By Gabrielle Fellows
Renowned printmaker Matthew Hopson-Walker is visiting Youngstown State University from Feb. 16-20 to guide students in the processes of producing the limited edition lithographs of his creation.
YSU art students will work with Hopson-Walker to take his initial ideas — a bird design and a plane design — and print them onto T-shirts. Various printmaking techniques will be showcased, including relief, lithography and digital printing to name a few. The printmaking is happening in Room 4015 in Bliss Hall, from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. and 1 p.m. to 4 p.m.
The shirts being created during the event will be sold for $15 and limited edition prints of Hopson-Walker’s work are also available and will be sold for $125. Each print will be signed, numbered and fully documented. All proceeds from sales will support students of the YSU printmaking program and the collaboration itself.
Hopson-Walker’s work has been featured in the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, the Drawing and Print Collection at the University of Iowa Museum of Art, the Tama Art University Museum in Tokyo, Japan and many others. He was also the recipient of the James Phelan Award in Printmaking in 2006. He currently teaches printmaking and drawing at College of the Sequoias and California State University-Fresno.
Hopson-Walker said his art is supposed to document personal experience and the images created often are inspired by the complexities of adulthood.
“I am very interested in the consequences of having conflicting thoughts or engaging in behavior that contradicts personal, social or moral responsibility. … My images document personal experience, social hierarchies I’ve navigated and people as darkly psychological beings,” Hopson-Walker said. “With my images printmaking, collage and drawing techniques and materials are employed in a way that I relate metaphorically to the function of memory and experience.”
The event is brought to students by the YSU Department of Art and The Red Press Collaborative, an organization that promotes fine art printmaking in the Mahoning Valley and at YSU.
Joseph D’Uva, associate professor of printmaking, said that the Red Press Collaborative is a steppingstone in educating future fine art printmakers.
“Print collaboration in its tradition has fostered relationships between professional artists and students using the most contemporary and comprehensive printmaking concepts available,” D’Uva said. “We are excited about [Hopson-Walker] and look forward to both the print and the T-shirt image, both of which are unknown until the process begins.”
All of the events in the series are free and open to the public. More information can be gathered by contacting D’Uva at [email protected] or calling the department of art at 330-941-3627.
