CLASSES
DOWNLOAD REGISTRATION FORM   All classes include 12 hours of additional workshop per week. Artist membership is required for enrollment in classes. 

INTAGLIO/ETCHING

Section 1: January 31–April 17, 2012 | Tuesdays, 6:30–9:30 pm

Instructor: Frederick Mershimer

Twelve weeks | $560. New students must add a $35 materials fee for copper plate and class materials.

Section 2:  February 1–May 2, 2012 | Wednesdays, 2:00–5:00 pm

Instructor: Vijay Kumar

Fourteen weeks | $630

Section 3:  February 3–April 27, 2012 | Fridays, 10:30 am–1:30 pm 

Instructor: Vijay Kumar

Twelve weeks | $560

For both beginners and experienced printmakers, this class will focus on traditional methods of working copper plates. Intaglio techniques include a number of rich and varied processes. The class will cover etching, drypoint, aquatint, use of soft and hard grounds, and the combination of techniques on a single plate. Printing techniques will be demonstrated, including color printing and the registration of multiple plates.

Limited to eight students

SILKSCREEN: WATER-BASED

Section 1: January 31 – April 17, 2012 | Tuesdays, 6:30 – 9:30 pm

Instructor: Margaret Nussbaum

Twelve weeks | $560

Section 2: February 2–April 19, 2012 | Thursdays, 1:00–4:00 pm

Instructor: Margaret Nussbaum

Twelve weeks | $560

Silkscreen is the ideal printmaking medium for those who enjoy experimentation and a variety of approaches to art. It is especially suitable for multi–color work. Water–based inks can be used on paper, fabric, canvas, and metal to create infinite colors, textures, and images. The course covers photo techniques, stencils, and drawing directly on the screen, and includes both monoprinting and edition printing. The prints are easy to envision and plan, as they are not reversed images. 

Limited to six students

LITHOGRAPHY

February 1–April 18 | Wednesdays, 6:30–9:30 pm

Instructor: Arnold Brooks

Twelve weeks | $570 (includes a $10 materials fee)

Lithography is the most direct form of printmaking. The immediacy of the artist’s hand is kept throughout the process. One can achieve a broad range of effects, from fine line drawing to transparent washes or deep rich areas of color. Whether you are a beginner or an experienced printmaker, this course will present the unique properties of lithography. The course covers the basic techniques of hand–drawn aluminum plates, photo–lithographic plates, and printing in both black–and–white and in color. The materials fee includes inks, mylar, and transfer paper.

Limited to six students

JAPANESE WOODBLOCK

February 23–April 12 | Thursdays, 6:30–9:30 pm

Instructor: Takuji Hamanaka

Eight weeks | $440 (includes a $20 materials fee)

Learn the basic techniques in the Japanese tradition of woodblock printmaking with water–based inks; this tradition is associated with the extraordinary lessons of design and color passed on from the earliest Ukiyo–e masters. All aspects of the process will be introduced: proper care and use of the carving tools, preparing and carving the wood blocks, and hand printing using the baren. Japanese papers, water–based pigments, and color registration are also covered in this class.

Limited to eight students

CONVERSATIONS ABOUT INK (NEW!)

February 25, 2012 | Saturday, 10:30 am–4:30 pm

Instructor:  Kathy Caraccio

$125

This one–day workshop/seminar will focus on the dynamics of intaglio and relief inks. A number of hands–on demonstrations will cover the aspects of ink itself (viscosity, tack, saturation), various ways of applying and controlling ink (rolling, carding, pochoir, à la poupée) and ways of adding to and modifying inks (oils, driers, retarders, etc.). Workshop participants are encouraged to bring any and all questions about ink. This class is designed for everyone from the beginning printmaker to the experienced artist.

Limited to eight students

REDUCTION RELIEF PRINTS: WOODCUT (NEW!)

February 27–March 26, 2012 | Mondays, 6:30–9:30 pm

Instructor: Frederick Mershimer

Five weeks | $280 (includes a $20 materials fee)

With this form of relief printmaking, participants will gain hands–on experience in all phases of creating a multi–colored print using a single block. The class will focus on how to design an image, transfer the image to the block, cut the wood, mix inks and execute the printing process. Each student will learn how to print from the etching press and also how to work at home. The class will discuss inventive traditional and non–traditional printing techniques, as well as focus on contemporary images that will be created spontaneously and directly. All levels welcome. 

Limited to eight students

OFF THE WALL: EXPERIMENTS IN PRINTMAKING (NEW!)

March 13–27, 2012 | Tuesdays, 10:30 am–4:30 pm

Instructor:  Robin Dintiman

Three weeks | $420

This class will explore alternative print materials such as fine mulberry papers, cotton batiste and silk organza as well as printing on plastics and non–traditional materials. Ad hoc methods of printing, collagraph, block and stencil techniques will be utilized. Some prior familiarity with printing is preferred.

Limited to eight students

MONOTYPE INTENSIVE

March 25 and April 1, 2012 | Sundays, 10:30 am–4:30 pm (studio use from 4:30–6:00 pm)

Instructor:  Danielle De Mers

Two weeks | $280 (includes a $10 materials fee)

Monotype combines the spontaneity of painting with the distinct qualities of a print. This intensive class will explore traditional monotype methods of image making, investigating both additive and subtractive methods of inking the plate and mark–making techniques. Works are developed on re–usable Plexiglas plates employing a wide range of materials, including rollers, brushes, stencils and other implements to impart line and texture. Also covered will be multiple printing techniques with simple registration methods and the “ghost” print. Chine collé, a way of incorporating oriental papers into the print, will also be taught. Both oil–based and water–based printing inks and water–based crayons will be used. No previous printmaking experience is necessary to enjoy monotype, though many printmakers use it to enrich existing prints and/or plates.

Limited to eight students

EXPERIMENTS IN MONOTYPE: A SOLVENT-FREE WORKSHOP (NEW!)

April 14 and 21, 2012 | Saturdays, 10:30 am–4:30 pm (studio use from 4:30–6:00 pm)

Instructor: Liz Marraffino

Two weeks, $280 (includes a $10 materials fee)

In this class we will experiment with new, oil–based but water–mixable etching inks as well as with Golden’s Open Acrylic line of paints. Unlike other monotypes or monoprints made with water–based inks and/or watercolors and wax water–soluble crayons, these prints—once dry—can be reworked and redeveloped by re–wetting the paper and enhancing the images with either the same materials or traditional oil–based printing inks, creating a complex and layered effect. The class is good for novice printmakers as well as printmakers with previous monotype experience who want to try out something new and fun. We will experiment with texture, templates, non–traditional tools and lots of imagination.

Limited to eight students

GLASSPRINTS AND CHEMIGRAMS

April 22 and 29, 2012 | Sundays, 10:30 am–4:30 pm (darkroom use from 4:30–6:00 pm)

Instructor: Douglas Collins

Two weeks | $280 (includes a $25 materials fee)

Also known as cliché–verres, glassprints have a distinguished history, from Corot and the Barbizon school through Cubism and into the present. They exist at the intersection of photography and painting: we will create them by drawing on acetate, and print them in the photographic darkroom. Glassprints can be extraordinarily expressive, producing gradations of tone unlike those in any other kind of printmaking. They are also amazingly forgiving: mistakes are just wiped off, as with monotypes, and yet the plate itself can be preserved for endless editioning. On the second day we will learn how to manipulate darkroom chemicals and certain simple resists to produce colored glassprints, called chemigrams. Here we seem to enter the world of alchemy. Also discussed will be printing strategies, advanced topics, and exhibition venues. No prior experience necessary. 

Limited to five students


MONOTYPE INTENSIVE

March 25 and April 1, 2012 | Sundays, 10:30 am–4:30 pm (studio use from 4:30–6:00 pm)

Instructor:  Danielle De Mers

Two weeks | $280 (includes a $10 materials fee)

Monotype combines the spontaneity of painting with the distinct qualities of a print. This intensive class will explore traditional monotype methods of image making, investigating both additive and subtractive methods of inking the plate and mark–making techniques. Works are developed on re–usable Plexiglas plates employing a wide range of materials, including rollers, brushes, stencils and other implements to impart line and texture. Also covered will be multiple printing techniques with simple registration methods and the “ghost” print. Chine collé, a way of incorporating oriental papers into the print, will also be taught. Both oil–based and water–based printing inks and water–based crayons will be used. No previous printmaking experience is necessary to enjoy monotype, though many printmakers use it to enrich existing prints and/or plates.

Limited to eight students

INSTRUCTORS

Arnold Brooks has printed at a number of NYC print shops, including Solo Impressions, John Nichols Publishers, and Derriere L’Etoile. His work is included in the collections of the Brooklyn Museum, Appalachian State Art Department, the Miami Art Museum, and Florida Center for the Arts.

Kathy Caraccio has taught printmaking at Columbia University, New York University, Pratt Institute, the Art Students League, and Parsons the New School for Design. She is currently an instructor at the National Academy of Design and teaches an off–site program in New York City for students of Coe College in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and Lewis & Clark College in Oregon. In the last nine years, her studio has shifted from its earlier focus on collaborative plate–making and editioning to non–acid plate–making and monotype projects using non–traditional techniques, including pochoir, silk aquatint, and hanga (Japanese water–based woodblock printing). Among the artists Kathy has editioned for are Ed Baynard, Romare Bearden, Mel Bochner, Sol LeWitt, and Louise Nevelson.

Douglas Collins is a painter and printmaker. He has worked as a photographer, urban designer, oceanographer, and instructor in physics. He is an award–winning art filmmaker. His work was called “dazzling” by Life magazine.

Danielle De Mers is a painter and printmaker and long–time member of Manhattan Graphics Center. Her prints and paintings have been exhibited in Europe and the United States, and are included in collections throughout the country.

Robin Dintiman works in sculpture, printmaking, drawing, and collage. Her work has been exhibited in venues throughout the country, and is included in the permanent collections of the Philadelphia Art Museum, the National Museum for Women in the Arts, the Little Rock Art Museum, and the Chrysler Museum.

Takuji Hamanaka is a printmaker and painter. He has trained as a traditional Japanese woodblock printer and has worked in studios in Japan and the U.S. He has taught at the Center for Book Arts in New York and at the Connecticut Graphic Arts Center.

Vijay Kumar has shown his drawings, prints, and paintings in the U.S. and abroad. He has worked extensively in printmaking techniques, and his prints are included in the collections of the N.Y. Public Library, the Museum of Modern Art in New York, and the Brooklyn Museum, among others.

Liz Marraffino is a painter and printmaker who has previously taught at the Crafts Student’s League of the YWCA, The Greenwich Village Center of Children’s Aid Society, and the 14th St. YM–YWCA. She currently teaches Creative Painting at the JCC Manhattan where she also runs workshops in water–based media, Impressionist painting techniques, and approaches to abstraction in art.

Frederick Mershimer’s prints are in the collections of the Whitney Museum, the Brooklyn Museum, the Fogg Museum, the Corcoran Gallery, the Smithsonian Institution, and many others. A catalogue raisonné of his mezzotints, spanning the years 1984 through 2006, was published in 2007.

Margaret Nussbaum is a silkscreen printer, lithographer, and painter. She has exhibited her work in group shows throughout New York State, most recently in a two–person show at the Garrison Art Center. She is a founding member of MGC.

David Thomas is a ceramist, painter, and printmaker. His work has been exhibited in the U.S., India, and Japan, and is included in the collections of the Library of Congress, Anheuser-Busch, and a number of private collections in the U.S., Europe and Japan.