Printmaking is the convergence of sculpture and painting. It appeals to many artists, like Colleen Thomas, 26, of Fairbanks, through the requisite visual and tactile involvement of the artist during the process.
Thomas started this particular print with a photograph taken by a friend when they were on vacation. She admired the stark and graphic lines of Westminster Abbey and wanted to make them her own.
The Abbey took Thomas an entire semester. First she spent time sketching the image and then she had to decide what she should carve out of the linoleum after each successive layer of paint, from lightest to darkest. She went to press five times with her representation of the famous gothic church.
Thomas fluctuates the hues and makes color choices by mixing paint together until she feels she has it just right. The complexity and number of steps involved in creating prints makes fledgling artist wary. Thomas credits her helpful professors and supportive family with much of her success, going as far as to equate her understanding of printmaking with the gradual process of a child learning to write.
"Its like in writing, I feel like I've just learned my letters," Thomas said. "My first semester in print making was terrible. But if you don't get discouraged by the outcomes and you get the techniques down you can work on the end result."
