Regina in Print: Conversation with Printmaker Madeleine Greenway

What’s your story?

It began the same as many artists’, with starting young. From a fairly early age, I knew I only wanted to go to post-secondary school for art, and I did. I moved from Regina to Calgary to get my BFA (Bachelor in Fine Arts) from the Alberta College of Art and Design, now the Alberta University of the Arts. I took my time, briefly returning to Regina to get married, and I tried almost every studio class that was offered. ACAD is strictly an art institution, so it’s quite different from a university. Most of our class hours were spent in a studio, making things. Everyone has to choose to major in a medium, like painting or new media, and I found it hard to choose (there were a lot of cool things going on). I didn’t know what printmaking was before going to art school, but I kept noticing print work around-eventually figuring out what it was and how to learn about it. Despite a somewhat crotchety first print professor, I fell in love with it and kept going. The print department was the second smallest one in my graduating year, with only 8 other graduates. I loved it because we were all quite close. After returning home and having a baby, I did my MFA at the U of R in print and drawing, and as hard as it was, it really reignited my love of print and helped me navigate my place as a print artist. I have done, and do, a lot of things which I won’t exhaust now- suffice it to say I’ve enjoyed exhibiting, teaching, and working with other artists in a wide variety of ways since then.

What sets print apart as an art form?

Printmaking is actually an umbrella term that covers a wide variety of types of print, but what they have in common is the ability to make multiple copies. Most people are familiar with print first as an industrial process. Silkscreening is one example that a lot of people are familiar with, it’s how a lot of clothing and products are still made with the same design being repeated on tee-shirts or what have you. A silkscreen works like a stencil, which ink is pulled over via the screen. Etching (another form of print) involves a metal plate having lines or patterns cut into it, which are then filled with ink andtransferred to paper. Relief (which is what I mostly do) works like a stamp, a plate of wood or rubber is carved, and the ink gets rolled on top so you can ‘stamp’ it onto paper or cloth. So even though the processes are different they all have 3 elements in common: a plate or surface that contains the image, ink applied to that surface, and the ability to make several copies that way. And although I used very simple examples, there are many ways and techniques to make print a pretty complex process- if that’s what you’re into.

Relief (which is what I mostly do) works like a stamp, a plate of wood or rubber is carved, and the ink gets rolled on top so you can ‘stamp’ it onto paper or cloth. So even though the processes are different they all have 3 elements in common: a plate or surface that contains the image, ink applied to that surface, and the ability to make several copies that way. And although I used very simple examples, there are many ways and techniques to make print a pretty complex process- if that’s what you’re into.

"Cream of Celery Soup"
Lino cut reduction by Madeleine Greenway

Can you tell me a little bit about Regina’s printmaking community?

“August”
Soft ground etching by Joe Fafard
https://www.gallery.ca/collection/artwork/august

Regina is pretty special. Printmaking really had a big moment in the 70s, and a lot of ‘big’ Regina artists (Vic Cicansky, David Thauberger, Joe Fafard) all really embraced print as a part of their practices. One of them, Jack Cowin, was really instrumental in establishing a very practical and great print studio at the University of Regina. When he retired an equally passionate and inventive instructor took over: Rob Truszkowski. It’s really through Rob’s own dedication, love for print, ingenuity, and skill as a professor that many new and enthusiastic printmakers have come out of the U of R. A handful of these students (Caitlin Mullan, Karli Jessup, Em Ironstar, and Amber (?)) set up Regina’s first collective in the 2010s: Articulate Ink. For years they were super active, doing classes, doing commercial printing, being out in the community, as well as doing their own art work. Another part of printmaking is that many print processes require specialized equipment that is more easily shared than trying to purchase and house as an individual. So collectives like Articulate Ink are imperative to help artists outside of the university to continue to practice. Articulate Ink had to close during COVID and are currently between spaces, so they’ve been less active in the last few years. But, increasingly, there’s growing interest in print, including City of Regina classes, workshops from the Saskatchewan Printmakers, and all the access we have via the internet to try newer DIY approaches. The point is, often folks’ excitement for print can fizzle out when it’s hard to find places to print-and many cities have none. So it’s pretty amazing and unique that Regina has developed such a strong print community.

How has living in Saskatchewan influenced your printmaking practice?

"After Three Years Without Saskatoon Berries"
Silkscreen print by Madeleine Greenway

I like Saskatchewan, and although Calgary was a fun place to be as a young student, it didn’t feel like home to me. As stupid or superficial as it may sound, Calgary (although obviously not everyone there) has a culture of business and money-making that always felt off to me. I’m from North-central Regina, my parents were working-class folks. My father in particular was always very community-minded. He was well-known and well-loved in a lot of not-for-profit circles. Thinking in terms of community well-being, activism, everyday politics, was very much a part of my growing up years. Thinking of art as a thing that can help people, benefit communities, even be a tool for change has always been my mode. I think Saskatchewan being a historically rural place (small communities and wheat pools etc), and its long-history of left-leaning politics have both contributed to a more cooperative art environment than other places. We’re not as interested in competition in the arts community here, we’ve had to work together in the face of increasing budget cuts and limited resources. It’s unique- a lot of industries cannibalize when things get tough, they fight to win what’s left for themselves. I’m really proud of how Saskatchewan art organizations and artists have pulled together.

A lot of our print related artifacts are related to the production process of printing, rather than the artistic process of printmaking. What do you love about physical print media?

Each process is so unique, and depending on who is doing it, the results can be just as individual. Printmakers often love to nerd-out about materials and process, printing is very process oriented. But it never ceases to amaze me that with such often rigid constraints that artists can continue to innovate, re-combine, and re-invent to create truly unique and extraordinary work. There’s something about placing certain limits on a practise that can create a lot of ingenuity. It’s difficult to speak to specifics because print as a medium can truly be quite broad. I think as we continue to have more digital ways of making that people subconsciously are seeking traces of humanity in the objects around them. Imperfections, or things that look hand-drawn or hand-made have an increased draw in the era of mass-production. Of course, when print first began to take hold many artists saw print itself as a perversion- a way to mass produce art. But many print processes are now becoming obsolete in terms of industry. We no longer have to set type to print a book, or carve something to make a stamp, or have a person with a squeegee to put a logo on a shirt. So what was once industrial has increasingly become what’s antiquated. In fact, many people don’t know the difference between an ink-jet print and a silkscreened print. But as a person who loves print, I love the traces of the artist it leaves. There are always clues: the quality of the ink, the physical embossing of a plate into the paper, the carving lines left from a block print- all speak to a maker and their unique relationship to those materials. I’ve always been a draw-er, I was no good at painting. And drawing is always the first step in my printing. I hand-draw all my silkscreen transparencies, I draw my images layer by layer on my relief plates. I used to get teased in art school for how fast I drew, I couldn’t spend an hour on an in-class assignment for the life of me. Printing slows me down, I make a drawing but then I have to dissect it, recreate it, and rebuild it. I have to choose images that I’m excited enough about to carry me through the process. I have to think differently, more methodically, more deliberately. That’s what I like about the process as the person using it. I like the challenge; it keeps me engaged.

In what way is printmaking well suited to take on social and political conversations?

It’s a very communal and accessible medium in a lot of ways. Like I said previously, sharing studios, sharing equipment, is how a lot of printmakers keep printing. But beyond that, in a consumerist sense, a lot of folks who can’t afford to build a big art collection could afford to have a print collection. Not many folks could afford a David Thauberger painting these days- but prints (which are still original works made by hand, just in batches) are usually a fraction of the purchasing price of single works. Print is more affordable, making it more accessible. In addition, print has a long history of trade among artists. Print exchanges are common, where (as an example) 10 artists make 10 prints each, and then everyone gets one of each. No money is exchanged, just art for art. No other medium has a tradition quite like it. Print and the early print presses have a very political history. Once the machines were more common, anyone could print with them, without anyone’s permission or gatekeeping institutions (like publishers or governments) limiting what they were allowed to print. Be it poetry, politics, or porn, people were printing whatever they could for other people like them. Whoever had the press had the power of distribution and popularity. People are still doing it now: think protest posters and clothing, wheat-paste graffiti and notices, independent artists and collective shops, zines. It seems less unique now because of how long we’ve been doing it- but the history is there and it’s fascinating. And for those who are behind the making of these things, none of that novelty has worn off yet.

"My Sister's Apples"
Silkscreen print by Madeleine Greenway