Stop 2

Virtual World Tour 2021 Demonstration 2

Alberta Printmakiers, Calgary, Alberta, Canada

Duration: 77 minutes

Non-Traditional Photopolymer with Kate Baillies

Kate Baillies came to Zea Mays Printmaking as an Artist in Residence for the first time in 2016 and has returned every year since (except for the Covid year of 2020). During each of her residencies, Kate embedded herself deeply into the ZMP community while she explored etching, monoprint and photopolymer processes for her various print and artist book projects. After each residency, Kate returned to Calgary, Canada to share what she had learned and discovered with her own printmaking community, Alberta Printmakers, who were eager to shift to safer and more sustainable practices. Kate’s a dedicated researcher and digs in deep when she wants to understand a process or develop a new technique.

Kate’s demonstration takes a walk on the spontaneous side as she guides us through the process of how to create painterly, richly textured images directly on a photopolymer plate. She covers the stages of photopolymer plate preparation, making an image by drawing and making texture directly on the prepared plate, and the development of the image through light exposure and water wash out. There are also some fun options for introducing drawing and texture after the development stage of the image which she introduces.

It's exciting to see her discoveries around direct drawing on Photopolymer plates and to visit Alberta Printmaker’s recently renovated studio. A/P is located in a culturally vibrant city and a beautiful part of the world. Mohkinstisis (the Blackfoot name for Calgary) is situated at the confluence of the Bow and Elbow Rivers - the vast prairie opens out to the east and the Rocky Mountains (and Banff!) rise just an hour drive to the west.

This live demo and studio tour is presented from the "small but mighty" Alberta Printmakers Society Studio located in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. As a not-for-profit, artist-run center, A/P has inspired artistic growth and fostered engagement with local, national and international communities through its gallery and programming from its inception in 1989. Instructors at A/P have been educating its members and the public on safer printmaking techniques and products since shifting to safe and sustainable printmaking practices in 2017.