Linocut, my one true love, with Kari Kristensen aka The Printmaker and Her Dog

10/22/20 • 51 min

Today I’ve got a great conversation to share with you featuring an artist you may recognize as The Printmaker and Her Dog, or for non-instagram people, her name is Kari Kristensen. Kari is a relief printmaker based in Vancouver, Canada where she pumps out iterations of her stylized landscape prints. Kari has a great presence on social media, and there’s something really appealing about the type of work she does. It’s simple, monochromatic, and presents a field of view that makes you want to jump in and get lost amidst the lines and dots she carefully renders. We get into topics around the origins and influences behind her landscapes, lots of Canada-related discussion, and we share some love for our favorite papers and relief printing methods. Speaking of relief printing, there are a couple priceless tips today in our Let’s Get Technical segment, so hang in because you won’t want to miss them.

We get into...
Art in Canada
Group of 7 painters
London Regionalist Movement
Being an artist from Ontario
Creating uniquely Canadian art
Speaking with an accent...or thinking you don’t have one.
Artist Ken Danby - artist who did image of hockey players
Linocut
Vancouver peaks called The Two Lions
Granville Island - printing press capital of Canada
Peter Brauhn - master printmaker on Granville Island
Thomas Printing Presses - vancouver press maker
Calvert Guthrie - printshop manager in Kansas City
BIMPE - biennial print exchange
Doing murals that convey the quality of prints
Living with Arithmomania, the OCD condition
Making flat prints that appear digital
Dave Lefner relief prints
Today’s Let’s Get Technical:
How to treat lino before starting
Maintaining all types of tools including speedball cutters
Big love for #1 blade speedball carving tools
Takach Rollers for extra nice ink rolling

East Side Culture Crawl in Vancouver
Favorite Paper: Arnhem 1618 (245gsm) from Blick
Let's not forget the luscious Arches 88
Having multiple revenue streams: studio crawls, gallery sales, art rentals,
Squarespace online sales portal - posting featured works and not overwhelming buyers
Having a dog keeps you in touch with life outside the studio
How being gay and having OCD lead to a life with linocut

Previous Episode

Printmakers Against Racism w/ Desiree Aspiras

Printmakers Against Racism is a project that launches today, on the day of this recording July 25th, 2020. Desiree Aspiras is the founder of the project which aims to engage printmakers across the world to sell their printss and donate the proceeds to support the fight against systemic racial injustice. In lieu of the project launch, Desiree and I discuss the motivation behind the project, and how a similar movement called @bakersagainstracism provided her with a frame work to set up this global art sale. Learn how Instagram closed her account causing her to rename her handle with little explanation why it happened at all. Desiree is an artist, poet, and therapist, so she has a lot of thoughtful insight into how it's important to take care of ourselves to be able to show up for others.
If you still want to sign up, it's simple to get involved, just go to http://printmakersagainstracism.com and sign up. It's up to participants to sell their works and once the funding is collected they can choose the local organization where they would like the proceeds to benefit.
The sale runs for one week, July 25th-July 31st, though the parameters are loose enough that you can still sign up even as the project is launching, and there isn't a hard deadline for when you have to sell your prints. It's really about giving artists a prompt to get making art for a good cause. Check out the project and participate in any way you can.
Follow Printmaking As Resistance on Instagram
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Next Episode

Drawing Attention to the States of Change with Yoonmi Nam

Artist and professor Yoonmi Nam comes on the podcast to discuss her art, collaborations, exhibitions, and more. Nam is a professor at KU in Lawrence, KS, and we discuss her inspiration that comes from the world around her including her neighborhood and kitchen table. Nam is a lithographer, and Moku Hanga artist, and connects her passion for technical processes with content that speaks to ephemerality and convenience. Most of her art examines liminal spaces between states of change, and contradictions that exist in the things we use like how we use "disposable" goods packaged in plastics that will be around for the next 10,000 years. Her collaborative group Wood/Paper/Box is a long running project between three artists and we discuss how the group works together while apart, and upcoming shows and travel that connect to the work of the artist trio. Today's Let's Get Technical dives into damp pack paper storage, which you may need someday...maybe.
Check out Yoonmi online here.
Her instagram is here.
Follow The Print Cast on Instagram here.
Check out more episodes online.
Today's discussion involves:
How art resembling takeout food takes on new meaning in the pandemic world.
Toile wallpaper
SGCI New Orleans - print exchange
How construction and decay often look similar.
Living in a run down neighborhood where new development impacts the vintage neighborhood.
Flavor Paper - Brooklyn custom screen printed wallpaper
Mustard Seed Garden Manual for Painting
Wood/Paper/Box - a collaborative group where three artists exchange art works.
Moku Hanga Conference in Japan
All works during one project are contained into one box and become an exhibition.
Next exhibition of group due to happen in 2021 at The Beach Museum in Manhattan, KS
They are creating a custom edition as part of the show.
Their projects are interactive to view because they have to be taken from the box, handled, and moved around to view all the contents.
We talk about GAMPI!!! A favorite paper. So delicate, and yet so strong.
She started making sculptural objects in response to paper prints.
She likes to think about time in materials
The contradiction that disposable things are made in ultra-durable materials like plastic
Studying Moku Hanga in Japan
Viewing Mt. Fuji in daily life while in Japan
Doing a print residency in Japan learning Moku Hanga

Let’s Get Technical
Using a Damp Pack:
Moku Hanga paper is typically prepared so that it is moist before printing
How to dampen your printing paper, not fully wet, but moist and ready to take ink
Using damp newsprint, and a sheet of plastic of trash bag
Taking humidity and paper thickness into account
Maintain right amount of moisture throughout editioning
Don’t leave it sit for too many days, or the damp pack can grow bacteria and ruin paper