Birds in Art 2013

Main entrance, Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum

I was on the road again almost all of last week, first for several stops on the Front Range to deliver work for upcoming exhibitions and then to the airport for the journey back to Wausau, Wisconsin for the opening of Birds in Art at the Woodson Art Museum.

Now in its 38th year, Birds in Art is one of the premier wildlife art exhibitions in the United States– drawing over 1,000 hopeful jury submissions from around the world. It's always an honor to have work included in the show and a delight to visit Wausau for the opening festivities.

I've waxed poetic about the Woodson and its outstanding staff many times before, and I'm going to do it again. This time I'll just say that if you look up the definition of the term "Class Act" you'll find a picture of the Woodson team. And if you don't, you should.

Artists' private preview reception. Hey... whose lino is that on the far wall?

 While Birds in Art holds pride of place in the museum's main galleries, there are several other beautiful exhibitions installed as well. This was one of my favorites:

Yes! These are the student-made steamroller prints from my Artist-in-Residence experience this past spring, lovingly displayed.

And in further honor of my time there, here's the museum's marketing manager Amy Beck, wearing her steamroller-printed shirt made from one of my linocuts. Crazy-fun.

The excitement didn't end there! This morning I learned that my linocut, "Coot du Jour," will also be included in this year's national tour to the Heritage Center, State Historical Society of North Dakota, Bismarck (March 1 – June 30, 2014); Steamboat Art Museum, Steamboat Springs, Colorado (July 19 – September 13, 2014); and Michelson Museum of Art, Marshall, Texas (November 4 – December 31, 2014).

"Coot du Jour," reduction linocut, 8" x 32"
Click to embiggen

The best part of all? The opportunity to share the experience with friends and colleagues from places near and far. Thanks, everyone... Fingers crossed that we'll meet again next year!

Im-pressive Week Rolled By!

What an adventure!

I returned late last night from my week-long residency at the Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum in Wisconsin, tired-but-wired after a fantastic experience. Today has been spent in the usual post-trip tasks– plodding through mail and hundreds of emails, filing receipts, paying some bills... dumping the contents of my suitcase next to the washing machine.

So it seems like it's time to take a little break from all that and share with you some highlights from my week.  I took paltry few photos myself, but the good folks at the Woodson are on the ball. All the images here are courtesy of the museum.

We. Are. PRINTMAKERS!

Putting the final color on the magpie demonstration piece.

In the week preceding the steamroller event I worked with about 200 middle and high school students to create small relief prints in lino and foam, and shared a "slide" show and print demonstration with adult visitors. Wisconsin State Representative Mandy Wright came to class one morning and tried her hand at a little printing, too.

Good technique, Mandy!

But the Big Event loomed large in our thoughts. Fortunately "our" steamroller had been delivered right before I arrived in Wausau, so Wednesday afternoon the staff and I gathered in the parking lot for a test run.

That's Dave in the orange shirt. Great job, Dave!

Museum facilities staffer Dave Jones carved an image inspired by a sculpture by Charlotte Darling-Diehl. We inked up his block, fired up the equipment and voila! Our first steamroller print! 

We also ran a test of the 24 x 36-inch lino I carved here in my studio. Compared to the 36 x 48 blocks the students would bring it suddenly seemed a bit wimpy! 

View from the driver's seat.

But hey! It turns out one can print lino with a steamroller. It held up just fine under pressure.

Suddenly it all became real. We were going to do this! (And it was going to work!) Wednesday night I was a happy camper and couldn't wait for Saturday.

And then came Thursday. 
Cloudy... rainy... cold Thursday. Snow in the forecast for parts of Wisconsin which might or might not include Wausau. I tried not to worry too much.

And then came Friday. At noon on Friday the trees on the museum grounds wore a blanket of ice. Freezing rain slicked the grass. I adjusted my expectations from "good weather" to "not horrible weather."

It took me a good 20 minutes to find the courage to lift the curtain and look outside Saturday morning. Not raining... Good. Not windy... excellent. And dare I imagine it? The clouds seem to be thinning. All systems go!

By noon the sun was out and we were off and running. I mean rolling. Over 100 area high school students had worked in teams to carve the 3x4-foot woodblocks, and we had 19 to put under the steamroller. 

Inking begins!

Moving the inked block into place

Placing the fabric

Pulling a print!

Wall of wonderfulness. Eventually we had prints all the way down the block! Click to embiggen.

After we pulled two prints each, the teen artists inked up their blocks again and we had great fun making steamroller t-shirts. Several observers asked if we had shirts for sale, which we hadn't considered... but who knows? Maybe next time!

Once the prints have had a little time to dry, they will be put on display at the museum... dates TBD.

In the meantime, check out the art blog of D.C. Everest High School, whose students were among those who participated in the project. Pop on over to WJFW TV-12 to see yours truly try to explain just what the heck all this is about in a video report here. AND.... there are hordes of photos on the museum's Facebook page here.

There is no way I can sufficiently express my gratitude to the staff and volunteers of the Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum for their support of this project and for making a random conversation into an amazing week. I'm pretty sure that if you look up the word "excellence" in the dictionary, you'll find all of their faces smiling back at you.

Thanks also to the funders: The Community Foundation of North Central Wisconsin, the Wisconsin Arts Board, and the B.A. & Esther Greenheck Foundation. And let's not forget the food-ers! Thanks, Urban Street Bistro for firing up the grill for the event. Next time I want to eat one of everything. Except the cupcakes. I want two of those.

Fieldwork Friday: Gone Steamrollin'

It's certainly a different sort of field work than my usual: I'm off to my artist-in-residence gig at the Woodson Art Museum. Please send good weather juju for the May 4th steamroller event, and stay tuned!

Bring on the heavy equipment!

Alrighty then! One thing ready and checked off the list for my upcoming residency at the Woodson Art Museum. One 24 x 36-inch block ready to take on a steamroller on May 4!

It will be a busy week.... check out this calendar of events and stand by while I wrestle with my inclination to start another new linocut for demonstration programs.

Embiggenable with a click.

Aaaaaannnnd.... still carving

Making progress. About a third of the 24 x 36-inch chunk of lino to go. I'm planning to ship it out to Wisconsin on Monday or Tuesday next week, so feeling reasonably confident that it will be ready to go. I might have a little time to tweak it once I'm on site. Or not.

Carving, carving, carving

Once upon a time I was certain that my favorite part of relief printing was the carving of the block. Pulling the first print was exciting, but editioning and subsequent cleanup seemed anti-climactic.

These days I find I really enjoy the printing part. I like experimenting with transparent colors and seeing the image emerge over time. I even get so impatient to just get ON with printing the next color that I sometimes get myself into trouble.

I still don't like the cleanup so much.

So the good news is that it's going to be a few more weeks before I have to clean up after the printing of this stout 24 x 36-inch chunk of linoleum. The bad news is that I've been carving for hours and don't seem to have much to show for it. Ooph.

The reason for all this personal torment is of course my upcoming residency at the Woodson Art Museum in Wisconsin. It's just two weeks away! Well... I leave in two weeks. This block and some other gear need to ship in just one week!

Thankfully I wrapped up a big illustration project yesterday so this block can live on the drawing table for a few days and I can work on it in small batches of time. The gerenuk demonstration piece may or may not move any further forward before shipping date... but I feel like it's good enough shape to go "as is."

Have a great weekend, everyone. If you need me, you know where to find me. Carving. Carving. Carving.

Steamroller Printing at the Woodson Art Museum!

That's the Woodson Art Museum's brand-new addition on the left.
It was SO new I think the paint was still wet when we arrived. ;-)

File this post under "Unexpected Results of Casual Conversations." Or perhaps "See What Your Big Mouth Got You Into This Time."

'Way back in September readers may recall that I went to Wausau, Wisconsin for the opening of the Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum's annual Birds in Art exhibition. It's a wonderful show in a beautiful facility, hosted by a top-notch staff. Yeah. I like that place.

ANYWAY... during the course of the opening weekend I had a conversation with curator Jane Weinke, who asked whether I ever made large prints. I said that I had not, but that one of these days I'd like to print something REALLY big.

"You know," I said. "Steamroller-sized prints."

We had a laugh and chatted some more and I forgot all about the conversation... at least until I returned home and had an email from education curator Jayna Hintz.

"Hey Sherrie, tell me more about steamroller printing."

And the rest, as they say, is history. Or at least it WILL be history after May 5, when my recently-confirmed residency will conclude.

Beginning April 28 I'll be "in da house" at the Woodson, sharing printmaking experiences with museum visitors and building momentum for the Big Event. Saturday, May 4 we'll clear the museum parking lot for a steamroller printing extravaganza with area high school students. (Last week we already had over 60 kids registered.. and it's only February!)

I'm extremely excited about this residency, but as I haven't organized a steamroller event before I'll be happy to hear any suggestions and advice from those of you who have. I'm feeling good about it overall, but the voice of experience is always welcome. What did you wish you had known the first time the big beast thundered across the pavement?

Stay tuned!