Students signing up for Ed Garcia’s Printmaking I and II courses are always pleasantly surprised to learn that they aren’t going to spend an entire semester making posters or learning about making rubber stamps.

“There is so much more to the craft of printmaking than most people know and my students get really excited about the class once I get rid of their initial misconceptions,” said Ed Garcia, Art instructor at STC. “Printmaking has to be the most unique of all visual art forms. During the course, students learn to craft original art works in an original base – we work with wood at STC – and they use their skills and knowledge to create multiple impressions of the work. We look for consistency at first and then allow students to experiment with different colors and adding additional materials. It’s a very democratic art form in the sense that it can be shared with anyone and appreciated by many rather than a select few.”

“The practice of reproducing artwork through engravings or woodcuts started to become common around the 16th century,” added Garcia. “Its popularity grew because it allowed people to collect works of art by famous artists since not everyone could afford them. If we can’t afford to buy an original Vincent van Gogh painting, we can afford to buy a poster reproduction of one, for example. Printmaking was not seriously considered a fine art until arguably the 20th Century when Paul Gauguin, a French artist, began making totally original art with woodcut printmaking. Soon after, the woodcut print became the medium of choice for the early German Expressionists. “

Printmaking II student and Art major Rena Montalvo was recently working on her print portfolio for her final exam. Bent on the floor, she showed how the exact and intricate carving in the wood took form and turned into a masterpiece on print.

“You choose your brick of wood based on the size you are selecting for your artwork and you just start the carving process,” said Montalvo showing off her carving of a doll’s face. “I worked on this piece for about three hours and then I ran a print of it and determined where I needed to make changes and I spent another four or more hours perfecting it. Now I’m just experimenting with different colors and effects.”

Zeneth Ramirez, a student in the Printmaking I class and also an Art major shyly showed the prints from her collection of pictures, ranging in subject from a cowboy to her sleeping son to studies of the female form.

“I am inspired mostly by the female form because it represents life and beauty and I relate to that being a woman and a mother,” admitted Ramirez. “I like this art form because it’s very unique, but it also requires a lot of patience. It’s fun and challenging at the same time. I don’t know if I will be an art teacher or take some other job in the art world, but I am thankful to understand this art form and this is a skill not everyone will have.”

Another Printmaking I student, Emmanuel Arambula, was carving a very imaginative scene featuring a mushroom to prepare his portfolio.

“I really thought this class was going to be all about making posters, but it’s much more than that – it’s a real challenge,” he said. “I will continue to work on carvings in the future, but I hope that I will also get to work in more advance medium like metal, using drills. I would like to see where it would take my imagination and art.”

“I am so proud of my students because they work hard and let their imaginations flow free,” said Garcia. “Their work is actually very professional and whether or not they continue their work in the printmaking craft, I know that the fact that they have each mastered the skill and understand its history and evolution helps them to understand the value of the work. It gives them a skill and knowledge that few others possess.”            

STC will be offering Printmaking I and II in the spring 2007 semester. For more information about these courses or the Art Department at South Texas College, please contact Ed Garcia at egarcia@southtexascollege.edu.

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