Artist at Work: Sherry Jankiewicz

Relief Printing is the technique of carving into a surface like wood or linoleum to create a lower surface. When the block is inked for printing, the lower surface will not print, and by applying paper and pressure you can pull a print that reflects the raised surface image. Relief Reduction Printing allows the artist to carve and print in stages in order to create a multi-colored image with just one block. The block is reduced little by little until the whole image is printed, often leaving only the key elements of the image left on the surface. These prints are limited because once the block has been reduced, you can no longer get the previous stages back.

Sketching and Planning
This image was inspired by an experience I had while on a rafting trip in the Grand Canyon. The canyon walls framed the star-filled sky, and throughout the night the earth turned revealing more of the sky one hour at a time. I felt a strong connection to the Earth and my place in it in those moments.

I drew and painted my image on this piece of linoleum and backed it with matboard for my "registration" system.

Registration is a process to line up your layers in a print so that your image reads clearly. I added pins to my matboard and tabs to my paper so all I had to do was line up the holes in the tabs with the pins on the board.

After carving out some of my image, I roll the image with ink for the first color in my image.

Once the block has been inked, I line up the tabs with the pins on the board and place the paper on top. I run it through an etching press with firm pressure to transfer the ink from the block on to the paper evenly.

The 1st print and 1st color in my image was now finished. I printed all 8 sheets of paper like this.

For the 2nd Layer, I carved out more stars and a few light areas in the foreground before I printed this layer. I enjoy rolling gradations of color to add movement to the image.

For the 3rd Layer, I carved out a little more of the foreground before printing.

For the 4th Layer, I carved out more in the foreground before printing.

5th Layer & Finished Image! I carved out the sky before printing the very dark blue.

Throughout the process, I ended up with 6 good prints from the 8 that I started with. I also made a second color variation and ended up with 6 out of 8 of those prints too! Each color variation will be numbered in an edition of 6 prints.

How long did this print take to make?

Once I had my idea and sketch, setting up the registration and image took about 8-10 hours. Each of the 5 printing sessions took about 4-5 hours which includes mixing the colors, printing, and cleaning up. Each carving stage took about 1-2 hours. In total, roughly 35-40 hours spread out over weeks to allow prints to dry between printing.

The image is 12x12 inches on 15 x 22 BFK Rives paper.