By Leticia Gonzales, Special to The Free Press
The Free Press
ST PETER — Liz Madsen didn’t know what she was going to do when she lost her job.
She was a graphics communication teacher at South Center College before she was laid off in 2006.
“When you get laid off, you get this feeling like, ‘Why me? What am I going to do next?’” Madsen said. “I really liked teaching. I really enjoyed working with students.”
But instead of giving up on a career, Madsen decided to go back to school to earn a master’s in print-making at Minnesota State University.
“I have always wanted to be an artist,” said Madsen, whose exhibit “Reflectivity: Inkjet Image Transfer Monoprints” is on display through Feb. 21 at the Arts Center of St. Peter.
Madsen, who lives on a farm near Rapidan, said she first began to study graphic design but quickly became bored, having taught the subject for 13 years. She was persuaded by one of her advisors to try print-making since it was more hands on.
“I loved it,” she said.
But Madsen said she wanted to create a new form of art by combining her knowledge and skills in graphic design to create a monoprint (a printed painting) without using chemicals.
“I wanted something more eco-friendly, more natural,” said Madsen.
With a lot of time and research, Madsen came up with a technique to transfer a photographic image she created with the Adobe Creative Suite software on her computer onto a monoprint. She uses a couple of Epson inkjet printers with either a dye-base ink or pigment ink, she said.
“Depending on what ink colors I want to be left behind on the image, I will select the proper plate material to print on,” she said.
Madsen said she even had to test a variety of papers to see which ones would hold color the best and would perform better in respect to water absorption, texture and appearance. In the end, she chose a 100 percent cotton rag and acid-free print-making paper with a smooth woven texture and bright white surface.
“My prints consist of several components, photographs or scanned items, layered and manipulated using my computer.”
Her process includes printing the collage of images with an inkjet printer onto a plate for transferring. Then, she quickly rubs the image by hand onto a piece of fine art paper soaked in water, using a barren to transfer the images. (A barren is a smooth-surfaced device used to transfer the image from the printing plate to the printing surface.)
“This process is quite simple, but yet so intriguing, because no two prints ever transfer the same,” said Madsen.
Since graduating from MSU in December 2008, Madsen purchased her own printing press and began applying for grants for emerging artists. During one presentation, she met Joel Moline, a fellow print maker and former art instructor who lives in St. Peter.
Madsen said Moline got her connected with the Arts Center of St. Peter, where she currently has 21 of her monoprints (originals) and three giclée (digital reproductions of originals) on display. They include many of the prints Madsen worked on during the last two years while she developed her print-making process.
“I knew if I just kept researching and trying, I would find a way to take digital art to another level of life and still have the opportunity to let my individuality come alive in each unique image,” said Madsen. “I still keep testing different types of papers with new plates to unconventional substrates with the hope of finding more exotic stories or tales with dimension and more depth.”
Joel Moline said Madsen’s monoprints are unique.
“The images are intriguing because of their surreal quality and ambiguity of space,” said Moline. “The viewer is really challenged to explore each print, which results in a show that is interesting and rewarding.”
Madsen said her prints are inspired by the natural environment and are “filled with incredible drama and color, enormous blue skies, concrete structures and vast wilderness scenes like lazy rivers and abstracted evergreens that lead into pure energies of light and color.”
