula Padmanabhan and Trip Wolfskehl. Etchings, woodblock prints, collographs, serigraphs, lithographs, monoprints: print-makers typically employ heavy machinery to create signed original artwork that is nevertheless available to multiple owners.

Overlapping landscape perspectives. Printmaking allows me to explore and layer information. Repeating images creates room for experimentation and the ability to push ideas and process. The traditional methods of intaglio and block printing clarify ideas through a variety of tools, stages, and the magic of the press. The introduction of the encaustic paint allows me to color my prints in a painterly way that goes beyond the paper and still maintain transparencies. Land use, maps, contours, and color fields: the layers articulate an interpretation of my environment.

I began making screen prints in high school back in the late 80's and immediately fell in love with the medium. One of my favorite things about printmaking is that in the printing process not everything can be completely controlled therefore each print is unique and individual. For most of my screen prints the initial art is done in scratchboard or pen and ink giving a rustic feel to the art. I am a big fan of rock show posters and so there is sometimes a text element to my work.

It takes courage to be an artist, to lay paint on a pristine canvas or cut marks into a smooth plank of wood. It takes confidence and vision to create. It takes practice and dedication to hone specific skills. And most of all, it takes a willingness to learn, to be open to new ways of seeing and analyzing the world. These qualities are not just important in our daily lives as artists. They are necessary to the health of our communities and our nation. For me, making art is a way of life. It is a necessary time for synthesizing the outer world with my inner world, my thoughts and feelings. It is a time of gratitude, a joyful celebration of being alive. I hope as I share my work with others that the feelings of gratitude and joy are transmitted to the viewer so that their lives will be enriched.

In recent experiments with simple leaf and hand prints plus stamping I am attempting to layer prints on glass and plexiglass to create shadows and depth in an interesting way. In my linoleum block prints from 2020 I added details of color using acrylics.

In my work I am exploring my relationship with the natural environment. I collect seaweed specimens and organic matter from the intertidal zones along the coast. Back at the studio I study the shape, texture and color of individual species and start a process I call symbiotic layering to create new forms. At times I do not combine specimens but am responding to the essence of an individual piece of algae. It may be an essence that embodies the ocean, the unique properties of this organism, or simply my relationship to it at the moment. A key concept with my work is transformation. As I create new forms, the known and unknown intersect in a dynamic way to challenge thought patterns. For most people, seaweed is a nuisance – something to avoid. My work presents a new awareness for consideration and offers alternative insights into the mysteries of the natural world and our unique place as humans in it.

If you need a verbal explanation when looking at my work, then I have failed. Just enjoy it - or step away. IBN

Print-making is an art-form that I came to late in life. What I love about it is the combination of technical and creative skill required. I am not a skilled print-maker, but, having worked at an excellent studio in New Delhi, I think I have a clear understanding of what it takes to work as a printer. At that studio, I was able to get edition prints from some 20-25 zinc-plate etchings plus a couple of lithographs. I have included one of the edition-prints (a lithograph) at this show. I'm also showing two small pieces which represent the opposite end of the print-making spectrum, in terms of sophistication – two really simple little monoprints, made using soft-lino blocks. What gave me great pleasure, in creating these new works, was the flexibility of this process. Working at home, without a press, I was nevertheless able to make artworks that I am happy with.

The prints in this show are images I having been working on for the past two years. They are based on photographs of my father and his family taken in Bucharest, Romania prior to World War II. The figures are cut stencils which I have printed in multiple ways. I am intrigued by over printing and the unexpected results that occur.

The Cultural & Economic Zeitgeist of Newport, Rhode Island c. 1898 Wolfskehl considers himself an 'undocumented artist.' In the shadows, behind the scenes and in non traditional ways (read: overly commercialized), Wolfskehl makes beauty wherever / whenever he can. He's most passionate about finding lost objects and giving them new life, especially archived maps or 'lost' artwork such as the Les Maitres de l’Affiche (Masters of the Poster) exhibited at this show. Under Picasso’s axiom good artists borrow / great artists steal, he takes the original poster artwork (c.1898), and changes it to appear that it had been conceived, created and drawn specifically for Newport (you already know, the best place on earth).