Thursday we had a visiting artist in our printmaking class.  Jacqueline Barrett who does amazing lithography, silk screening and photogravure work, mostly utilizing fragments of text and forms of her own creation. She works mostly with photo mechanical processes which lends itself well to working with type but with the richness and strength that only screened color and litho black can give. She went through some of her work and how she approaches pieces both conceptually and technically and answered questions about her process. She also talked a little about how initially she met some resistance from professors and others when she wanted to work with type in fine art printing. Now its not even a question if thats valid but it is important to acknowledge the constraints and expectations around art that are always being broken and redefined by people not doing what they're told.

I loved seeing the way she addressed text as I am working on a print piece now that is text-based. Seeing a word, raised off a sheet of paper in tangible black ink, or as relief in a field of plate tone gives it a physical presence and power I am interested in looking at.