Katie Garth

Students in this course will be challenged to use approaches outside conventional printmaking, instead adopting experimental techniques (e.g., plaster printing, cyanotypes, and relevant monotype variations). Instructor demonstrations will emphasize practical material applications, while group critiques will broaden critical understanding in visual arts both formally and conceptually. Projects will support the development of individual artistic inquiry, analyzing how meaning changes according to media, material, and audience.

Theoretical readings will complement exposure to contemporary print artists in this discussion-based course. The class will consider both established and speculative concepts in print media, developing an understanding of the field based on materiality, technology, and social dynamics. As students gain footing in these new frameworks, they will be asked to apply their learning in the form of analysis.

In this studio course, students will learn a range of relief printmaking techniques, using linoleum cutting, jigsaw printing, collographs, and more to develop original imagery. While demonstrations will instill familiarity with fundamental carving and printing skills, meetings and critiques will challenge students to analyze their creative approaches across art historical, social, and theoretical contexts. Readings and discussions will integrate basic print history and highlight notable artists using relief media.

With a variety of print media at their disposal, experienced printmaking students will use this course to support their ongoing studio investigations. Students’ own creative inquiries will direct relevant technical demonstrations; potential media may include monoprinting, etching, relief, intaglio, and screenprinting, among others. Students will work across techniques to individualize and refine their creative output, with attention toward printmaking in the expanded field. Discussions and critiques will offer theoretical and historical context for analysis.

Students will learn a variety of techniques for handmaking books, considering the book as an art object both materially and conceptually. The course will explore interactions between content and form: What specific material considerations support works that will be handled, circulated, and experienced over time? Moving through directed assignments to learn a variety of book structures, we will utilize drawing as well as basic printmaking techiques. Critical themes will include sequence, structure, text, and image—encouraging dynamic class discussions. Presentations and field trips will introduce students to books by established artists, independent publishers, and amateur makers, creating a dialogue with historical and contemporary practitioners of this tactile, haptic form.

Students in this studio course will acquire a variety of traditional and experimental intaglio techniques informed by contemporary, nontoxic printmaking practices. While instilling basic etching skills, the class will also strengthen individual capacity for creative image development. As course work and demonstrations create technical frameworks from which to understand this historic medium, students will be encouraged to integrate and interrogate their own creative processes. Group critiques will create opportunities to expand critical insight in the visual arts, both formally and conceptually.

This course will explore the ways we utilize, understand, and interact with printmaking through material culture, emphasizing printmaking’s roles in consumerism, protest, and communication. Students will examine how modes of production and class hierarchy inform the status of printed objects and will consider how printed ephemera may embody or upend fine-art traditions. Presentations and field trips will cover the history of commercial printing, the significance of memorabilia in popular culture, and print’s role in both government propaganda and collective uprisings. Throughout the semester, students will perform individual research to guide a final project in the form of a printed artifact. Printmaking experience is encouraged but not required.

This course covers the fundamentals of screenprinting as a fine-art print medium. Students will discover a range of techniques within this stencil-based process, considering its history and its relationship to contemporary visual and material culture. The class will employ a series of image-making methods, featuring assignments that emphasize hand-drawn, painted, and photographic imagery. Students will learn color organization and other foundational printmaking frameworks, integrating the technical qualities of print with their own unique aesthetic approaches. Project prompts will encourage individual conceptual development and exploration, and presentations will include artists who both exemplify the medium’s history and push the boundaries of the process.

In this fast-paced course, students will use a variety of prompts from which to self-publish zines and relevant printed ephemera. Lectures, field trips, and readings will provide insight into the history and politics of the medium. The course will involve relatively few technical demonstrations, with a focus on spirited creative output. Students will share their work in group discussions and critiques, developing the critical vocabulary to guide their own aesthetic and conceptual pursuits.