Garrison printmaking studio draws in artists
“Can we turn the wheel, can we turn the wheel?” asked Hazel Augello, 4, and Xochitl Perez, 6, as they jumped in anticipation. When the time came, the pair got serious. Their duties consisted of generating torque and creating prints.
The wheel is the mechanism that turns the manual press of the Garrison Arts Center, accessed by a precipitous stairway to the second floor. It exerts tons of pressure onto objects placed atop a glass plate that slides beneath an oversized rolling pin.
The children visited at the invitation of Lauren Adelman, a founder of Roll Out Beacon, and her husband, Sergio Perez, an art teacher at Beacon High School. “We believe in printmaking for all and it’s a fun way to involve the community in an artistic spectacle,” Adelman said.
Asked what he enjoyed about the process, Jariel Solis, 10, mimicked using a hand-held rubber rolling pin to ink up the carved linoleum panels that pass through the vintage printer and create the images on paper.
In November, Roll Out Beacon, a collective of printers, educators and community activists, rented a steamroller to create large prints during Beacon Bonfire. In February, Perez installed a press at Beacon High School.
“Last year, we brought a group of high schoolers to the [Garrison] studio and they also watched us at the Bonfire,” Adelman said. “At Christmas, they asked for linoleum, so people are getting hooked.”
Other Roll Out founders include Melissa Schlobohm and Carinda Swann. Schlobohm teaches at the Garrison Arts Center and Swann is a former executive director.
Adelman and Perez bring children to the Garrison studio every few months. Jariel, Atticus Perez, 11, and Anilayah Soto, 11, attend South Avenue Elementary School, where fifth-grade art students carved the linoleum tiles that conveyed the exquisite corpses created during the studio session.
Participants lined up three linocut squares (culled from 35) to create vertical variations that fit on a T-shirt. Other youngsters and their parents drifted in. Some got to turn the wheel.
Adults also enjoy the wheel. Gail Cunningham O’Donnell, 45, enrolled in a print class at the art center to build a portfolio for admission into the Master of Fine Arts program at SUNY New Paltz. “A lot of people tell me, ‘Wow, I wish I could go back to school,’ ” she said.
The Fishkill resident also works a loom and creates custom-dyed yarn, some of which she pressed into a portfolio print.
“For years, I worked as a cut-paper artist, but stepped away,” she said. “I took the printmaking class to see if I would get excited about it, and I did. Some art forms have a small startup investment and others require specialized equipment. To have a shared space like the print studio is amazing.”
