Preview Article in the Winnipeg Free Press

 Here is a digital clipping of an article by Alan Small about the upcoming exhibition Headlines: The Art of the News Cycle at the Winnipeg Art Gallery. You can also access the article here (although it might be behind a paywall). I posted an excerpt pertaining to my work at the bottom.

Exhibition Opening at the Winnipeg Art Gallery

Detail of The Aqueduct. Intaglio, digital print, chine-collé. 2022. 

I would like to invite you to the opening of Headlines: The Art of the News Cycle, at the Winnipeg Art Gallery on December 2, 7-9pm (doors at 6pm) in celebration of the 150 anniversary of the Winnipeg Free Press.

I am over the moon excited to have a series of prints in this exhibition! I plan to attend the opening on Friday and hope to see some of you there.

Storied Land: (Re)Mapping Winnipeg is an artist's book exploring segments of the colonial and racial history of settlement in Manitoba and Winnipeg through the use of layered etchings that recall the diverging narratives of experiences. These histories have been sourced from local newspaper archives and from various accounts of Indigenous people, Métis people, and Mennonite settlers. This collection of prints and texts emerged as an invitation from the Winnipeg Art Gallery to create a series of prints for this exhibition. While I have mapped parts of the city in my artworks for more than a decade with a focus on landmarks and the neighbourhoods I commonly frequent as part of my search for connection and belonging, this project gave me the opportunity to learn more about the colonial history of Winnipeg. It also allowed me to further explore the colonial history of my own roots and challenge the settler narratives I grew up with. My maternal great great great grandparents were among the early Mennonite settlers that migrated to Manitoba between 1874-1877. They settled in the East and West Reserves on land granted to them by the Canadian government, but which had already been at least partially requested by local Métis residents.

Winnipeg Neighbourhood Archival Inkjet Print

Winnipeg Neighbourhood, Archival Inkjet, 24"x36" image size, 30"x42" paper size, 2020. 

I'm quite behind on my blog posts, but I hope to remedy that in the near future. Since becoming a mom and working in the studio only part time, I just have not been able to find the time to post updates on my work. 

I made this digital print for an exhibition I had scheduled for November 2020 at Fleet Galleries in Winnipeg. I had just finished the final print for the show when I was notified, that the exhibition would not happen due to another complete Covid-19 lockdown. I haven't really shown this piece anywhere yet or advertised for it, but I really quite like it. I had all these photographs from a previous film photography project in my archives and I decided to digitize them to make this digital print to celebrate the colourful houses in Winnipeg's Fort Rouge and Wolseley neighbourhoods. As you can probably tell, I just love the Winnipeg street scenes.  

Editioning Days and Business Stuff

Over the past few weeks I've been printing some of my linocuts again. People often ask me how long it takes to make a print. It's such a hard question to answer because there are so many stages to it. Usually the sketching, drawing and carving of the plate take a few months. Then comes the proofing and reworking the plate stage. Once I start printing, I usually print ten to twenty prints over the course of a few weeks, before I take a break to work on something different; all that printing is really labour intensive and yes, it does get tedious if I keep doing the same thing over and over again. I also don't want to have too many prints just sitting not knowing if they will sell or not. After printing, the prints need to be taped to wooden boards while they are damp so they can stretch and dry flat. Once they are dry, they need to be curated, i.e. little flaws need touching up and I have to sign each print. People sometimes wonder about my pricing. Easy math: an edition of 50 prints at $500 per print is $25,000! Wow! That's a lot of money, right? It usually takes me about 5 years to sell an edition of prints that sells really well, so divide $25,000 by 5 and I get $5,000 from one edition per year. That is before overhead costs. If I sell through a gallery, they take 40%-50% commission (which I'm perfectly ok with since they do their own advertising and they bring my work to the attention of different clients). The example is an average price range, since I have some prints that cost more and some that cost less. When I have several editions that sell well, I can get through a year comfortably and I am grateful, excited and thrilled to be able to make a living doing what I love! 

My Winnipeg VI

My Winnipeg VI. Linocut. 60x90cm. 2020.

My Winnipeg VI is finally finished. I'm happy I finally got there, considering I started working on the drawing in March or April I think, when M. was still super little. I'm happy how the linocut turned out. This is the first time I combine downtown landmarks with some of the Winnipeg neighbourhood imagery typical for my work. Since I've started using some micro carving tools of 1.5mm, I can carve much finer detail which I enjoy a lot. 

Here is an (edited) excerpt from an earlier post about the imagery in the print: Some of my favourite parts of the city are right at its centre where the Red River and the Assiniboine River fork, the extensive walkways in the area and the surrounding landmarks and neighbourhoods that give this city so much of its character. While I've depicted parts of downtown and Saint Boniface in previous prints, I've been meaning to make work that includes the relatively new Museum of Human Rights, the Upper Fort Garry Park, and Union Station. Also depicted are the Fortune Block and The Winnipeg Hotel. 

Printing the Linocut

Time for a print reveal sneak peek on a sunny morning in my studio. After some proofing and editing of the printing plate, I've finally started printing (proofs are on the pin board behind me). I pull the inked-up linoleum plate with a sheet of paper through the printing press. Now I need to stretch, dry and curate the prints. And then repeat, repeat, repeat. I'll post an image of the finished print soon.

Inking up Linocut Plate

I'm finally inking up my new linocut! For me the most magical moment of printmaking is when the image emerges for the first time in black. I pulled my first proof and I'm content with it, but as expected the plate needs some more work and cleaning up. I'll post an image of the print once it is finished...a bit more patience please!