Silkscreening 101

It became clear to me once I started constructing this series of pop icons layered with text, that their final output would have to be silkscreened onto paper. They lend themselves to this medium, with their hard edged graphic nature and pop art aesthetics. I haven't silkscreened anything in years, so I decided to take a class at the Armory Center for the Arts in Pasadena.

What began as the educational department of the Pasadena Art Museum in 1947, has now grown into a viable source for art education here in Southern California for the past 70 years. I have always been drawn to the the creative energy at the Armory since I move down to LA but was particularly inspired to take a class there by my friend Amanda Quinn Olivar, who recently told me about the very first West Coast pop art exhibition which had taken place at the Pasadena Art Museum back in 1962. The exhibition "New Paintings of Common Objects," featured recent work by Jim Dine, Ed Ruscha, Robert Dowd, Wayne Theibaud, Roy Lichtenstein, Joe Goode and Andy Warhol.

I new that the Armory would be a good place to start.

This rudimentary class so far has shown me DIY techniques that I will be able to create at home. We started with printmaking from foam board and then last week, I began cutting stencils out of paper. Of course detail is lost but it's rough hewn nature transformed my images and made me think about how I approached this project.

I thought I would share with you an overview of the process I working on and look forward to sharing more images that I print with you in the future.

Julie Green

April 29, 2017