Saturday, June 5, 2010

Field Trip Time



Got out of the studio today and took a drive up north and spent a great Saturday afternoon at the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art http://www.carlemuseum.org/ Not only did I get to see a wonderful Antonio Frasconi exhibition and sit in on a presentation about "Printmaking for a Better Planet" but I also got to meet Annie Bissett, a fellow printmaker whose work I greatly admire. It's great to finally meet someone in the flesh that, up until now, I've only been corresponding with in the virtual world.

The presentation at the Carle was about a topic that I've been focused on for the past 15 years, in both my classroom and home studio; safer printmaking. It was presented by Zea Mays, a studio in Florence, Mass. http://www.zeamaysprintmaking.com/ Liz Chalfin, the director of Zea Mays, along with 4 other artists (including Annie), focused on how the rich traditions of printmaking can be honored in today's world of "green" technology by exploring alternative printmaking processes that are safer for artists and the environment. Liz showed slides of the great studio space at Zea Mays and the artists shared their work, processes and spoke about the challenges they faced in switching over to “greener” printmaking methods.

The presentation was followed by a demonstration of Moku Hanga (relief printing) by Annie Bissett. http://www.anniebissett.com/ http://woodblockdreams.blogspot.com/ The photo is a shot of Annie in action. All in all, it was well worth the trip.

1 comment:

  1. Hi Melody. What a fun and amazing thing it is to meet a virtual friend in real life. I was really thrilled to finally meet you after all our vows to someday do it! I look forward to more in-person visits to come.

    Thanks too for taking photos and for writing about the Eric Carle demo on your blog.

    See you in the ether until we meet again.

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