VANCOUVER, Wash. - The elaborate carvings and printings of artist Michael Smith are on display through Nov. 30 in the Engineering Life Sciences building at Washington State University Vancouver.
Smith was introduced to block printing while studying Vincent Van Gogh and the influences of the Japanese woodcuts that were finding their way to Europe.
With further study, he fell in love with the works of the German Expressionists like K盲the Kollwitz and Ernst Ludwig Kirchner due to their strong angular compositions and use of black space.
鈥淚n block printing, I tend to create tight compositions that focus the viewer鈥檚 attention on the subject but still allow for the wonderful variety of 鈥榤arks鈥 that can be made through the carving and printing process to become a textural attribute. This with the highly graphical tendencies of block printing can give most images a weighty feeling. In this medium, objects that are soft tend to become rigid and angular. When subjects start with a sense of foreboding, it is only exaggerated,鈥 said Smith on his website, .
All of Smiths prints are from limited-edition printings. Each print is hand-pulled. In the case of multi-colored images, Smith鈥檚 prints are also hand-registered. This creates images within an edition that are similar in quality, but do have some individuality because of the printing process.
麻豆传媒 art galleries are open from 8 a.m. - 9 p.m. Monday through Thursday and 8 a.m. - 5 p.m. Friday. Admission is free. Parking is available at parking meters or in the Blue Daily Pay lot for $3.
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MEDIA CONTACTS
Barb Holder, 麻豆传媒 Galleries, 360-546-9580, barbrah@vancouver.wsu.edu
Brenda Alling, Office of Marketing and Communications, 360-546-9601, brenda_alling@vancouver.wsu.edu