Laura's Aurora

The eery green ink changes color with the light and paper angle.

It's holiday card season in the screen print studio, when special treatments such as metallics, sparkly paper and that extra something are called for. When Laura Kinneberg was commissioned to design and print a greeting card featuring the aurora borealis, she knew she wanted to capture its iridescence. Enter Interference, a special paint by Golden, whose website states: Interference acrylic colors offer a unique "interference flip." When viewed from different perspectives, the colors flip between a bright opalescent color and its complement. Laura adds "It works best on dark paper." The pigment must be mixed with, what else? Golden's silkscreen medium, which can also be the vehicle for other paints when the regular line of screen print colors does not fit the bill. We know the client will be thrilled with Laura's beautiful and unique card.

Golden's "Interference" + silkscreen medium produces magical effects

Laura Kinneberg

Denbo Debut

Torukpa Agbegha describes her process on Oct. 30

In October, Pyramid Atlantic rolled out the Denbo Fellowship Program, a new artistic scholarship founded by Beverly Denbo. Artistic director Gretchen Schermerhorn tailored the program for artists seeking to branch out into a new discipline by offering instruction as part of the package. Furthermore, "this one month fellowship is shorter than our 3 month residencies, appealing to people who may not be able to make that time commitment."

Textile artist and self-proclaimed "doodler" Torukpa Agbegha began the program with a bang in the screenprint studio. She applied herself completely to transforming her drawings and collages with screenprinting. We love the energy and inventiveness of her work, and look forward to seeing more of her in the studio.

Gretchen Schermerhorn and one of Torukpa's pieces.

Denbo Fellowship Program

The Denbo Fellowship is designed to offer artists, from a range of artistic disciplines, an environment conducive to individual and collaborative creative practice. This Fellowship provides a unique opportunity to complete a new body of work at Pyramid Atlantic Art Center.

Selected artists will receive:

• Up to one month of access to a state-of-the-art printshop, paper studio or bindery (specify amount of time & studio(s) needed in application)
• Key to studios and 24 hour access
• Ten hours of one-on-one technical assistance or one workshop
• Storage space and flat file for tools and materials
• Use of standard shop supplies
• $500 stipend to be used for travel, housing, materials, etc.

Technically Terrific

"C&O Canal"

"Caught (Bad Romance)"

Mike Hagan

Just 2 more days to see "Tessalations, Tentacles and Tattoo", Mike Hagan's excellently reviewed show at Washington Printmakers Gallery. Mike devotes himself exclusively to screenprinting his often Japanese-inspired intricate prints. If you love dead-on registration, don't miss this!

Show closes Sunday, October 27.

Washington Printmakers Gallery
8230 Georgia Ave.
Silver Spring, MD

301-273-3660

Re-fuel at Re-Strike

Althea Murphy-Price demonstrates a screenprinted watercolor mono print 

Chelsea Blackman (right), printing her coaster design.

The screen print studio was center stage at Pyramid's print symposium Re-Strike/Re-purpose. Althea Murphy-Price wowed the crowd with an array of applying and drawing methods using water based paint, crayons and charcoal. All produced distinctly non "screen print" results. The event concluded with cold beers and interactive coaster creation by graphic designer Chelsea Blackman.

Re-Purpose, Re-Strike

Dots Nice!

Flowers, Wayne Montecalvo. CMYK screenprint on tengucho tissue with encaustic wax

Spring, Allan Akman. CMYK screenprint with split fountain background.

Wayne Montecalvo and Allan Akman have a thing for spring. Both artists have used flower imagery to explore the process of CMYK screenprinting. Starting in photoshop, a color image is separated into the 4 channels used for offset printing: cyan, magenta, yellow and black. Each color plate is converted to printing dots (as seen in the newspaper) and assigned its own angle to prevent a moiree pattern. These separations are then used as plates for screen printing, and as a jumping off point for experimentation. Montecalvo screenprints his color on to translucent tissue, and then reassembles the image by fusing the layers with encaustic wax. He deliberately tweaks his palette to evoke the greenish cast of chromolithography printing.

Wayne Montecalvo shows his process and pieces
at R+F Paints in Kingston, NY.

      

Puppet, Wayne Montecalvo.
6 color screenprint on gampi paper
with encaustic wax.

Chromolithograph postcard

In his work Spring, Screenprint Society regular Allan Akman stayed true to the color assignments (i.e. printing the yellow plate in yellow), but with a twist: he first laid down a split fountain gradation background. Says Allan: "I didn't know if I could pull this off but liked the results. Started using the color separation approach … but could never get the gradations and subtlety that I wanted. That led me to try CMYK. I also learned along the way that printing flowers using color separations can be done. I visited Lou Stovall in the process and he showed me very pretty flower prints he had done. To capture the color gradations and detail, he used maybe 30-40 screens."

Spring, detail, showing halftone dots

Coaster Queen

Chelsae Blackman has a thing for coasters. In fact, the graphic designer confesses to having a stash of over 1,000, just waiting for art. And so she was drafted to screenprint a cluster of coasters for Pyramid's party event KikiDC, where more than 25 area artists and fashion designers have been selected to create original wearable art to be modeled on a runway before a panel of celebrity judges. We are looking forward to looking under glasses for a truly unique coaster cushion.

Chelsae Blackman

________Kiki DCSaturday, June 8The Fillmore Silver Spring

8656 Colesville Rd  Silver Spring, MD 20910

Screenprinting a Staff Shirt

Allison supervises the shirt printing.

Allison Bianco dusted off our T-shirt wheel to create a custom shirt for the tireless and dedicated Pyramid Staff at May's meeting. The wheel can handle 4 colors, and after setup, perfectly registers the designs.

Student Screenprinting at NEXT 2013

Screenprint posters by Maribel O. Gray

Springtime is thesis time in academia, when students unveil their masterpieces after months of hard work. The much anticipated "NEXT" show from the Corcoran College of Art + Design always includes a screenprint component, due to their inspired faculty and great facilities. This year's highlights include the Work Progress Administration (WPA) Federal Art Project (FAP) inspired posters of Maribel Gray. "In the 1930s, the mass-produced, screen printed posters disseminated the graphic language of Modernism to the American public...and paved the way for Abstract Expressionism in the 1950s". The aptly-named Gray has created a flawlessly printed collection of posters that is not to be missed. Get a close look at the flat areas of color. Her posters are available in the gift shop.

In the Rotunda Gallery lies the Masters in the Art and the Book show with a standout screen printed concertina book which depicts missing persons from Pinochet's Chile. The artist documented her creative process, which is on view as a video in the gallery.

Handmade screenprinted book features pigment powder applique.

In-gallery video shows the artist's process.

NEXT 2013
Corcoran Gallery of Art
500 Seventeenth Street NW
Washington, DC 20009

Fine Prints

Screenprints as part of the portfolio

Melinda (top) and Alison 

Lynette and Gretchen

Springtime means a fresh batch of prints for the studio print exchange, theme: fine print. Super intern Melinda Thiesson crafted The Best Portfolios Ever, complete with screenprinted covers, bookcloth covered hardback slipcase and inset type. The collection featured multiple screenprints printed by Gretchen Schermerhorn, Lynette Spencer, Helen Baribeau, Alison Bianco and Marty Ittner.

Sweet Screens at Pyramid Member Show

Sarah McDermott, Untitled

Laura Kinneberg, Specimens of Virginia (detail)

Allison Bianco, The Old Man of the Mountain (detail)

Check out the wide variety of screen prints at the annual Pyramid Atlantic Members Show, on view in the Washington Printmakers Gallery. Works by our resident artists Sarah McDermott, Laura Kinneberg and Allison Bianco are familiar to those following this blog. Laura's 18-color print features letterpress type and Allison combines intaglio with her screen prints. It's also a great chance to see screen print studio regular Allan Akman's D.C. Blossoms. Clare Winslow's organic print on board brings to mind looking out of an airplane window and Steve Walker's large poster is a turbulent dance of green and red squares. The show is up until April 25, 2013.

Clare Winslow,  Topographica #1

Steve Walker, Confetti

Codex Mexico

Magali Lara's screenprinted concertina book

Now on view at the Mexican Cultural Instititute: Codex Mexico: The Book as Art. The exhibition showcases both Mexico's enormous heritage in the arts of printing, and the Mexicans currently working to renew and enrich such an important legacy. We spied one screen printed piece.

2829 16th St NW
Washington, DC 20009
March 22nd - June 15, 2013
Open M-F 10-6, Sat 12-4

Bianco and Beyond

There's still time to experience the amazing screenprint installations by Pyramid's new artistic associate Allison Bianco at Arlington Art Center. The Interwoven show explores "the creative dialog around the ever-blurring boundaries between craft, design and fine art." Allison uses screenprinting seamlessly, so the viewer is immersed in the dreamlike sequences of her work.

Five Feet in Front of the Horizon, screenprint, housepaint and foil balloons

Gram's Beach House, screenprint on chipboard, muslin, feiber foam.
Photo courtesy Arlington Art Center

Want more magic? Allison will be teaching an intermediate screenprinting class and print exchange. Learn how to make an edition of multiple color prints using pin and tab registration, color blends and transparent ink layers. Culminating with a print exchange, participants will receive one print from each of their classmates. 

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INTERWOVEN: Art.Craft.Design.
Arlington Art Center
3550 Wilson Blvd Arlington VA 22201
January 18 - March 24, 2013

Introduction to Intermediate Level Screen Printing and Print Exchange

Instructor: Allison Bianco

Tuesdays: June 4 & 11, 2013 from 6-10pm.

Pyramid Atlantic Art Center

8230 Georgia Avenue
Silver Spring MD 20910

Adding Allan

Detailed progression prints for "Three!!" a 17-color screenprint triptych, 2012

Persistence pays off. The work of our own Allan Akman, including six of his meticulous, multi-color prints (all created at Pyramid Atlantic) will be on view at a new exhibit in Potomac. The show also features monotypes by Patricia Affens, handmade papers by Pauline Jakobsberg, sculptures by Charles Myers, and woodwork by William Peirce.  

Allan at the opening

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Adding in, Taking Away
March 1 - April 22, 2013 

Opening: March 3, 11 am - 1 pm
Gallery Har Shalom 
11510 Falls Road, Potomac, MD.

Something's Fishy in the Darkroom

On my last shift as a Screenprint Associate—along with the intrepid Becca Katz—I bid adieu to the Sargasso Sea screens and my position by adding a spotted mackeral above the washout unit. I will still posting on this blog, but hope to share this opportunity with others in the Pyramid screenprint community. Have a screenprint-related post? Send it my way or feel free to be a guest blogger. --Marty Ittner