An End and A Beginning

Tonight my brief run as a university printmaking professor officially came to an end.  This is not to say that I won't teach print stuff again, as I have been demonstrating cutting and printing at colleges since the 90's, and I still am planning print projects for both of my current college classes.  But for the past few weeks I have been the official printmaking faculty at one of my schools, and that's now over.  (actually the computer system may still list me that way for weeks, knowing how long it takes them to get things updated)  I had gotten word from the dean's office late last week that the regular professor was expected back this week, but considering the lack of communication through this whole process, I had little confidence in anything I was hearing.  I'd been keeping up with all the involved parties through this, but no one else was.  So I decided I would go up there tonight.  If she was back, I'd turn over the paperwork, keys, attendance records, etc, we'd settle all the questions raised by students, and since the southbound traffic would be a nightmare at that point, I'd offer to stick around a few hours and help the students get moving on their first projects, due next week.  And if she didn't show up, I'd do the demonstrations of cutting and printing that they'd need to do their first prints, and then wish them luck.

I arrived about an hour before class, finding one student in the room cutting her block- not waiting for the demo but just figuring it out.   Hey, I did my first woodcuts that way, and this girl did do a woodcut in my 2D class years ago so she had a little relief experience.  I did take a moment to give her some tips on how to hold tools and let her try one of my specially designed bench hooks, two changes she adopted immediately.  I showed a book I had brought in to two of the grads, as the work had relationships to things each was working on.  I brought in my supplies, a stripped down version of the stuff I was bringing in the first two weeks.  The regular professor turned up about 30 minutes before class, and I gave her a quick update on things.  She was very excited to have me stay a help her get back into the rhythm of the class, especially because relief is my thing.

The room quickly filled up and the usual chaos followed.  (too busy to take any photos tonight)  I made a quick portrait sketch on a spare piece of linoleum (image borrowed from an old student print) and did a linoleum cutting demonstration, followed quickly by showing how to hand print a block.  Shortly after the professor followed up with a demo of inking and printing using the press,  (the student cutting when I arrived was lucky enough to have the only completed piece in the room, so got her plate proofed twice and is all set for next week's crit)  I remained there for a little while, answering questions, advising on prints in progress.  Talked about woodcut tools, even though that project is still a week away and most still have a ways to go on their linocuts.  And then I took off.

So having turned over all the relevant papers and information, this temporary professor job is over, However, in a room full of students excited by their pieces, there's always the possibility that one or more may convert over into a full time printmaker and go on to make works that future art students will be studying and emulating.  For those of us who have been called, the making of new printmakers is almost a sacred duty. And passing along as much information and advice as I could over the three weeks is the best way I know to possibly make that happen.