| | David Reimer of UAHuntsville's art program participates in national printmaking workshop(9/3/2008)
"For students like me, this was a graduate school prep," said David Reimer of Mobile. "They taught us how to improve. You have the chance to show your work and to see other people's work."They take your portfolio and teach you how to show it, sell it and teach it." Reimer, a senior art major at The University of Alabama in Huntsville, sharpened his printmaking skills at the Frogman Print and Paper Workshop this summer at the University of South Dakota in Vermillion, S.D. Reimer's goal is to earn an assistantship in a graduate program and become a college art instructor. He said this skills and techniques workshop will help him reach his goals. Reimer's instructors were two world-renown professionals. Woodcut artists Gordon Mortensen of Carmel, Calif., and Mary Brodbeck, woodblock print artist from Kalamazoo, Mich., participated in the two-week event, teaching and critiquing these future artists. Brodbeck teaches printmaking and drawing at the Kalamazoo Institute of Arts. Mortensen is considered one of the leading woodcut artists of the 20th and 21st centuries. Reimer wants to learn from these other artists and later apply it to his own teaching techniques. He said he likes not only the artistry of printmaking, but also the mechanics of it. "It's very mechanical," said Reimer. "You're putting it on special materials, and there is a skill involved." One of his current works, "Baron von Tubby," is completed through a relief-printing process — carving away the sections of his artwork (similar to a giant stamp) he does not want to print. He then applies a roller with ink to the image, carved on medium density fiberboard (a common shelving material). The image is then placed atop canvas and run through a Takach etching press. Reimer said one reason he was drawn to printmaking stems from his childhood. "I developed the love of creating things through hands-on and mechanical methods coming from my father." Remier's knowledge of the history of printmaking has also added to his appreciation of the art. "Printmaking has been a means of showing art to the world since the 15th century," Reimer said. "It was a political means of getting images out there and showing them to the world." For more information: Dave Denton, (256)824-6414 |
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