Monotype Through Drawing Workshop with Sarah Smelser

2-Day Weekend Workshop, 10am – 5pm
August 2 – 3, 2025

Fee: $375 including materials and 14 hours of studio time

Explore trace monotype, which allows an artist to work with the specific vocabulary of drawing while making one-of-a-kind prints. Done most effectively on dry Asian paper (sometimes called “rice paper”), trace monotype can stand on its own or it can be used as the beginnings of collages or mixed media works. Trace monotype is portable and invites possibilities for plein air printmaking. Workshop participants will also print on an etching press and learn to stencil print, counterproof, and ghost print to augment their images and add flat passages of color. Accessible and unique, these techniques are for artists of varied experience, from beginning drawing students to seasoned printmakers.

Sarah Smelser received her BA from University of California at Santa Cruz, and her MA and MFA from the University of Iowa. She has been an artist in residence at Vermont Studio Center, Franz Masereel Center, Artica Bilbao, Kala Art Institute, Jentel Artist Residency, Skopelos Foundation for the Arts, Anchor Graphics, Ballinglen Arts Foundation, and Tamarind Institute. Her work is in such collections as Readers' Digest Association, New York Public Library, Library of Congress, Microsoft Corporate Collection, Hallmark Corporate Collection, and Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts.

Smelser has had solo exhibitions at Bridgewater/Lustberg & Blumenfeld and Kathryn Markel Fine Arts (both in New York City) Urban Institute for Contemporary Art, Carnegie Mellon University, Bradley University, University of Wyoming, Diablo Valley College, Middle Tennessee State University, LUX Center for the Arts, and Montana State University. Her work has been included in many invitational and juried shows, and at numerous art fairs including Art Frankfurt, Estampa Madrid, the Affordable Art Fair in New York, Art Miami, Red Dot Art Fair in New York and Miami, Art Santa Fe, Art Chicago, EDITION Chicago, Boston Print Fair, Baltimore Contemporary Print Fair, Editions/Artists’ Book Fair, and the Los Angeles Art
Show.

Smelser's work has been reviewed in Art on Paper: The Journal of Prints, Drawings and Photography; Abstract Art Online; and Monotype, Monoprint, & Strappo Ezine. Smelser is the 2022-24 Harold Boyd Endowed Professor in the Wonsook Kim School of Art at Illinois State University. She is also co-founder of Manneken Press with Master Printer Jonathan Higgins.

Sarah has taught monotype workshops at Kala Art Institute, Berkeley, CA; Remarque Print Workshop, Albuquerque, NM; Chicago Printmakers Collaborative, Chicago, IL; Frogman’s Print Workshop, Omaha, NE; and Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ.

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