Screenprint Greetings!

Becca and Marty assist 2 of the over 500 people at the popular event.

Crystal Polis holds her screenprinted card.

This month's "MAKE + TAKE" event brought out many first time screenprinters. Over 500 guests streamed through the studios—each had a hands-on project to make and take. Screenprinting offered a 2-color vintage inspired reindeer postcard, printed on French Poptone "Snocone" paper (coincidentally the same sheet as the 2012 Letterpress Calendar covers). Photos by Anqixue Xue.

Anqixue Xue and Marty at the teal station.

3 Color Circus

A huge turnout kept Rebecca, Marty and Grant Dickie at their color stations for the entire 3 hours of the open house. The demo circus print generated lots of enthusiasm and queues to pull the 3 plates in succession, creating the magic of a finished piece of art.

Special shout out to board member Michael Pollack who rolled up his sleeves and dove in to help with the yellow plate, and Jose Dominguez for the great publicity. It was a fantastic and fun event.

< Marty, manning the red plate

A crowd of partygoers circled around the screenprinting demo. Especially rewarding was seeing the children proudly admiring their finished prints. Becca on board, helping the littlest screenprinter get her hands on a squeegee.

Screenprint Society in the Gazette

Our own Becca Katz was quoted at length in the 4/6/11 Gazette Article "30 and Thriving" about Pyramid Atlantic's 30 Birthday Open House. Go Becca! And hey, isn't that SS regular Allan Akman in the photo?

Like Schermerhorn and Dominguez, screenprint associate Rebecca Katz feels Pyramid's connections to the community is the reason it has thrived.

"I think that other print shops that I've seen also have a lot of spirit to them, but are maybe more focused on advancing the people who are already artists or already printmakers, whereas Pyramid Atlantic is also more for exploration," Katz says.

Katz's function is to provide instruction for both beginning and advanced printmakers. She and fellow screenprint associate Marty Ittner also offer "Screenprint Society," an open studio on the first and third Thursday of every month. During Saturday's open house, she and Ittner will give three-color demonstrations of a print Ittner designed. After graduating from Duke University in 1994, Katz moved to New York City, when she was introduced to printmaking in a class. She proceeded to earn a master's degree in printmaking from the California School of the Arts in Oakland in 2004 before moving to Maryland three years later.

"I just the love the process, and screenprinting has a painterly aspect to it anyway, so I started with etching," she says. A Baltimore native, Katz moved back to the East Coast to be closer to her family. Pyramid Atlantic seemed to be the perfect match for her talents. "There's a real need for Pyramid Atlantic in this area of the Maryland-D.C. corridor," Katz says. "There's nothing really like it. Over in the Baltimore area, there are some facilities, but there's nothing like Pyramid Atlantic. If it weren't here for example, I don't know where I would be making art."— The Gazette, 4/6/2011