Printmaking Show at DCC Melds Old Processes, New Technologies:

Four Points of View Artists' Reception Thursday,

November 16

Release Date November 13, 2006

The exhibit Four Points of View: Figuration in Printmaking opens at Dutchess Community College on Thursday November 16 with an artists’ reception from 5:00 to 6:30 p.m. at the Mildred I. Washington Art Gallery. The show runs through through Wednesday, December 15. The Gallery is located at the north end of campus in the Allyn J. Washington Center for Science and Art, room 150-153. Gallery hours are Monday through Thursday, 10:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m., and Friday 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. For information, contact Gallery Director Lynn Palumbo at (845) 431-8000 ext. 3982 or email palumbo@sunydutchess.edu.

In Four Points of View, artists Jessica Baker, Fran Bull, Monica d. Church, and Brian Lynch  explore printmaking processes that meld traditional etching techniques with digital imaging, all using innovative approaches and the human figure as a point of departure.

Brian Lynch’s works start on his palm pilot, often while riding in the New York City subway. “I try to keep the imagery of my work within the realm of my own experience,” said Lynch. “Everyday experiences, humorous situations and street life are the base from which much of my work evolves. To make a print from my Palm Pilot drawings, I first upload the images to my computer and alter them in Photoshop.  From the computer I then print out an inkjet print.  This copy is Xeroxed and used as the matrix for making a planographic print, similar to the lithographic process.”

Fran Bull’s art has been exhibited worldwide and for over 25 years, and she has been especially prolific in the area of printmaking.  Over the past five years she has worked in collaboration with a master printer in Barcelona, Spain. “The Barcelona! series was created in the spirit of improvisation,” she said. She used substance called carborundum, a sticky, taffy-like compound that dries rock-hard. “I worked by moving the wet mixture about on plexiglass plates, then inking and printing each piece on paper. The result is a group of etchings which bear the embossed, raised topography of their source.”

Jessica Baker uses figuration as a point of departure for every image she creates. “The stylized execution of the figurative elements is intended to transform the image from literal to symbolic,” she said. Baker started out making relief prints by hand in her studio, and over the last few years her work has expanded to include non-toxic copper-plate etching processes and now digitally manipulated images. “I digitize a photograph or drawing,” said Baker, “modify various aspects of the image in Photoshop, print a transparency, and then etch the image onto a solar plate. The combination of new and traditional technology presents challenging and exciting image making possibilities.”

Monica d. Church’s Suite du Nus etchings include circular details drawn from scans of family Kodachrome slides from the 1940s. “I am melding an ancient print form – etching, with modern technology,” said Church. “I use a computer to mine a digital image, and then create a photopolymer plate. This plate is then printed in the traditional manner, wiped by hand, and pulled through a press.”

In addition to the exhibition at the DCC’s Mildred I. Washington Art Gallery, Four Points of View: Figuration in Printmaking will also be presented in December 2006 at the Galeria Nacional in San Jose, Costa Rica.

The exhibit provides a learning experience for DCC students, said Palumbo. “All four artists provide us with surprising new possibilities for image making. Their adventurous embrace of any and all ‘tools of the trade’ helps to humanize the complexities of the digital technology. The results provide budding art students with the inspiring example of creative invention as an enriching and lifelong education.”

Additional exhibits at DCC’s Mildred I. Washington Art Gallery include:

Fall 2006 PVAC Student Exhibit, which runs Tuesday, January 16 through Friday, February 9, with a reception on Thursday, January 18 from 5:00 to 6:30 p.m.;

A retrospective of the work of Concetta Scaravaglione, Monday, February 26 through Friday, March 23, with a reception on Thursday, March 1 from 5:00 to 6:30 p.m.;

In Plain Sight, which runs Monday, April 9 through Friday, May 4, with a reception on Thursday, April 12;

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