Print 150

I've been writing quite a bit about Wingtip Press and Boise's sesquicentennial lately. And today that trend continues with both.  To celebrate Boise's 150 years, Wingtip Press has been doing a series of free workshops (funded by a grant from the City Arts & History department) throughout the year called Print 150.

Participants need to sign up to reserve a space for the two day workshop.  In the workshop they create collagraph prints of different houses/buildings found around Boise.  Everything is provided and no skill in printmaking is needed.  Anyone can do it and it is a great introduction to printmaking.

I signed up myself and Anna to attend the workshop which started last Thursday and was completed yesterday.  Last week we worked on creating our plate.

Anna working on her plate

Here is what our plates looked like after we had glued various items onto it (mostly wallpaper papers).  Anna's is first.

Amy Nack (Wingtip Press owner and artist) coated the plates and pressed them flat so that this week they would be ready to print. Yesterday we inked up the plates and ran them through the press.  We made three prints (2 regular and 1 ghost).  A ghost print is made by running the plate through the press after a first run print without re-inking.  Here's how they turned out.

One of Anna's first run prints.

Anna's ghost print.

One of my first run prints.

My ghost print.

I have not made a collagraph print before. It's fun to see how the different textures turn out.  One print will be kept for the city and they have been and will continue to be shown in different locations throughout the year.

Wingtip Press will be hosting a few more of these workshops throughout the remainder of the year.  Keep checking the website for dates/times or the City Arts & History Department's Boise 150 site.

Local Color: Boise 150

Last Friday was the opening reception for the Treasure Valley Artists' Alliance first juried exhibition entitled, Local Color: Boise 150.  The exhibition was juried by Jacqueline Crist and celebrates Boise's sesquicentennial.

There was a good turnout for the reception.  The exhibition is in the offices of the Boise State Public Radio in the Yanke building on Park Center.  Here is a picture of the Yanke building in case you have not been there yet.

As you first walk in, you are greeted with bright colors in the artwork of Brian Schreiner (on the right) and Christine Raymond.  You really need to see the texture of Schreiner's piece in person, as well as the gold leaf shine of Raymond's artwork.

All of the artwork was suppose to relate to Boise in some way.  Here you might recognize the Capitol in Pat Kilby's painting (middle).

Starting from the left below are artworks by Cyndy Lounsbury, Cassandra Schiffler, David Schwartz and Lauren Kistner.

Mike Chambers paid homage to Boise Blue, an art supply store that shut it's doors years ago.

From left to right artwork by Amy Nack, Betty Hayzlett, Felicia Weston and Ellen Crosby.

Several artists chose the same places to depict in their artwork.  I believe there were three pieces of the Capitol Boulevard Memorial bridge built in the 1930's in Art Deco style.

An exhibition catalog has been published with all the artworks and the artists' statements explaining the artwork's relationship to Boise.  They are available for purchase on the Treasure Valley Artists' Alliance website.  And you can go here to get a preview.  It is a very nice catalog.