Printmaking Techniques on Display at WSU Vancouver

VANCOUVER, Wash. — A collection of limited-edition screen prints from artist Sue Allen will be on display in the Washington State University Vancouver Student Services Building gallery Sept. 1 through Oct. 31.

Screen printing is a printing process in which ink is applied to material (paper, silk, etc.) by pressing the ink through a screen. The size and spacing of the screen openings determines the amount of ink applied and, hence, the visual effect achieved.

Allen has been screen-printing for many years. Her limited-edition screen prints and cards are distinctive, detailed and colorful. Her artistic directions range from nature and organic order to abstraction and geometry. Her work tends to veer repeatedly toward the Japanese aesthetic and is inspired by tradition, nature and imagination.

Allen received a bachelor’s degree in architecture from The Cooper Union in New York. Upon graduating from college, she worked in New York and Vermont before moving to Oregon in 1975. Currently, she lives in the foothills of Mount Hood, and several of her pieces exhibit nature in this region. Allen’s award-winning work is exhibited in many shops and galleries locally and nationally.

The group exhibition from Print Arts Northwest will continue to be on display in the Engineering Life Sciences Building through Sept. 30. An original print is a work of art intended for reproduction. The works in this exhibition are each the product of the artist, from inception through completion of either hand printing or the use of an etching or lithography press. The pieces in the exhibit include a range of Print Arts Northwest members incorporating various techniques: lithograph, serigraph (screen print), relief (woodblock, woodcut, wood engraving or linoleum), intaglio (etching, engraving, drypoint, mezzotint, aquatint, collagraph, vitreograph, monotype) and monoprint.

For more than 20 years, Print Arts Northwest has supported contemporary printmaking by promoting the practice, appreciation and collection of original prints through exhibitions and educational programs. The company boasts membership of more than 150 artists from Oregon, Washington, Alaska, Idaho, Hawaii, Montana, Alberta and British Columbia. For more information, visit www.printartsnw.org.

Entry to campus exhibits is free. WSU Vancouver galleries are open from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Thursday and 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday. WSU Vancouver is located at 14204 N.E. Salmon Creek Ave., east of the 134^th Street exit from either I-5 or I-205. Parking is available at parking meters or in the blue lot for $2.