Two weeks ago I ran into Jose Dominguez, Executive Director of Pyramid Atlantic, at Handmade Mart in Silver Spring.  Pyramid set up a screenprinting demonstration in front of their store and I asked him about classes.  He sent me contact information for Rebecca Katz, one of two associates at Pyramid who oversee the screenprinting facility.  Becca received her MFA from the California College of the Arts and has been creating artwork ever since she was a kid.  She told me about her one-day $130 workshop coming up on June 6 that’s for screenprinting beginners, but also mentioned she’s available for private lessons at $45/hour.  Since I was hanging around DC for Memorial Weekend, I asked if she was free and on Saturday I spent three hours learning how to screenprint.

Before I took the Red Line to Silver Spring, I spent 80 cents at Kinkos to create a transparency from a digital file I cooked up.  I’ve started manipulating film scans to remove the background and flesh of my subjects, leaving only an anonymous silhouette, with the sole intention of making screenprints.  With Becca’s help and instruction, I was able to turn this idea into something tangible (my first attempt at this involves this original photograph of Ernest and see further down this post for the resulting print).

I’m not Andy Warhol.  (Although my grandparents surround his gravesite.)  But for one afternoon I felt like an artist.

Below, Becca prepares to power wash the emulsion off a screen.  Pyramid’s facility is way beyond anything you could use in your own home studio.  They have the best tools available, a huge amount of working space and during her workshop you’ll learn to use the photo emulsion technique and the steps for coating, exposing and reclaiming a screen.  I plan to go back again as soon as possible for another lesson, although she claims I did well and could probably handle working by myself (as long as I don’t break the light table glass).

My first exposure to Pyramid was during FotoWeekDC 2009, when I was part of “Portraiture 2.0,” a group show curated by Michael Pollack, who’s on Pyramid’s Board of Directors.  However, the center is bigger than any one exhibition or art form, as they emphasize “papermaking, printmaking, book arts and digital media.”  Other artists are constantly coming and going, working, creating and curiosity fills the place.  The last two photos are of Patti, a photographer at Pyramid who recently fractured her wrist, yet keeps working at the studio.  Case in point, the artists here are committed to their work.  You can learn a lot from them.

Photo Credits: Joshua Yospyn/Worn Magazine and Rebecca Katz with my camera (please ask permission to use our images)

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