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Revision!!
After all of my research and process in studio, seminar, and my printmaking class I ultimately decided to use all of the tools and critiques to propose a workshop for inmates to do involving printmaking as a therapeutic process of reflection.
Printmaking utilizes many therapeutic principles because it is a very hands on, engaging activity. It is a form of mark making, and can be extremely empowering for the creator because you are leaving an impression on another object, and in doing so, leaving physical traces of yourself behind.
The form of printmaking I am proposing for this workshop is block printing, because it is a very forgiving material. Each carve doesn’t have to be perfect, and it can be vey gestural depending on what the artist wants to create. Inmates are in their position because of the mistakes they’ve made in the past, so for this workshop I want to emphasize that there are no mistakes. It is all experimental, and exciting to see the different ways they can turn out by making small adjustments. Also, block printing entails a lot of physical work because all the negative space is carved away, one slither at a time.
The great thing about printmaking is that you can incorporate almost any found material. There is a world of possibilities, and something really incredible can come out of collected pieces of trash. It also doesn’t have to be done using expensive tools. Prints can be made using found, household objects.
The prompts would be very open to whatever they want to make, but would be geared towards thinking of the future. What is something you’d want to achieve once you are released? What would you want to give to your family? What would you want your home to look like? How would you visualize these hopes and desires for the future in a print?
