artlab: printing prints

Here’s what I have to say after carefully watching a group of people make prints at Saturday’s ArtLab for All Ages workshop at the Center for Maine Contemporary Art: the process of making a printed impression–with stamps, inked corrugated boards, and inked bubble wrap– is mesmerizing. And possibly addicting. One print leads to the next, and one stamped shape calls out for the next shape to join it on the page. Then, in not too much time, a group of prints evolves into a collection or an edition.

Preparing for this workshop, and making the stamps below (I cut adhesive foam sheets into shapes and stuck them onto pieces of wood) should have been an indication of what was to come. I spent a couple of hours making the stamps because I simply could not stop. One shape led to the next, and the collection grew and grew. (Below you see about half of the stamps that were set out for the workshop.)

To begin, people chose some stamps

settled in to their space in the room

and began working.

Side-by-side,

on their own

or collaboratively.

And while this is the ArtLab, where everyone is free to approach the work in their own way,

inevitably, there are shared experiences…

Watching people as they made their prints,

it seemed to me that making prints

is really about watching the print being made…

watching layers of colors and shapes build and build

and watching shapes evolve into new forms,

as in this print, titled “Constellation,” by Sam.

And here is a small collection of prints, drawn from the many many collections that were created in the ArtLab on Saturday: