What is the curatorial imperative? By incorporating curation into studio practice, artists understand the context for placing new combinations into the world. Collecting, archiving and critical analysis of source material will develop a philosophy of stewardship. Central questions about printmaking as a crucial core for many disciplines that incorporate the relation between matrix and formed object, layers, reversals, positive and negative and replication of original and appropriated media will provide a structure. The state of print publishing, art fairs and current curatorial literature will inform ongoing discussion.

Enrollment is limited to Graduate Printmaking Students.

Major Requirement | MFA Printmaking

Students in the graduate printmaking program will utilize graduate level research and scholarship as an impetus for growth within studio practice. Investigation into historical cycles of printmaking will be fostered through assigned texts and exploration of primary resources available at RISD, especially The RISD Museum. A dialogue stemming from intensive studio work will be developed in varied formats by faculty, visiting artists and peers throughout the semester.

Major Requirement | MFA Printmaking

This course will introduce students to contemporary letterpress printing. While keeping the broad historical role of letterpress printing in mind, the course will allow students to use the various incarnations of letterpress printing to further their own work. The focus of the course will be learning to print, and print well, how to troubleshoot on the Vandercook proof press, and exploring how the different approaches, processes, papers, and techniques effect and direct the finished work. The course will begin with an overview of letterpress printing history and its relation to the evolution of typography, and its major impact on, and reaction to, societal change. We will first focus on setting and printing from handset type, and more traditional image making techniques (read: Linocuts!), and then introduce digital images through the use of polymer plates. Once the basics of the process have been covered, the focus will be on students using the techniques and processes to further their own work, and the creation of a final project using any of the techniques as appropriate to the piece.

Estimated Cost of Materials: $100.00

Elective

This course will introduce students to contemporary letterpress printing. While keeping the broad historical role of letterpress printing in mind, the course will allow students to use the various incarnations of letterpress printing to further their own work. The focus of the course will be learning to print, and print well, how to troubleshoot on the Vandercook proof press, and exploring how the different approaches, processes, papers, and techniques effect and direct the finished work. The course will begin with an overview of letterpress printing history and its relation to the evolution of typography, and its major impact on, and reaction to, societal change. We will first focus on setting and printing from handset type, and more traditional image making techniques (read: Linocuts!), and then introduce digital images through the use of polymer plates. Once the basics of the process have been covered, the focus will be on students using the techniques and processes to further their own work, and the creation of a final project using any of the techniques as appropriate to the piece.

Estimated Cost of Materials: $100.00

Elective

This course will focus on book binding methods including, but not limited to stab binding, Coptic stitch, variations on the pamphlet stitch, drum leaf, and books sewn through the fold. Through weekly demonstrations and assignments, students will acquire skills in both adhesive and non-adhesive binding as well as basic box making techniques. The course places a focus on facilitating individual practice in the form of books, and the integration of binding methods learned in class into one's personal artistic process. At the end of the semester, students will have thorough understanding of the anatomy of books, how to make them, how to plan and execute their own design, and where to acquire materials and tools. There will be opportunities to view books from the RISD Special Collections and critical discussions surrounding the functions of book making in contemporary practice.

Estimated Cost of Materials: $175.00

Elective

Make you own paper for printing or three-dimensional constructions in this hand on experimental studio course in making paper. Curriculum will include: paper specifications, basic sheet formation, Japanese Plant fibers, recycled materials, paper modules and screens, along with paper structures for installation based work.

Estimated Cost of Materials: $175.00

Elective

Make you own paper for printing or three-dimensional constructions in this hand on experimental studio course in making paper. Curriculum will include: paper specifications, basic sheet formation, Japanese Plant fibers, recycled materials, paper modules and screens, along with paper structures for installation based work.

Estimated Cost of Materials: $175.00

Elective

This course primarily involves the search for a personal, idiosyncratic visual statement. Juniors will refine technical application, engage in experimentation and study historical/contemporary artists and movements as the course progresses from scheduled project orientation to more independent bodies of work involving printmaking and its combinations with other mediums. Installation and presentation of work created will be analyzed as a critical component. This course will encompass oral discussion and presentations. Critiques will be frequent, in individual and group format including a group mid-term critique and end of semester critique that includes an invited, guest critic. In addition to the visual component of the course, instruction in seminar form will comprise visual artist professional practice methods that involve resume, cover letter, and employment application. Presentation of work in gallery, museum and professional interaction formats will also be part of the course.

Estimated Cost of Materials: $100.00

Major Requirement | BFA Printmaking

What is the place of printmaking in the art-world and the world at large today? Central questions about printmaking as a crucial core for many disciplines that incorporate the relation between matrix and formed object, layers, reversals, positive and negative, the replication of original and appropriated media will provide a structure. The state of print publishing, art fairs and current critical literature will inform ongoing discussions, research, and presentations.

Major Requirement | MFA Printmaking

This class will utilize relief as a means of developing personal imagery. Wood engraving, reduction and multi-block techniques shown. The responsibility of direction, and problem solving will shift to the student as initial assignments proceed into more independent projects. Individual critiques will occur throughout the term, at mid-term and final week.

Estimated Cost of Materials: $100.00

This course is a requirement for Sophomore Printmaking Students.

Major Requirement | BFA Printmaking

This class will utilize relief as a means of developing personal imagery. Wood engraving, reduction and multi-block techniques shown. The responsibility of direction, and problem solving will shift to the student as initial assignments proceed into more independent projects. Individual critiques will occur throughout the term, at mid-term and final week.

Estimated Cost of Materials: $100.00

Elective

This course provides the printmaking major the opportunity to work closely with Printmaking faculty on a concentrated and advanced basis beyond study in a print elective course. Focus on the development of printmaking related work prior to the Degree Project, relying primarily on individual and group critiques, will culminate in the Degree Project Proposal-foundation for both the Written Thesis and Degree Project body of work that is the focus of Spring Semester for senior printmakers.

Estimated Cost of Materials: $200.00

Open to Senior Printmaking Students.

Major Requirement | BFA Printmaking

Intaglio Projects allows both experienced and beginning printmakers to delve into the process of developing an image from painting on paper into printing in color. The class will be driven by guided in-class work time, demonstrations of beginner etching techniques, color theory in printmaking, and in-depth conversations about each student’s methods and ideas.

Students will learn various ways of building an image in layers. They will consider how to incorporate chance, experimentation, and improvisation into printmaking, and how this approach can broaden each artist’s individual language. They will also gain an understanding of how overlapping, interlocking layers of imagery can introduce depth and meaning into an image. 

Coursework will cover multi-plate intaglio, with an emphasis on image development through watercolor, pastel and other kinds of painting. The semester will culminate in a self-directed final project which includes studies, state proofs, color proofs, and an edition of prints. 

Elective

Advanced relief will give students the chance to further explore a variety of relief techniques, with a critical emphasis on developing meaningful imagery both in design and in execution. In depth assignments will be in both western and eastern techniques, working both spontaneously and with considered planning. All assigned prints will be editioned, culminating in the production of a multiple print portfolio and or bound book in collaboration with a contemporary writer. This class is an advanced elective for undergraduate and graduate students. Estimated Materials Cost: $175.00 Major elective Open to non-majors as an elective by permission of Instructor.

The Degree Project involves a semester of guided, but essentially independent study to test the student's ability to design and successfully complete a substantial, comprehensive body of work. A Degree Project Proposal is submitted at the end of Wintersession in February. Each senior's body of work is ultimately presented in a Printmaking Degree Project Exhibition in the Woods-Gerry Gallery at the end of the semester. In addition, this course works in tandem with last semester's Senior Degree Project: Seminar topics. Accordingly, a Degree Project Final Folder is also submitted containing, DP Proposal, Final Statement, Resume, Artist Statement, and images of Degree Project work. It is important to note that the Printmaking Degree Project follows grant procedure, thus, its potential value to the graduated senior with a Printmaking BFA degree in the professional realm.

Estimated Cost of Materials: $200.00

Enrollment is limited to Senior Printmaking Students.

Major Requirement | BFA Printmaking

Strategies for analysis and documentation are presented and discussed as students combine their research and reflections on their own evolving production into an illustrated, written thesis that organizes, focuses, and articulates their ideas. Artist's books, online publications and other formats will be explored. Intensive support for development and production of the thesis in relation to studio practice will be given.

Enrollment is limited to Graduate Printmaking Students.

Major Requirement | MFA Printmaking

Graduate Print I will focus on the notion that Printmaking (and its constituent processes/techniques) are a hub within the visual arts. Students will experiment with a multitude of print processes that branch from drawing (a logical creative starting-point between Printmaking and Painting), and form extensions into the mediums of painting, sculpture, installation, and even video. Processes covered will include; drawing fluid/screen filler, screen monotype, image transfer, drypoint intaglio, and various other forms of monoprint. Assignments will require experimentation with each new technique and projects will require the individual exploration of these techniques and application to each students' personal studio practice. Demonstrations, presentations, and group/individual critiques will supplement all work time.

Estimated Cost of Materials: $100.00

Open to Graduate Printmaking Students.

Major Requirement | MFA Printmaking

Mathematicians are artists of the imagination. This course is an exploration of their abstract conceptual systems which have almost inadvertently yielded spectacularly successful real world results. It also looks at suggested artistic modes of thought and strategies of artistic exploration. Discussions will include imagination as a valid perception of the world (a sixth sense); high orders of infinity; abstraction, idealization and reality; the geometry of vision, other non-Euclidean geometries and the relation of these geometries to our universe. Regular attendance, some assignments and outside reading are required.

Elective

This mostly non-mathematical presentation of optics leads us to an appreciation of the logic and beauty behind the behavior of light. Starting with the fundamental properties of light, we pass through the geometric optics of reflection and refraction, and the wave optics of interference and diffraction to the clarity of particle waves, lasers, holography, and special relativity. This Wintersession seminar on optics has a section on understanding the physics that makes laser holograms and lasers work. Ideas from familiar phenomena help us see the connections between everyday life and the abstract ideas of optics and physics.

Elective

Deception, manipulation, reproduction. Life, death, or something in-between. What does it mean when cowbirds move into your neighborhood? Can plants cause animals to have bizarre sexual practices, for their benefit? Are most wasp species pest colonies that torment humans, or parasitoids that benefit ecosystems? This course will focus on the intimate relationships within ecology, morphology and behavior in the evolution and diversification of plants, animals, and other living things. Symbiosis (pl. symbioses) is when different species live together. Sometimes both benefit (mutualism), but often one benefits at a cost to the other (e.g., parasitism). The focus of this course will be to observe and study examples of the myriad of ecological interactions that involve symbioses. We will examine the structures and relationships that exist in a variety of ecosystems and learn to understand why things look (or act) the way they do. The basic biology of many types of organisms will also be covered. We will consult diverse scientific literature and films, and conduct (solo) forays into nature. Coursework will combine lecture, discussion and presentation; weekly readings; frequent homework assignments; final synthesis.

Elective