Printmaker Denise Kester from Ashland will be the featured artist on Friday and Saturday, May 22-23, at Sisters Gallery & Frame Shop.
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Denise Kester and her book, “Drawing on the Dream,” in her studio.
She will be the gallery’s Fourth Friday Featured Artist this month, during the Sisters Arts Association Artwalk from 4 to 7 p.m. On Saturday at 4 p.m., she’ll talk about “Art, Hope, and Important Things to Remember,” at the gallery. The program is free and open to the public, but seating is limited to about 35. Kester will also be at the gallery during the day to talk to visitors and sign copies of her book. At the end of her presentation, there will be a drawing for one of Kester’s print reproductions.
All artists derive their creative ideas from different places. For Kester, that place is her dreams. She writes, “It’s essential that we stay creative, especially when life around us is hard, so I will talk about what I do to keep making art when I’m devastated by the world around me. I will share my list of important things for creative people to remember.”
“This is the time we are in. There is no way around it; we just have to go through it – but we can choose how we go through it.”
One of Kester’s dreams inspired the creation of “The Pirate Cat.” First, she carved out a linoleum block image, from which she made prints in black and white. Then, one morning, she awakened from a dream about how to lay ink onto that linoleum block to create different colors and effects, and how to create a roller transfer monoprint from the linoleum block.
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“The Pirate’s Gift,” black-and-white linoleum block print, and colored print.
It was an experiment.
Using the linoleum carving, she rolled oily and dry inks of different colors onto the block. Then using a large, dry, yellow-inked roller, she rolled over the block. This transferred the image onto the roller. Next, she rolled that image onto a sheet of plexiglas, and began wiping and drawing with cotton swabs and carved stamps. She wiped off most of the yellow background and added more colors to the plate.
When she felt like the wet-inked plate was ready to print, she lay paper on top of it, and hand cranked it through her etching press. Thus, she created a monoprint, “The Pirate’s Gift.” As a further enhancement, she mounted the print to a block and added a wax coating in a process resulting in an encaustic print. Both are in the gallery, along with a good number of her original prints, reproductions, handmade books, and note cards.
A single dream can inspire multiple ideas. It’s dreams like this, Kester says, that helps creative people hang on to the love of their art and the world, rather than giving into fear, hopelessness, and small-mindedness. Maintain hope, no matter what.
Photo provided
“The Pirate’s Gift,” black-and-white linoleum block print, and colored print.
As writer Toni Morrison wrote: “This is precisely the time when artists go to work. There is no time for despair, no place for self-pity, no need for silence, no room for fear. We speak, we write, we do language. That is how civilizations heal.”
Kester is an artist, writer, and teacher living in Ashland. She specializes in monoprint and monotype viscosity printing as well as multi-media, drawing, painting, and handmade books. She uses monoprinting with lithography inks to create art. She is author of “Drawing on the Dream,” a book that explores her process and revelations about art and printmaking. The book is filled with beautiful illustrations and practical guidance and personal experience through art and life.
