otis college of art and design

The art of screen printing /  by kelly heaton

Imagine Andy Warhol with computer graphics software and an expanded palette of ink -- contemporary screen printing is a powerful medium for translating digital images into physical works of art.

I learned to screen print during my 2017 summer residency at Otis College of Art and Design in Los Angeles. Lucky me -- printmaking is a fantastic way to make digital art tangible. Unfortunately, mechanical reproduction has muddied public perception of "printmaking." Industrial printing and artist printmaking are entirely different things -- machines pump out copies that are all the same, whereas artists have their hand and eye in every step of the image creation. Each print is hand-made and original. 

My screen printing process begins with a digital master file that I separate into singe color layers. Sometimes, I make my layers using traditional CMYK separation. Other times, I manually trace or filter areas of the image for "spot color" printing. Printing a spot color means to choose a color for aesthetic reasons (as opposed to compositing photographic realism). This is how I add visual effects that are more painterly, and it's how I print an adhesive layer for metallic foil. In contrast, traditional CMYK printing (think magazine and newsprint) relies on specific combinations of ink, transparency, and half-tone angles. I like to combine both methods -- traditional CMYK and spot colors. I enjoy mixing silk screen, digital printing, and painting, but this post will focus on screen printing only.

Once I have teased apart the different color layers of my image, I convert each layer to grayscale, adjust for contrast, and convert to half-tone. A half-toned image is made of tiny dots that give the illusion of grayscale (or printed color value) according to the density of the dots. Each half-toned layer corresponds with a single screen. Using a special inkjet printer with opaque black ink, I print my digital image onto transparency film and use it to burn my screen. (Note that it can be confusing to tell layers apart after they have been converted to black and white, so I always mark the file name on the edge. Sometimes, artifacts from my transparency labels will appear in the borders of my prints.)

Below are the seven different transparencies that I used to burn screens for Transhuman Goalie (2017), 1st edition.

Master file for Transhuman Goalie (2017). This multi-layered Adobe Photoshop image was used to create seven half-tone transparencies. What you see here is a composite of all of the digital image layers in CMYK bitmap format.

Master file for Transhuman Goalie (2017). This multi-layered Adobe Photoshop image was used to create seven half-tone transparencies. What you see here is a composite of all of the digital image layers in CMYK bitmap format.

With my screens burned, it is time to register my image. Depending upon what I'm trying to do, registration can be tedious and time-consuming. I'll use a reference print on acetate as well as pins and tabs - the later being my new favorite technique for printing multiples. I invite a little misalignment because it adds visual interest that you don't see in a machine print or photograph. Shifts in registration can also suggest movement or vibration if done intentionally.

Next I mix my ink. For CMYK, I add a lot of transparent base and do tests to evaluate the additive print effect. I treat spot colors like paint. I like the opacity of Super Cover textile inks by Permaset. Otherwise, Speedball works well for transparent layers. I use water-based ink for environmental reasons. I put a little retarder (<5%) in everything.

Now it's time to print. For CMYK, I start with yellow and proceed to the progressively darker colors (magenta, cyan, and black). The ink has to dry between each print layer, so I use this time to clean my screen and equipment. I also use drying time to remove the stencil from my screen, reapply emulsion, and burn the screen with a different image layer. Screen printing involves careful planning and multi-tasking because there's no time to dawdle when the screen is flooded with ink (it dries rapidly and clogs the mesh).

Thank you to everyone who has helped me learn the art of screen printing: Nick Mohammed, Charles William Carroll, Jamie Russom (all at Otis) and Carolyn Hartmann of Open Studio DC. Thank you to Creative Capital, Ronald Feldman Fine Arts, Otis College of Art and Design, and David Burns for your generous financial support. Thanks also to Juliana Coles for your studio camaraderie during our learning process!

The Raft of Medusa /  by kelly heaton

"The Raft of Medusa"&nbsp;(1 in a series of 5 unique works), 2017. 39.5" x 54.25"&nbsp;Archival inkjet print, silk screen, and acrylic on canvas

"The Raft of Medusa" (1 in a series of 5 unique works), 2017. 39.5" x 54.25" Archival inkjet print, silk screen, and acrylic on canvas

I created five unique versions of this print during my summer residency at Otis College of Art and Design. This work was made possible thanks to support from Creative Capital, Otis College of Art and Design, Ronald Feldman Fine Arts, and volunteer models. "The Raft of Medusa" (1 of 5) will be donated to the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation 2017 auction to raise money for environmental defense and climate change activism. For more information about the auction, please contact Lisa at Schiff Fine Art (info@schifffineart.com or (646) 478-8561). For more information about other prints in this series of 5, please contact Marco Nocella at Ronald Feldman Fine Arts (marco@feldmangallery.com or 212-226-3232).

BACKGROUND

Painted in 1818-1819, Théodore Géricault’s “The Raft of the Medusa” is a masterpiece of human error, desperation, and resilience. I recreated this legendary artwork for the purpose of climate change activism. I used a raft made of trash, rising ocean levels, and a carbon-saturated atmosphere to situate 21st century people adrift on a dangerous sea that they largely ignore. One occupant of the raft looks distressed, but the others are preoccupied with their cells phones or focused on other people. My message is reinforced with sea snakes and electrical cords that remind us of Medusa, the mythological woman who was cursed by Athena for her insufferable vanity.

Above: details from The Raft of Medusa (1 of 5), 2017.
Below: Images from my process of creating "The Raft of Medusa" series of 5 unique prints. The first three images show the raft that I built from trash collected in Los Angeles. The people are volunteers who came separately to be photographed on the raft. Using Photoshop, I collaged everyone into a single, coherent composition that I printed onto canvas using an Epson archival inkjet printer. Next, I created films for each design and color layer of silk screen. I burned a series of screens that I used to print "spot colors" of designs onto the canvas that add depth and texture to the rising ocean, the carbon-saturated sky, the electrical cords, and the serpents of Medusa. I screen-printed onto my inkjet print because I wanted to make nature and electricity literally encroach upon the raft and its occupants - who represent all of human civilization. Sadly, humanity is largely self-absorbed and unresponsive to the crisis of climate change. 

Above top row: three volunteers from the community of Otis College of Art and Design who individually posed for The Raft of Medusa (2017)
Above middle row (left to right): my digital master file, selecting negatives for burning screens, applying photo emulsion to a silk screen. Photos of me working on the piece are courtesy of Antonia Jones of Los Angeles.
Above bottom row (left to right): rinsing my screen to reveal an image, registering my canvas prior to printing, pulling ink through the screen to print on the canvas. Photos courtesy of Antonia Jones of Los Angeles.