Other Recent Print Series

The series, As Long As I’m Here examines the interconnections between humans and nature, and the forces that place them under stress. In addition to the human forms, Schmidt uses graphic shapes from weather diagrams that are used to illustrate atmospheric forces. The shapes, made into stencils and layered onto polymer and copper plates, allow the images to be recombined in multiple ways through printing. Here, the strategies of printmaking create multiple iterations and dialogue between the images.

Previous prints series in the exhibition, including Twelve You Are the Only One... and Silhouette Series, use traditional etching techniques and chine collé – a process by which additional pieces of paper are incorporated onto a print as it is run through the press. For Schmidt, ideas often emerge while she is printing. For example the Silhouette Series grew from experimenting with leftover backgrounds of digital images cut out for another project. She says, " I like to experiment with the printmaking process, layering, recombining, and recycling images in different ways." As multiples, prints offer many ways to improvise.

Schmidt has used her immediate family to portray larger themes, and finds that childhood is an emotionally rich period that encompasses confusion and anger, as well as tenderness and love. She hopes, "... that my work suggests the complexity of that time and portrays children with their individual knowledge and feelings."