I’ve just completed a virtual artists residency with Edition Basel in Switzerland. I was in California, and worked on mokuhanga prints, and then we all got together on zoom every evening from all over the world and discussed what we’d been doing.
We collectively chose the theme of ‘Übergang’ for our residency, a German word meaning transition/change/boundary. I made a series of prints of the view from the balcony, looking at the dusk/sunset/twilight skies. And then made them into accordian-fold artists books, that show a different view depending on which angle you view them from.
This weekend a show is being held at the Basler Papiermuhle in Basel, with everyone’s work, either in person, or on screens for those of us participating from abroad. I managed to send in some of my flat prints, but also showed the finished folded pieces on a screen.
It was lovely to meet so many new printmakers, and take part in some lively conversations over the course of the week.
These are some of the experimental prints I made, using 4 blocks and a variety of colours…
I haven’t really tried to use the whole paper like this for a very long time, and I had fun inking up the blocks in random painterly ways, and not worrying about making exact editions!
I set up a low table for the residency and spent the whole week here, carving, designing, printing, cutting and glueing…
I spent the first day of the residency seeing if I could design, carve and print all in one day - turns out I can! I made this small series of bird prints, that can be viewed from any way up.
One day I hope I’ll be able to visit Basel and the amazing Druckwerk printstudio in person…
