Michelle Lee - Printmaker

"A Ghostly Reminder" - Screenprint

Michelle Lee

Name: Michelle Lee

City/State: Minneapolis, MN

Email: michelle@angrypeanut.org

Website: www.angrypeanut.org

MNartist.org profile: www.mnartists.org/Michelle_Lee

Bio~ 

I discovered screenprinting while earning my Post-Baccalaureate Certificate in graphic design at MCAD. I just fell in love with it. Now, I screenprint and do some relief and letterpress printing. For my day job, I work as a book designer at Free Spirit Publishing, and I feel so lucky to have a creative job. I also teach in the Continuing Studies department at MCAD (I'm the teaching assistant for the Open Edition Printmaking Seminar and I teach the "Digital Goes Analog" class). I've also taught several DIY screenprinting workshops. My work has been shown locally, but mostly I like just making it and giving it away!

"Cornfed" - Screenprint

Tell me about your work? What are you currently working on? How is this different from past projects?

I'm a printmaker who focuses primarily on screenprinting, though I've been doing more relief (linoleum cut and letterpress) lately as well. I try to have several projects going at once, and I work on things that make me happy, or inspired, or angry. If there's no emotion behind it, there's no drive to get the work done! I recently finished a signage series, where I photographed lots of signage and screenprinted each one small, in kind of a postcard style, with a similar palette and a lot of detail. 

Right now I'm working on a "Perfect Moments" series, which are somewhat-degraded photographs of the moments in your life when you're supposed to be happiest, but when that pressure is often enough to make it quite the opposite experience. This work is fairly different from the signage pieces because the "Perfect Moments" are brightly-colored and also more abstract. 

I'm also starting to work much larger, and my three new bike pieces, "The First Commute of Winter," "You Spin Me Right Round," and "A Ghostly Reminder," are my first forays into large prints. ("You Spin Me Right Round" uses 7" records in the print, which is something I'd like to do more often.) I'm planning a few more large prints to be completed soon. Working large is such a different experience—since I pull all my prints by hand, it uses different muscle memory and different techniques. It forces me to work in new ways, which is good.

Finally, I'm trying to do more drawing-based screenprints and loose screenprints using tools like waxed paper for quick and abstract stencils. This is pretty much the opposite of my highly detailed, controlled signage work and it's a lot of fun.

"Perfect Moments Series: Birthday," screenprint

How did you decide to become an artist?

I think I was about 5 or 6 and drawing with my grandfather... some of my favorite childhood memories were of making art with him. As far back as I can remember, I've always known I'd pursue visual art in some way.

What was the best advice given to you as an artist? 

"This isn't working. Start again from scratch." 

When I was in design school, this was advice given to me by an instructor 2 days before a major deadline. Frustrating to hear at the time, but it turned out to be fantastic advice! Today, if I'm futzing and futzing with a piece and can't get it to work, I'll still often scrap it and start over. I sometimes take a deep breath and advise students to do that as well.

"Tomatoes: Before and Tomatoes: After" (diptych), screenprint

Many artists struggle to find ways to sell their art.  How do you sell your work?  How do you market yourself?

Can "badly" be an answer here? :) Honestly, this is something I need to be better about. Most of my marketing comes from word of mouth and having some of my work in local galleries like Altered Esthetics. When I was in the State Fair art show last year, that was terrific for many reasons, one of them being marketing. I also have small work (like cards) at the Grand Hand Gallery and Design Collective, which is really fantastic - I like those stores a lot. Sometime soon, I also want to put some small work on Etsy.

How do you come up with ideas for your work?

For some reason, being in motion is a great idea generator. I tend to come up with my best ideas while riding my bike. The lightrail or city buses can also be great places to come up with ideas and sketches for projects. If I'm ever stuck, I'll typically take my bike out and ride until I come up with a solution!

"First Commute of Winter" -Screenprint

What's inspiring you right now?

Bikes and gardening. I know, I know, everyone's thinking about those things now that it's spring, but I've been planning out my garden in InDesign since January!

Who are some of the Minnesota artists you enjoy?

You know, I'm always getting inspired by local artists, but I'm terrible with names! Some of the artists who have a large body of work that I love are Aesthetic Apparatus (aestheticapparatus.com), Amy Rice (www.amyrice.com), and Faye Passow (www.fayepassow.com), whose very witty works always make me laugh. I'm often inspired by work that the Continuing Studies printmaking students at MCAD produce, too.

If I were to follow you around to see art in Minnesota, which places would we go? What would we see?

We'd start in the Warehouse and North Loop Districts of Downtown Minneapolis, looking at all the old signage, especially the old hand-painted, partly-faded signs on the brick facades. I know it's not "technically" art, but being a graphic designer, I absolutely love old signage. The old hand-painted fonts are incredible, and the textures they have when they're old and peeling are so compelling!

From there, we'd stop at the Minnesota Center for Book Arts (www.mnbookarts.org), where there's always certain to be something amazing in the display case and the gallery. We'd have to make a stop at the Minneapolis Institute of Art (artsmia.org) to look at the screenprints and Japanese art. As long as we were in South Minneapolis, we should definitely look at all the murals, especially in the Corcoran neighborhood. We'd swing through Northeast to check out some of the small galleries (like Altered Esthetics, www.alteredesthetics.com), and if there was time, we'd drive out to some old small towns in rural Minnesota to check out the old buildings and old signage there. And then we'd be tired.

"Don't Mourn, Organize!," screenprint

In addition to www.Local-Artist-Interviews.com, where do you go online for good art resources, whether to find a new artist, or to see what is going on in the art world locally and otherwise? 

My consumption of the Internet can be kind of random, but here are some sites I use:

www.mnartists.org

www.printmag.com

www.mnbookarts.org

mapcblog.wordpress.com

. .. and I hate to admit it, but facebook.com

Michelle Lee

Do you have any exhibits to promote in the near future?

I'll have one of my new pieces, "A Ghostly Reminder," at the Altered Esthetics Bike Art VII show in June. The opening is June 1, 2012.

I also had some work in the Casket Arts Building during Art-A-Whirl in the Vesper College space.

I'll have work in an upcoming exhibit at the Minnesota Center for Book Arts titled "Under Pressure," too. The dates aren't set in stone, but it should be in the late summer/early fall.

Michelle Lee is the Altered Esthetics 

Featured Artist for "Bike Art Vll"

Opening Reception:
Friday, June 1, 7pm-10pm
Artists’ Discussion:
Saturday, June 16th, 1pm-3pm 

Laura Brown - Printmaker / Book Artist

Laura Brown

SpotArt Gallery Featured Interview

~Laura Brown is exhibiting at SpotArt from 11/19/10 - 12/15/10~

Laura Brown

www.laurabrownart.com

laurabrownart@gmail.com

Bio~
Laura Brown is a printmaker and book artist in Northeast Minneapolis. Interested in the relationships between space, place, and the people in them, she has created a visual language of landscape and architecture to address her questions of place, culture and environment.

Tell me about your work? What are you currently working on? How is this different from past projects?
I just finished a residency at the Minnesota Center for Book Arts, where I made my first artist’s book. It was much more intense than making prints, and it sort of took over my life for several months. Since then, I’ve had some more ideas that I have wanted to get out a little more quickly, so my newest little set of prints are some monoprints printed from woodblocks. They are a lot more simple than most of my work, but I wanted to get back to the things I like about making prints: the ink, the grain of the wood, the colors, the forms. It has been good to experiment with that a little more, and to put out ideas that might not be complete or perfect, but are out in the world.

Why did you become an artist?
I have never wanted to do anything else, really. Art was always my favorite subject in school, and when I went to college, my mom strongly encouraged me to pursue it. I have never regretted it.

What was the best advice given to you as an artist?
In one of my first days of drawing classes at college, my professor, Ken Steinbach said, “everything I’ve gotten in my art career, I’ve gotten from working hard.” Of course, as a little, very nervous college freshman, this was the best news. I was probably doubting my talent at that moment, but I knew I could work hard, so I thought, “that’s what I’ll do then.” It’s been true.

Recently (or not so recently? Maybe last winter?), someone on twitter was referring to criticism with the reaction of “put your head down, get back to work.” That phrase has been really helpful to me as I have been applying to all kinds of opportunities in the last year. I think if you are going to succeed as an artist, you have to have a really thick skin, and you can’t let rejection get to you—because you will get rejected a LOT. But eventually, you’ll start getting accepted for things and build momentum. So, that wasn’t particularly advice, maybe just a phrase I co-opted to apply to my situation. But it helps!

Tell me about your working space and your creative process?
I share a studio with two other artists, Devon Driscoll , who is a jeweler, and Mel Benkert, a sculptor. We share a space in what is probably the smallest and least assuming building in Northeast. It’s a pretty raw space, but it is big and has a lot of light, which make me happy.

My process is pretty internal, I would say. I don’t plan or sketch a lot, although I feel like I am supposed to. I let things simmer in my mind for a long time, and I take a lot of photos with my little digital camera when I see something inspiring, and then when I have a pretty good idea of what I want to make, I just go for it with the printmaking materials. To get my compositions and forms down, I will cut shapes out of newsprint or brown paper, trace them onto my wood blocks or metal plates, and then let the process take over. Printmaking is a long process and each printmaker exerts a varying amount of control over the medium. I like to let the process surprise me a lot, and my prints often turn out different than I think they will, but it’s usually a really good thing—they are usually better or more interesting than I could have planned.

Which Minnesota artists do you enjoy?
Josie Lewis and

Caroline Kent are two friends whose work I really admire.

I love Nadine Gross’ polaroids and

Laura Hallen’s plexiboxes

If I were to follow you around on an “art day” in Minnesota, which places would we go? What would we see?
We would probably hit the usual spots—the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, if we go tomorrow, we would go see the Alec Soth show at the Walker Art Center, we might stop in at the Minnesota Center for Book Arts, I might take you to see Bridget and Amanda at Cave Paper. I always like a good trip to the Franconia Sculpture Park. We might also just ride the light rail, or maybe the North Star train to see some interesting industrial parts of town or some fields and farms. Getting out of my rut and routine doesn’t happen very often, but it’s always good to see something new.

Where do you go online for good art resources, whether to find a new artist, or to see what is going on in the art world locally and otherwise?
I have been hiding from the internet lately, working toward some deadlines, and I feel like arty Facebook events are always popping up in my inbox. www.mplsart.com has a great calendar of events, I usually find something good on there. I like to keep an eye on what’s going on at Umber Studios, and I Like You.

Do you have any exhibits or any interesting things going on in your life or coming up in the near future? (November 2010)
My work will be on display at SpotArt for the next month, and the book I made this summer was just purchased by the Hennepin County Library’s Special Collections, which is pretty exciting. I hesitate to verbalize my plans for applying to grad school, but that’s my main focus right now. Once those deadlines are past, I’m working on getting some non-printmakers to collaborate with me for some projects, and I’m thinking about how to get more young artists connected to people who are interested in collecting work and supporting local artists.