The Map(ing) Project was founded by the ASU intaglio professor, Mary Hood, as a collaborative printmaking endeavor where ASU's graduate printmakers (which includes moi) get to make a collaborative edition with visiting Native American artists... who are non-printmakers! :o
I was so thrilled to be paired with one of my graduate school besties, Louise Fisher, and the visiting ceramic artist Cannupa Hanska Luger. From the start of the project, Cannupa was very clear that he was not seeking to make the "perfect" identical edition. More rather, he wanted to experiment and get his hands dirty. The seriousness and nerves that Louise and I had built up quickly dissipated as Cannupa helped us learn how to put he fun back into printmaking. Together, the three of us harnessed the power of the AZ sun to make overplayed cyanotypes so as to create the illusion of a buffalo in motion. We also tried alternative developing solutions for the cyanotypes such as instant coffee. Too bad we used up all the coffee on the first day, cause we were in desperate need of it by the end of the week.
Over the span of the project, Louise and I definitely had our fair share of fun and work. She was our master cyanotypist / sun goddess, while I google earth screen-shoted, plotted, and digitally hand traced the whole Missouri River.We then used the river file to laser cut the missouri on mirrored chin-colle paper. Oh! And to give you an idea about how much fun we all had, HERE is the song we chanted and danced to all throughout!
Also be sure to explore more of Cannupa's brilliant work!
... don't let the seagulls get ya ;D
