Time to Be a Teacher

In a perfect world I'd spend a lot of time in the Studio making cool prints, but in the real world I have to devote much time to making a living.  I did get to the Studio today, but the time was devoted to my teaching job.

Still, I always try to slip at least one print project into each class, since most college students don't get many printmaking opportunities these days.  My 2D classes always do a woodcut, and my drawing classes (time permitting) will do a day of monotypes.  For my Intro class, they get to try some collographs.  Requires the least amount of art skill (a non-majors only class, after all), but good results are within reach of everybody.  And a lot of the materials we use are cast off stuff I used to pick up around the building, though with the design department being moved from building to building the past few years, my supplies are starting to dwindle.  The emphasis is on range of textures.  It's a portfolio exercise, so technically not due until the last day of the semester, but I only bring in all my printing stuff one time, so students who miss that day are invited to bring me the finished plates and I take them home to print.  More work for me, but I do love prints and I will make an effort to expose them.  It's pretty much new to them, and often it's the one artwork the students keep before throwing away the graded work, so maybe it's worth it.

So today was the day to print, so I grabbed my collograph printing bag as part of my Studio visit.  The above prints are the ones pulled today, and I'll return them to the students this week.  I also used the time to grade some large messy pastel pieces turned in last week, but that's for a different blog.