PRESS AND FOLD: CONTEMPORARY BOOK ARTS
March-April 2020
RECEPTION MARCH 13 [6-9 PM]
The Firehouse celebrates Mo’Print: Month of Printmaking with artist books made with a variety of printmaking techniques, ranging from the serial to the one-of-a-kind, focused on the play between ideas of mass-production and unique artistry.
FRANK HAMRICK
“If a photograph is considered in the same manner as a single song, then an artist’s book is similar to an entire album of music complete with cover art and liner notes.
Artist’s books allow for the combination of images with text and the incorporation of materials, like handmade paper, and processes, such as letterpress, staining, and layering various colors of paper to create limited edition works of art that can convey a more complete, realized idea than a single image is capable of doing. The pieces I make have particular meaning to me, but I understand other people will see them in their own way. My artwork is not necessarily created to illustrate or provide answers. If anything, I would like for my art to generate more questions. I do not see them as endpoints, but rather starting places where I give the viewer ideas to ponder and allow room for their imagination to create the rest of the story.”
Oxford American Magazine and NPR have written about Frank Hamrick’s art. His work is collected by the Amon Carter Museum of American Art, The Art Institute of Chicago and The Ogden Museum of Southern Art. Frank is the MFA graduate program coordinator and Professor at Louisiana Tech University’s School of Design in Ruston.
CHRISTINE SLOMAN
Most of Christine’s practice revolves around the themes of loss and ephemerality, and the distortions of memory. She takes inspiration from the short-lived, the delicate, that which we are on the point of losing. Much of her recent work has been inspired by old, found photographs: while supposedly permanent records, the identity of their subjects and their associated memories have often gone. Primarily working in monotype, etching and lithography she sees making artist books as an extension of her printmaking practice. She uses the book form to tell a story, to illustrate a moment in time, or simply to develop a theme or an aesthetic.
Christine studied paper conservation and book binding at the London College of Printing (UAL), and then worked in the conservation studios of the British Library for 10 years. She now has her own private conservation practice. In tandem with this she has developed her art work after discovering the joys of printmaking in her years at college. Having returned to the UK after some years spent abroad, she joined Edinburgh Printmakers in 2013 and sometimes works there as a print technician.
SHERRY MUYUAN HE
He is a full-time art professor, currently teaching at the City College of New York in Harlem. As an educator, she produces works that make people’s learning experience enjoyable.
She hopes that her work and pedagogy inspire people to pursue their true passion fear lessly and persistently, despite their age and previous education emphasis.
SUSAN LOWDERMILK
Susan Lowdermilk is a book artist and printmaker. She is a professor at Lane Community College in Eugene, Oregon. Additionally she teaches workshops in artist’s books, paper engineering and printmaking. She earned her Master’s of Fine Art from the University of Oregon in Eugene, and her Bachelor’s of Fine Art from Colorado State University in Fort Collins.
Watch: Susan Lowdermilk “You Cannot Put a Fire Out” Book Art – Artist Talk at Lane Community College
