Monday, January 4, 2010

Prep for Textile Printing, a new hero Janet Doub Erickson

Currently I am catching up on my printmaking research in preparation for my upcoming intensive workshop on textile printing at the AS220 printshop, 3 Saturdays starting Jan 16th. I believe there is one spot left if you would like to register click here.

I happened upon Block Printing on Textiles by Janet Erickson. I was intrigued by the charming spread of drawings of printmaking supplies, but I fell in love Mrs. Erickson's boosterism of printing with your feet:



What a lovely humble way to get the job done. What I really love is her open engagement with experimental (dare I say playful) technical practice. I cherish experimentation in my practice and was surprised to find it in a how-to book.

I was intrigued so I googled Mrs. Erickson and glory be she has a Wikipedia page!
Which includes this lovely image:



Seems to me a lot of contemporary illustrators are biting her style. According to Wikipedia Life Magazine niknamed her "Jumping Janet" for her foot printing technique. And after a life of Globetrotting she's moved back to New England. Maybe she's excepting fan letters?

If you have any suggestions for further reading please pass it along.

1 comment:

jdoube said...

I'm pleased you find my long-ago BLOCKPRINTING book helpful, and that you and students are expirementing with these venerable techniques. My graphics are mostly digetal now, Scanning and manipulating images from my drawings and paintings on screen has become for me Printmaking With Clean Fingers, which may be my next book?

Happy printing to all

Janet