BORDER CROSSINGS
THE SOUTHERN GRAPHICS COUNCIL’S 29TH ANNUAL CONFERENCE
By Shireen Holman

In March, I flew down to Austin, Texas, to attend Border Crossings, the Southern Graphics Council’s 29th Annual Conference. The conference was hosted by the art department of the University of Texas at Austin, and was organized by Tom Druecker and Margie Simpson. It was a wonderful conference - my only regret is that, being only one person, I could only attend one event at a time. I went to many interesting and stimulating demonstrations and presentations, but felt that I missed even more than I saw!

The University of Texas campus is huge. I think we all got plenty of exercise the few days we were there, scurrying from one place to another. Spring had arrived in Austin, with flowers in bloom everywhere - a nice change from the snow and freezing rain we’d been having in Maryland. I had been looking forward to hearing Barry Moser speak on Thursday, March 8th, but it turned out that he had been unable to come because of snowbound airports in New England! However, I was glad to be able to see his video, “A Thief Among the Angels,” which documents his work on the Pennyroyal Caxton Bible. About a year ago, I had seen the Bible with its intricate, brooding wood engravings, at the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C. It was on exhibit at Concordia University in Austin during the conference.

The Southern Graphics Council formed 30 years ago as a small group of printmakers from Georgia, Mississippi, and surrounding states. Initially they simply drove to each other’s schools for informal gatherings, but as the group grew, their annual meetings became more organized. I had the fortune to run into Barbara Kerne (one of several Maryland Printmakers members who attended this year’s conference), and got to talking with her about the history of the SGC. She told me that she was introduced to the group in 1982 when Zdzislav Sikura joined the faculty with her at Montgomery College, and “mentioned casually that there was this little printmaking group that he was president of, and, by the way, we had to have the meeting at Montgomery College because someone else had backed out!” They had the conference; Barbara was hooked, and became an active officer for several years. That year, about 103 people attended. This year, there were approximately 950 printmakers from all over the world!

In the 1980’s and early 1990’s the conferences were small enough that everyone pretty much knew each other. Barbara told me an interesting story about our president, Calvin Custen. In 1972, when Calvin was just out of the Navy, having returned from Vietnam, he decided to take some classes at Montgomery College. His first teacher in the art department was Barbara Kerne. She taught a design class, and then encouraged him to take printmaking. She said that although she saw hundreds of students, he stood out in her memory because he had brought in some of his scrimshaw to show her, and she felt that he was a very promising student. Years later, in 1988, she attended the SGC conference in Birmingham. Several of them had been invited to an art patron’s home for dinner one night. In the car, on the way to the dinner, Calvin thought that Barbara looked familiar. But he couldn’t remember who she was or where he had met her. She, on the other hand, didn’t recognize him at all because he looked quite different. Calvin says that he was afraid she would think he was making eyes at her, because he kept looking at her to try to figure out where he had seen her before. Eventually they discovered that she had been his very first design teacher!

Laying the paper on the block.	Here comes the steamroller!

Back to this year’s conference…Every day there were panels and speakers; a section called “Telegraphics,” which consisted of videos about printmaking; a section called “Demographics,” a collaborative project involving photo-litho, ink-jet transfers and monoprints; demonstrations of various printmaking techniques; an ongoing bookmaking project; and the product fair. In addition, on Thursday evening there were buses to area galleries and print workshops, on Friday evening there was an open portfolio, and on Saturday evening there was a Texas barbeque and wrap-up party.

For me, the demonstrations were the real highlight of the conference. Michael Krueger, Lisa Bulawsky, Adele Henderson, Bob Anderson and Eileen Foti worked together on the Demographics project. Observers were able to participate by working directly on the images being developed. I was fascinated to see the changes in the prints from one day to the next. In between dropping in on Demographics, I watched several of the other demos. Oscar Gillespie demonstrated metal plate engraving and showed his beautifully detailed portraits. Donald Furst gave a hilarious talk about the serious and exacting technique of mezzotint. Wearing a hat (?!) made out of his daughter’s basketball with a large cardboard mezzotint rocker attached to the top, he explained how to create velvety blacks and subtle gradations of grey. He talked about both why one might want to use a 350-year-old traditional method, and how to create “faux” mezzotints using modern techniques. Charlie Jones also gave an interesting and informative demo of large woodcut techniques. His work is printed from pine planks up to 72” long, which have been glued together to give a width of 24”. Sometimes he uses power tools to cut the blocks into shapes. He prints by hand, using drawer pulls.

Other relief demos included methods of creating chiaroscuro, by Nancy Palmeri; black-line woodcut techniques similar to those Dürer used, by Tom Huck; and engraving techniques on Hi-impact Polystyrene, Sintra and Resingrave, by Karla Hackenmiller. The steamroller printing, done outside on a driveway, was more of a fun event than anything else. House paint rollers, dipped into buckets of ink, were used to ink up large, roughly carved blocks. Four people were needed to lay the paper down. The steamroller then rolled over the paper, first forward and then backwards.

One of the most interesting gallery exhibits was the work of North Vietnamese artist Dinh Luc. He had been invited to do a guest residency at The University of Texas as part of the SGC theme of Border Crossings. Artist Gordon Fowler, a Purple Heart Marine from the Vietnam War, had met him when he returned to Hanoi last year for a visit. Fowler explained, rather incredulously, that the two had been soldiers fighting on opposite sides in the same part of Vietnam at the same time. Now they were collaborating on the exhibition. Dinh Luc uses water-based inks on black paper to create large textural cityscapes and scenes from folktales.

The Printmaker Emeritus Award for 2001 was given to Antonio Frasconi. There was also an exhibit of his work on campus. The Slugfest Printmaking Workshop and Flatbed Press both have impressive printshops and equipment, as well as very nice gallery spaces. The Slugfest Gallery had an exhibit of Tony Fitzpatrick’s work. Unfortunately I missed the talk he gave - several people described it as very inspiring.

Meeting other printmakers and exchanging ideas is a very important part of the experience of attending the conference. I met many new printmakers and also connected with friends from around the country whom I had not seen in many years. I was happy to be rooming with Barbara Mason and April Vollmer, two printmakers whom I had only met on the Internet, through the baren woodblock forum. We turned out to be very compatible, and even enjoyed going out to get a taste of Austin’s active nightlife. (When we returned to our hotel after midnight, we had to walk around the block, trying all the doors, before we found an entrance that was unlocked). The open portfolio was also an excellent opportunity to meet people, to show work, and to see what others are doing.

Next year’s conference will be held in New Orleans. We all came away from Austin wearing brightly coloured Mardi Gras beads promoting “Print Gumbo” in New Orleans. 
Link to Southern Graphics Council.