robert quackenbush -- kc printmaker

Mineral spirits were causing light colored ink to drip across a wood plate covered with dark ink. Caught up in the moment, its creator invited attendees to take notice. Robert Quackenbush was giving an print demonstration for members of the Kansas City Print Society, in the studio of artist Jane Voorhees across from the Plaza (photos below). Voorhees had given permission to use her press for the demo.

Often in the world of prints, the final image can be seen as rigid, set in stone, a finite quantity, a collision of colors frozen in time. This print maker had the attitude of an explorer. To him the equation to a product had variables and his job was to try them all. Saturday he let us in on the wonder. That was what he intended when he inked his plate with a beige swath across the top and a black swath across the bottom.



By design he intentionally let a solvent mingle with both colors, letting gravity pull rivulets downward. Solvents that were used for cleaning up oil stains in a work room could very well destroy or wreck a carefully planned image. Who would ever risk losing such an image? To do so could be seen as a careless act. It was our teachable moment. Clearly, that gentleman wanted us to see what the chemical reaction would do and share in his excitement.





 

    Girded in an orange apron, Quackenbush explained how he once was doing an aquatint and how he wanted to block out a certain area, so he applied ground over the area. (Ground was used by etchers to keep portions of the plate from being eaten by the acid) He couldn't get the ground to work as it was leaking all over the place. So he streched some masking tape across instead, figuring if the acid ate up the tape, it was no big deal. It was a chance he was willing to take. When he took the plate out the the acid bath he noticed that the acid had no effect on the tape. He liked the way the taped area looked, so he printed it up. Through trial and error he came up with his wood plates (ABOVE) which are covered with tape patterns. Double click on images to see enlarged. He used a brayer to roll on the oil-based ink. The paper for his prints were 

soaked and blotted Arches or Stonehenge paper. He discovered that certain tapes are too slick and would not hold ink. Others had the right kind of tooth or grit to hold and transfer the ink, when he ran them through the press.

(CLICK ON VIDEOS BELOW)



A simple purchase of lotus leaves at the Asian Market inspired two artists. His friend, Reilly Hoffman, whom he shared a space with in the Kansas City Crossroad district, created a sculpture of a lotus leaf. Robert, in turn, used re-hydrated lotus leaves for printing. He sprayed shellac on the leaf to give it strength. Double click on ABOVE closeup to see enlarged. His techinque captured every crease and detail from the leaf. But it was a sacrificial thing, the leave was so fragile it distegrates after passed under the rolled pressure of his press. He mounted the leaf on a glass substrate and brushed the ink onto the leaf before printing it. It was labor intensive and used lots of ink, but the results were fantastic. He showed us a large leaf print done on a heavy black paper. He got the 40 by 60 inch sheet from Daniel Smith Art Supplies at fifteen bucks a page.

Her husband was a perpetual learner his wife Merry pointed out.



"Any place we have lived Robert has always found the best art school in town and taken classes, always wanting to try something new. Even at his age, he is still curious and willing to risk failure, because, usually, anytime you start something new you make mistakes."

You can watch her FULL INTERVIEW on the video below. She spoke in length about the lotus leaf project. Video is three minutes.

  

According to Merry Quackenbush, the white ink on black paper and black ink on white paper ABOVE were some of the first images Robert produced when he began using masking tape. After eight to ten prints, he has since learned, the tape on the plate would begin to fall apart.

Part 1. One minute video of the solvent drip demo.

Click on triangle.

Members study large leaf print.

Part 2. Solvent drip demo, six minutes.
Click on triangle.

RQ: I just want to let this rest another couple seconds. Can you all see how that is turning out?

MQ: What is that little block over there? Is that tape coming up a little?

RQ: Yes, that is a piece of tape coming up. Remember how we talked about this plate has been used before, it's been cleaned, and eventually the solvents will get under the tape and compromise the glue. Particularly where they have little points and what not. But I am going to let that go, We'll just see what happens. It was on the other plate too, and it did not seem to have a big negative effect. Still need to bounce this one a little more. (He lays plate on the newsprint on the press bed)

MQ: You can see where Robert has penciled in guidelines, so he knows where to place the plate. In this case he is centering this.

RQ: The last plate was a little bigger, that's why you see those lines. Now there is a chance that some of these lines may come off on the print. This is just an experiment for today.
A piece of paper coming up. I like to use paper that is a little wetter than most printmakers would recommend. I feel more comfortable about it, I think the ink takes better. (He blots the wetted paper with clean towel on work table. Husband and wife bring large paper over to the press bed) The paper is in place. I have added a couple sheets of newsprint. I am pretty sure that some of this ink will be coming through this paper, cause there is a lot of it. We can't soil these felts.

MQ: They would never have us back (in the Voorhees studio or use their press). We would never have another party here. (chuckles)

RQ: In the printmaking world, the biggest thing you can do wrong is mess up the felts. Frankly, art students are terrible human beings when it comes to being neat.

This is called a pusher, catcher rather. You will see a lot these with images off.

Now the experiment begins. (Robert rotates the big metal wheel next to the press bed, hand over hand, moving the pressbed under the steel roller, with even pressure)

Viewer: Does the speed of how you roll that affect any of the printing?

RQ: It can. Sometimes if you move too fast you can push the plate. If you are using multiple plates, it is important to have them angled a certain way,. For instances, if you are going to make a print that has three plates in it, you got to do it from the side, if you don't that third plate is going to move. It is one of the things you learn the hard way. If you move too fast you can move the plate, and some printers actually roll it back and run the plate through again. (Robert and Merry, on either side of the press, pull the layer of felt blankets back over the top of the roller).....OK, are you ready?? (ahhs and wows) (Robert gently pulls the paper off the plate to reveal the print BELOW) Double click on image to see enlarged.

Robert and his wife Merry, BELOW.



RQ:  We are going to run a ghost, which means I am not going to ink this plate again. I am just going to run another piece through. Sometimes they are very interesting, and like the other ghosts we ran in the first demo, they can be used in other ways. (Merry takes above print and lays it out on the table for the members to inspect up close. Husband and wife carry a second blotted sheet over to the press, carrying it by the edges with both hands. They carefully lay it on the taped plate, BELOW. They lay sheets of newsprints on top and felt blankets) 

Viewer: Some of us are going to be tempted to try the taped thing. Do you have a patent on it, Robert? (laughs and giggles)

RQ: I should. Although I can't be the first person to have tried this. (Robert rotates the big metal wheel next to the press bed, hand over hand, moving the pressbed under the steel roller. Felts are pulled back, newsprint rolled up, print it lifted up. Regarding the print: ) Not much, not much.

Viewer: No, but you could do something with it....

RQ: Absolutely!!

MQ: You could paint over it.

RQ: You could draw or paint over it. I could cut it up and collage it into something else.

Viewer: Could you print over it?

RQ: You could print over it. Sure, sure, absolutely!! Well, that's us. If you have any questions....(applause)

  

More on monotypes, click HERE.

(courtesy of Wikipedia, accessed September 16, 2012)

To view Robert's print page, click HERE 

(courtesy of Art By Q, http://www.artbyq.com/portfolio/prints,

accessed September 16, 2012

Robert is a member of the Hand Print Press
at the University of Missouri Kansas City.

To visit Hand Print Press, click HERE.
(courtesy of Hand Print Press, http://handprintpress.org/,
accessed September 16, 2012 )

A word to the Kansas City print community:



"Be prolific! Do a lot of work. Constantly improve your skills. One of the best lessons I ever learned is not to be afraid of my imagination. If making art is your passion, go after it. Don’t wait for anything. As Chuck Close once said, “Inspiration is for amateurs

…..Get to work!”

(courtesy of Art By Karena, http://artbykarena.blogspot.com/2012/01/artist-series-renowned-robert.html, accessed September 16, 2012)

submitted by Karl Marxhausen, September 22, 2012

terri wheeler - kc printmaker

It's a challenge. It takes you outside of what you are normally going to do.    Terri Wheeler

Photo from previous print exchange.

There was this print exchange. And I was, I CAN DO that, I can do THAT!. And they had this theme, it was like "Just A Second." And so I was like, well, you can do JUST ABOUT ANYTHING with that!! I mean, that is, what is that? I mean, it took me longer to figure out the concept  (laughs) than what I am going to DO. So I did a LEAF that is FALLING. And it turned out really good.  Terri Wheeler

The submission deadline for "Print Exchange -
Just a Second" was December 15, 2014.
Double click images to enlarge.
Terri's print exchange entry, next.

falling by terri wheeler

After I started dating my boyfriend Oscar, he brought me on our first date, these really pretty yellow lillies. And I just loved them. It inspired me to do some drawings and then some prints.          Terri Wheeler

Above, hand-made folio
Next, a suite is a group of prints that go together.
Below, yellow lillies, three-color linocut, artist's proof.

Whether she does a linocut, a painting, or sculpture,
her image is found through drawing. Two minutes.

  

Ms. Wheeler walks me through her studio. 

She uses her sun porch for drawing overlays.
A block from 2010 reveals her layout execution. Many patient cuts.

Two blocks are used to produce one image.

Video runs two minutes. Click on http://youtu.be/3Rky7iGjVOM

Ms. Wheeler and her expensive table top press. The advantage of a mechanical press over hand-burnishing is having impressions that are even and consistent. She knows what it is like to have burnished areas of the block with a doorknob. It can be difficult to get the right pressure over the whole plate. She uses felt blankets for her linoleum blocks. She likes the embossing that it produces.

She dries her prints on a clothesline she pins up within her space.

To bring the press up to their second story apartment, Wheeler and her boyfriend took the press apart, carried the pieces upstairs and re-assembled the press without instructions. Setting the pressure is different for each block, depending on the humidity, according to Wheeler. Video runs five minutes. Click on http://youtu.be/movMvFrHNm4

Artists Terri Wheeler and Karl Marxhausen talk about the importance of setting a routine in the studio. Three minutes. Click on http://youtu.be/EzvwJrN8wIA

"You HAVE TO SET that LITTLE ROUTINE. I'll come in, I'll sit down, either something will come to me or it won't, I'll think about something and sketch in my book, I'll paint on this or that, until something starts to click, and then by the time something has clicked it's already dark and I'll have been up here for several hours." Terri Wheeler

"It's also WITH EXPECTATION, you don't go up and say fatalistic: "I'm never going to get anything done. It's a waste of time, why am I even bothering?" Some days CAN be like that. But sometimes it's like I'm just HOPEFUL. I just think: "I'm just going to TRY."  Karl Marxhausen

"And I find, you know, it's just THE TRYING. Art is three letters, T - R - Y. Try. Try something." Karl Marxhausen

"Yep. Yep. EXPERIMENT. CREATE. Just DO IT. If it fails, you have learned something.......you know, it could be a happy accident. Like all of a sudden, it could be "WOW, OK, that really WORKS!!" Terri Wheeler

A suite of work. Video runs six minutes.
Her process, linked video runs ten minutes, click on http://youtu.be/MDxowdvy7Cg

Wheeler is excited about the Sketchbook Project and Print Exchange. Video runs two minutes.
For more on this, click https://www.sketchbookproject.com/challenges/printexchange

 

A final word to fellow printmakers. One minute.

Don't give up. There is room for everybody. Terri Wheeler

Terri Wheeler is a member of the Kansas City Artists Coalition. Her print studio is in Kansas City, Missouri. Her website is http://terriwheeler.com/home.html

This interview took place Sunday, December 14, 2014.

(Sketchbook Project images, courtesy of Flickr, https://www.flickr.com/photos/arthousecoop/sets/72157646202554824/, accessed Jan. 4, 2015)

letter press studios crawl - kc

Food brings us together. Eighteen of us start our letterpress excursion with brunch upstairs above the Blue Bird Bistro on Summit (left) At one table a member ponders which future prints he will purchase for the dining room at JUCO. Another member talks about the Photoshop class she is taking. Her art making has been in studio spaces away from her home. Now she wants to combine her art training in one location at home on her computer with her photographs.                  One member tells about her art students squeezing clay with their hands. In the next room new members chat with others who love ink on paper. The program director lays out the itinerary. We exit to our cars and begin across the river. Our first stop is the Print Factory, 738 Armstrong Avenue, in Kansas City, KANSAS (below, left) Craft & Concept.(double click on images to enlarge) Jan and Karl Marxhausen (above right)

 



   

 

      From the street level, we climb a flight of wooden steps to the large studio level. We listen to Jesse Mc Afee. He believes that the printing press helped build the middle class and made education possible for those who were able to access it. The Print Factory funds itself by building printing presses for artists and print shops, as well as backpack proof presses. (For more on Self Contained Outdoor Printing Equipment, click http://craftandconcept.com/?page_id=1594&fb_ref=wp and http://craftandconcept.com/?page_id=742&fb_ref=wp (courtesy of Craft and Concept, accessed Oct 13, 2013)

Cast type letters set in tray (BELOW), when rolled with ink, makes impression (ABOVE)

     The Nelson Atkins Museum has paid them come in to do thematic workshops. Last year participants created prints for the Day of the Dead celebration at the Nelson, through the live demos by the Print Factory. 



"Recently, we've been making wooden type. You will see some examples on the table, along with artist blocks and plates, to help fund ourselves and make on-site demonstrations possible. (To help people to look at a movable type printing press) and understand that THIS WAS HOW NEWSPAPERS USED TO HAVE TO BE PRINTED EVERY DAY. I think it is something that has been lost. To think about a whole newspaper, every twenty-four hours, being printed in this manner. The way information was been distributed.... When we set up at the Nelson, we tie clothes lines to whatever we can and that kind of became the drying racks. There is wax paper that people can use to make an envelope with to take their print home. On the back of each print there is a stamp that has the artist's name. And they can go to our website, Craft and Concept, and find out more about that artist."    Jesse Mc Afee

Follow them at http://www.facebook.com/printfactorykc

I think that what the Print Factory is doing is very exciting, in that their mission includes bringing printing to the people --- whether in the form of building backpack presses, travelling to do on-site printing, or their efforts to get kids excited about printing.  Paul Sokoloff

Print Factory artist, David Grime from South Carolina, discusses the control he has working with zinc when etching. When he engraves he prefers to use copper. Aluminum holds up better for doing a series of prints. Blue and orange stripes on top are done with a mylar transparency, after the etched plate has been inked and wiped, prior to printing. Print Society members look at prints from his flat file. Lithographs done in Tasmania by a friend of his. One is a a large drypoint and an etching. His friend Will Burnip was influenced by Whistler, says Grime. 

We trek from the Kansas side of the river to the Missouri side in Mid town. The caravan parks and we walk a city block to 3121 Gillham Road.  Music greets us as we enter the renovated office space.

     With training from the Kansas City Art Institute and experience from working at Hammarpress, Michelle Dreher began her studio in the West Bottoms in a Warehouse Loft. She had room there to acquire the equipment she needed. Two years ago her sister and her purchased an office building. They stepped away from the Crossroads area to a place that has potential. This area is being revitalized.

    She likes the idea of becoming an anchor to a community. They gutted the entire building and started over. The second floor is being converted to an apartment. Most of their efforts are going towards that. By next fall they are planning a grand opening, a store front space, window displays, a studio, a wood shop. The final goal is to have workshops there. She also teaches part time at the Nelson doing workshops. She want to bring that over to her studio. Four minutes.

Flying saucer abducting cows, four color block print, linocut letterpress, now in Etsy shop
http://www.etsy.com/listing/127048740/the-strangers-letterpress-linocut-ufo?

The Dreher sisters in action making linocut designs, click http://vimeo.com/65990847
(courtesy of Blue Coffee Pictures, accessed Oct 25, 2013)

More of their studio history, click http://twotonepress.yolasite.com/about.php

 

The proof presses used by Two Tone Press are named after 80s rock stars. Such as, Bowie (her favourite), Lennox, Boss, and Lauper. Michelle Dreher explains the role of the machine to members of the Nelson Atkins Print Society  Six minutes.

Michelle likes to convert hand drawn elements into carved blocks. Above,

linocut blocks used for poster for Nelson Atkins museum event.

Cast iron presses are both strong and fragile at the same time, explains Michelle Dreher. She uses her clam-shell platen for die cutting and         scoring. Networks help keep her hundred year old machine in shape.    Two minutes.

Michelle can usually figure out what is going on with her clam-shell platen. Parts are available for her Vandercook proof presses through NA Graphic in Colorado. The clam-shell platen is simple in design and easier to fix. 1 minute.
Follow the sisters at http://www.facebook.com/twotonepress 

It is so wonderful to see and meet these young artists who are taking control of their lives and careers in such meaningful and productive ways. It is a fantastic endorsement for their mentor the KC Art Institute as well.    david n roxie mc gee

      Down Linwood and right on Troost, at 3319 Troost we find Winka Press and the Telephonebooth Gallery, run by Cecilia Bakker (CB) and Tim Brown (TB). We step into an intimate gallery to find walls covered with the huge graphite drawings of Russell Fergason (next image).

Bakker was a graduate of the Kansas City Art Institute, from the printmaking department in 2002, and has worked for Mike Sims at the Lawrence Lithography Workshop for two years.  From that experience the two of them do editions for artists on their letterpress equipment.

Artistic development is a different mind set which Winka Press prides itself in. It sees its contribution as a hybrid one. Something that artists would be drawn to. An advocate for the inked impression both printer and artist seek to achieve.    Tim Brown

Tim Brown and Cecilia Bakker discuss their role when working with artists. Four minutes.
TB:  As a part of building artist careers, it is useful to have the ability to do an edition using our press. 
CB: We mostly do relief printing.
TB: Just a part of working with the gallery, there is development process when an artist does an edition. It is a lot different from doing a commercial job. Professional designers usually are very clear about what they want. And that is a very different kind of conversation than when an artist has an image and they are not really sure how to get to an end to it. Usually there is a lot of proofing, a lot of looking at color, and all of that changes the image. So, realistically that is a much longer development process.

TB: So, it's not about cash and trying to make money quickly. It's more about artistic development, and a different mind set. Part of the press is, we try to carefully, thoughtfully segment our jobs in that regard. You know, there is artistic activity and there is commercial activity, and that is how it generally breaks down.

CB: Around the corner you will see a print from Saskia Lehnert (above image). It was probably a two year project developing the image, working with the artist, and creating an edition. Those are long view projects.

CB: At Winka Press we have design print services, like wedding invitations, custom holiday cards. We also offer print services to other designers in the Kansas City area. Letterpress printing, and we do offer some retail goods, holiday cards and thank you cards, things like that.

TB: Cecilia makes art too.
CB: So I use the same equipment to make a hybrid litho method. And this brings us to our motivation for doing this. We both like ink on paper. We both have hybrid backgrounds, both have commercial art and fine art.

Look at recent work by Cecilia Bakker, above http://ceciliab.com/Fresh-Prints.html

Both continue to talk about movable type and pin registration used on the letterpress beds. The use of a fine art process that Mike Sims would use. Where the paper is hole punched along the edge of the plate to create precise registration in this process. Whereas in letterpress that does not happen, and you can get pretty good registration if you have a Heidelberg or high end equipment. Typically pin registration is not really possible.  This is a great example of the hybrid process with both of our backgrounds. Five minutes.



Above, metal plate used for Saskia Lehnert (sister to Cecilia) 

More on that
http://spotlightkcprint.blogspot.com/2013/02/saskia-lehnert-kc-printmaker.html



CB: The way is used to be made and now how it is made. They are able translate a digital file into an etched plate.
Visitor: Using a laser cutter?
CB: I think they use etching baths.
TB: You know the traditional way of a plate that gets exposed, you print it on a high quality piece of foam, and then it gets exposed photographically, and then it gets etched away chemically.
Visitor: Hmm.
TB: So, you are left with this piece of magnesium, and it is mounted on a very specific piece of probably Russian plywood. So that is the kind of sequence it takes to make it.

CB: But then, just like letterpress we lock it into a shape, put it on the press, and run it through.

Submitted by Karl Marxhausen
October 24, 2013

Videos shot with Luminx DMC-FZ7 camera
 Additional photos by Robin Gross
Way to go Team !!!!

(Links courtesy of Craft and Concept, http://craftandconcept.com/?page_id=1594&fb_ref=wp, http://craftandconcept.com/?page_id=742&fb_ref=wp,http://craftandconcept.com/,  http://craftandconcept.com/?page_id=50, Nelson Atkins Museum, http://www.nelson-atkins.org/images/PDF/press/2012%2010%2015%20Day%20of%20Dead%20FINAL.pdf, Russell Ferguson, http://www.kansascity.com/2013/10/04/4527493/architectural-shrines-inspire.html, Two Tone Press, http://www.etsy.com/listing/127048740/the-strangers-letterpress-linocut-ufo?, http://twotonepress.yolasite.com/about.php, Blue Coffee Pictures, http://vimeo.com/65990847, Winka Press, http://winkapress.com/, Telephonebooth Gallery, http://telephoneboothgallery.com/, Cecilia Bakker, http://ceciliab.com/, http://ceciliab.com/Fresh-Prints.html, Tim Brown, http://transmodernassociates.com/,  accessed Oct 22, 2013)