Themed Portfolios

Opening Reception: Thursday, November 1, 4-6 pm

Studio Hallway Displays, November 1-3

A Tribute to James D. Butler

Organizer: Sarah Smelser

This portfolio brings together both former colleagues and students of 2012 Mid America Print Council Outstanding Printmaker James D. Butler.  Participants hail from different parts of the United States and Canada as well as different universities and time periods of Distinguished Professor Butler's career.  A Tribute to James D. Butler is meant not only to honor Butler but also to serve as an addendum to the exhibition of his work at the conference in Cape Girardeau.  It shows another side of this prolific and engaged artist: a devoted mentor and colleague.

Participants: Tonia Bonnell, Harold Boyd, Sean Caulfield, Rhea Edge, Bob Erickson, Richard D. Finch, Helen Gerritzen, Julia Goos Pense, Brandon Gunn, Melissa Haviland, Craig Martin, Greg Page, Mary Jane Parker, Teresa J. Parker, Rosanne Retz, Meda Rives, Veda Rives, Eric Rohmann, Nick Satinover, Amy Schmierbach, Sarah Smelser, Phillip J. Turner, Erik Waterkotte

Abecedaria

Organizers: Jon Lee, Mirka Hokkanen

Abecedaria: n. book arranged in alphabetical order; elementary textbook. abecedarian, n. member of 16th-century German Anabaptist sect who refused to learn to read. a. alphabetically arranged.

This portfolio is a collection of miniature prints that will showcase a variety of printmaking media, highlighting the styles of nine contemporary printmakers from around the world. The theme of Abecedaria is broad, and can address many topics, while uniting the suite quite simply.  The artists chosen for the portfolio are printmakers who work in small sizes.  We chose the miniature size for the portfolio because people are drawn to small prints, they are easily transportable, and as a teaching tool the whole portfolio can be viewed on a table or on a wall. Each artist produced three prints for the portfolio. 

Participants: Curtis Bartone, Sari Bremer, Lari Gibbons, Mirka Hokkanen, Inari Krohn, Jon Lee, Léo Lee, Chandler O’Leary, Seiko Tachibana

Bump It Mafia

Organizers: Linda Lucía Santana, Cat Snapp, Katy Seals

The creation of the Bump It Mafia was a response to the male-centric overtones in varying pockets of the contemporary print world.  Many remarkable women have contributed to the history of printmaking and paved the way for a generation of third-wave feminists.  The idea for the Bump It Mafia grew from a desire to continue seeing a powerful, audacious female presence in printmaking, both in academia and in the social realm.  As a symbol of our embrace of femininity, we have chosen to represent ourselves with the iconic hairstyles known as the pompadour and the beehive, recently marketed as the Bump It.

Beginning with a portfolio exchange, our objective is to create a network of intelligent, talented female artists that can serve as positive role models for budding artists through a presence in exhibitions, trade portfolios, conferences, workshops and other events that promote the growth of the print community.  The excitement and enthusiasm behind the Bump It Mafia Portfolio is palpable as the artists involved have taken the theme to heart and produced a fantastic array of interpretations of the given theme.

Participants: Emily Arthur, Heather Bryant, Nicola Buffa, Lisette Chavez, Ana Hurtado-Gonzalez, Carrie Lingscheit, Emmy Lingscheit, Rachael Madeline, Kristine Joy Mallari, Saegan Moran, Meghan O’Connor, Kathryn Polk, Coco Rico, Jessica Robles, Andrea Rogers, Linda Lucia Santana, Jenny Schmid, Katy Seals, Cat Snapp

Greasing the Palm: Politics in a Presidential Election Year

Organizers: Gail Panske, Bob Erickson

Money has long played a role in politics, but that has changed with the recent U.S. Supreme Court, Citizens United and Federal Court, Speechnow.org v. FEC decisions. Now corporations are people and money is speech. Never before have we had such “freedom” to express ourselves. That is, as long as we have the money to buy it.  Super-PACs and the shadowy people that donate to them now own the airwaves, drive the press, and buy our votes with their “moneyed” speech. But that shouldn’t stop us from expressing our opinion about this new political environment. One where the idea of pressing palms quickly denigrates into greasing palms. Bribery is now free speech.

The artists participating in the portfolio were asked to create images that speak to this changing political landscape. Namely, 2012 is the first presidential election year after the court decisions that spawned the “independent-expenditure only committee” better known as the Super-PAC.  Unleashing the barrage of “special interest ads” that have taken over our televisions, mailboxes, phones, and our government. The U.S. Supreme Court says that corporations are people and money is speech, we say printmakers are people and our prints are speech. 

Participants: Katie Christensen, Bob Erickson, Caren Heft, Amos Kennedy, Joshua Kolbow, Garry Kaulitz, Gail D. Panske, Ellen Price, Mark Ritchie, Ericka Walker 

HIGH FIVE

Organizer: Dustyn Bork

SLAP! – the sound of two hands meeting in a celebratory gesture.  Many famous athletes including the Magic Johnson, Glenn Burke, the ostracized gay LA Dodger from the late 70’s, and the 1978-79 high-flying dunking basketball team of the University of Louisville claim the invention of the high five. Whether this obligatory and infectious exchange started in the black community, or in sports, or in Vietnam, one thing is certain: if one reaches a hand up into the air and makes eye contact – you do not want to “leave them hanging.”  One might posit that every printmaker has made this physical connection a daily ritual of their practice, albeit metaphorically.  The notions of being an entrepreneurial printer (Pressing Prints/Pressing Palms) centers on the exchanging of ideas or products for dissemination with others.  Ten artists created a print, then exchanged it with another artist from portfolio.  Each artist then created another edition of prints in response to the print they received.  Thus, completing a symbolic “pressing of the palms” with the other artist. 

Participants: Liena Bondare, Dustyn Bork, Carly Dahl, Melissa Gill, Heather Huston, Lou Joseph, Michael Markwick, Delita Martin, Casey McGarr, Arturo Rodriguez

Human Ingestion: A Print Exchange Dedicated to Animals and Creatures that Eat People

Organizers: Sage Perrott, Anna Wagner

Human Ingestion is a themed portfolio with an emphasis on real and imagined creatures that eat people.  This was a juried exchange, in which participants were invited or selected through application. Human Ingestion allowed for a variety of interpretations through media, content, and imagery. Participants included professors, artists working in the print field, as well as students from both BFA and MFA programs.  The result was a cohesive and accurate sampling of the contemporary print community. 

Participants: Miguel Aragon, Laura Baisden, Curtis Bartone, Liz Born, Benjamin Briggs, Andrew Burkitt, Haylee Ebersole, Karla Hackenmiller, Robert Howsare, Jim Lee, Adam Leestma, Carrie Lingscheit, Emmy Lingscheit, Beauvais Lyons, Johanna Mueller, Sage Perrott, Bradford Pierce, Cayla Skillin-Brauchle, Kenneth Srivijittakar, Janie Stamm, Sean Starwars, Anna Tararova, Patrick Vincent, Anna Wagner, Art Werger

ONE NIGHT ONLY! Fantastic Posters/Imagined Events

Organizer: Ash Marlene Hane

This portfolio focuses on the communicative power of the poster as a way of easily and successfully relating information to the masses. From its first forms, printmaking it has been used for its broad reaching impact and ability to create exactly reproducible images both cheaply and in a short amount of time. With the rise of full color lithographic advertisements in 1890's, artists began to play with the formalities of advertising, riding the line between advert and fine art, playing with content and form

and often including inside jokes.  From the late eighteenth century lithographs of Toulouse Lautrec celebrating the Moulin Rouge to the Arcade Fire concert posters by Wes Winship, the re-imagining of how to use text and image continues to evolve. In the process the art of the poster continues to influence, and be influenced, by art movements and advertising styles. 

Participants: Zac Adams-Bliss, Dan Black, Benjamin Davis Brockman, Vadim Gershman, Ash Marlene Hane, Tzvi Izaksonas, Henry Schneiderman, Tonja Torgerson, Wes Winship

Parallel Synchronized Randomness

Organizer: Louise Krampien

Parallel Synchronized Randomness (a term adopted from the 2006 French film The Science of Sleep) essentially is a phenomenon which hypothesizes that like minded strangers will inevitably come into contact with each other through the nature of their own actions. The conception of this exchange began two years ago when the organizer started noticing the personal connections that several of her instructors, peers, and members of past print exchanges already had with one another. The intention of this exchange was to acknowledge and foster this phenomenon by calling attention to several of these particular artists, who were asked to invite another artist to be a member of the exchange. 

Participants: Erika Adams, Andrew Baldwin, Janine Biunno, Eirini Boutasi, Brian Bump, Paul Croft, Christa Donner, Kevin Haas, Michael Hecht, Michael Jackson, Nicole Kita, Chris Knight, Louise Krampien, Deborah Lader, Angee Lennard, Dustin Price, Nancy Prior, John Schulz, Brooke Steiger, Adrian Tio, Gini Wade, Erik Waterkotte, Jill Zevenbergen

Quixotic Mapping

Organizer: Edie Overturf

Quixotic- extravagantly chivalrous or romantic; visionary, impractical, or impracticable, impulsive and often rashly unpredictable.

Map (ping)- a maplike delineation, representation, or reflection of anything

Quixotic Mapping- a demarcation of an intangible vision

All of the participants were invited to investigate their quixotic mapping, meaning the romantic and impractical task of determining our personal rituals and their purpose.  The creative process of a printmaker can often be reminiscent of a split personality.  Our creative process, including image constructing, conceptual development, and the basic drive to create can be impractical and even fervid in nature.  Once in the process of creating a print, we become creatures that thrive on process and order. What happens when we attempt to romanticize this process, and create an image that reflects this dichotomy?  

In honor of the theme of the conference, I challenge these artists to take a risk, and explore the very core of their practice.  Each image will reflect the romantic relationships we hold with our creative endeavors and the practical rituals we hold to as entrepreneurial artists. 

Participants: Erika Adams, Maneli Aygani, Benjamin Brockman, Robyn Louis Carley, Tzvi Izaksonas, Eileen Macdonald, Gilpin Matthews, Erin Maurelli, Joshua Norton, Edie Overturf, Jennifer W.S. Paulson, Serena Perrone, Natasha Pestich, Joanne Price, Lauren Schuppe, Courtney Smith, Jon Swindler, Josh Winkler

Reverse Watching

Organizer: Justin Diggle

The theme of this portfolio, Reverse Watching, is Inverse Surveillance and Targeted Sousveillance  (Terms coined by Steve Mann, Professor, University of Toronto). Inverse surveillance systems are ones that monitor, study, investigate, or record surveillance systems or those doing the surveillance. This has included, mapping CCTV locations, monitoring police activities (e.g. filming), reacting to privacy issues, or control of information online (e.g. site tracking). It may also be countering the secret nature of surveillance and making information more accessible. Targeted Sousveillance refers to the watching by one individual of other individuals or groups, specifically rather than randomly. These individuals or groups might themselves be a promoter of surveillance, thus the watched, watching the watchers.  Participants in the portfolio were asked to consider the increasing role of surveillance in our society and specifically how Inverse Surveillance and Targeted Sousveillance can, or should be, used to counter or draw attention to its effects. Could the acceptance of surveillance lead us to a society with less freedom?  Should we change our behavior now to take us in a different direction? How should we navigate its effects? 

Participants: Edward Bateman, Justin Diggle, Jeffrey Dell, Stefanie Dykes, William Fisher, Christopher Ganz, Ruthann Godellei, Stephanie Hunder, Brian Johnson, Ron McBurnie, Johanna Paas, Mary Robinson, Jim Sconyers, Chadwick Tolley           

The Built Environment

Organizer: Nicholas H. Ruth

As concrete evidence of human values goes, few things are as compelling as the built environment.  A key element of our visual culture, the built environment reflects our attitudes about everything, from community to commerce, history, politics, and nature.  And it’s not just the building of new bridges, malls, and houses that defines us; it is also the decay of what we used to care about and care for that declares our priorities.

As often as not, however, we experience the built environment as something that happens to us, rather than something we author.  The artists in this portfolio engage with this premise and assert their own agency, observing, reacting, deconstructing, reconstructing, and completely inventing the built environment in their images, in order to address memory, time, location and dislocation, alienation, crisis, conflict, comfort, and change. 

The image of the built environment therefore becomes a metaphor, a second skin and a second self, both surface and container.  Much in the same way that the urgency and even joy of a blues song protests its lyrical content, the work of these artists insistently explores who we are, and who we might want to be. 

Participants: Amze Emmons, Julia Goos Pence, Kevin Haas, Sean P. Morrissey, Yoonmi Nam, Nicholas H. Ruth, Nick Satinover, Erik Waterkotte, Jill Zevenbergen

Wallpaper

Organizer: Shelley Gipson

What would the wallpaper to your existence look like?  The artists in this portfolio will explore detailed images reflecting the texture and surface of his or her life as witnessed in their artwork.  They will explore textures and surfaces and sensual environments in which they may unveil or submerge beautiful forms.  The title and format is inspired by the digital desktop.  Each artist will receive a digital version of the portfolio for use as desktop wallpapers and a portrait of their image as actual wallpaper in a 3-D digital environment.

Participants: Erika Adams, Edward Bateman, Marwin Begaye, Charles Beneke, Luca Cruzat, Sage Dawson, Shelley Gipson, Anita Jung, Ina Kaur, Kelly Nelson, Debra Oden, Julia Goos Pence, Elvia Perrin, Marilee Salvator, Sara Schleicher, Meredith Setzser, Erik Waterkotte