John Armstrong Wields His Alternative Path through Printmaking

John Armstrong is a master printer and printmaker(there is a difference, folks)who hails originally from Laurel MT, but has resided in Phoenix, AZ for many years.  He will be one of a dozen invited artists from across the United States to participate in MONOPRINT 2013, which is being held May 31-June 6, at University of Wisconsin at Steven's Point. http://www.uwsp.edu/art-design/monoprint/I first met Armstrong at the first MONOPRINT symposium in 2009. Over the course of a week, I watched as Armstrong banded together some mysterious materials, mixed some of them together, waved his magic printing hands over the plates and voila!, there were prints all over the place. Honestly, they sprung up like rabbits jumping out of a magician's hat. With a little bit more cutting and collage, he'd amassed quite a striking group of works. 

The thing about the symposium, is that people from the community are welcome to come into the shop and see artists at work. During the week when I worked alongside Armstrong, he was quite the teacher, inviting people to try some of the techniques he was doing and extended the collaborative part of printmaking to include their suggestions and collages with his work. It made the experience more enjoyable for them and de-mystified the printing process. Armstrong's a generous instructor and gives his time and energy wholeheartedly. His inventiveness in the printmaking field is endless and the work is pretty incredible, too.

Armstrong was raised in a large family in Montana, and since receiving his MFA from University of Montana, he's been settled in the southwest in Phoenix for some time. Throughout his varied career, Armstrong's always brought integrity, creativity and energy to his projects, whether it be in museum administration, or in art education, exhibit design, or curating a private/corporate art colleciton. He and his wife, Joan Prior, operate Armstrong-Prior, Inc, a multi-facted business in the arts. Through it, he has worked as a master printer with several internationally acclaimed artists, including Rudy Autio, Jun Kaneko, Matin Mull and Don Reitz.

As for Armstrong's imagrey, I am enamored with it to the extent he breaks from traditional printing techniques, and doesn't fuss about cutting and collaging the shapes which have familial ties with the work of artists Arshile Gorky and Willem DeKooning. His lines ebb and flow throughout the compositions, and they embrace the edges of his shapes, which are sometimes bold with flat color, or transclucent letting co-exist underlayers of line and shape. I head a video once where Armstrong was talkng about his work, and the jazz music playing in the background was a perfect match for the way these images sing. His prints can be incredibly spatial or tightly composed, but in any case one is pleasantly surprised at the large and small aspects of his images. I was not able to get more images of Armstrong's work to better illustrate my point, but you can find more of his work at johnarmstrongartist.wix.com/art where one can also find examples of his paintings, sculpture and prints. Overall, one can see his sensitivity for color and line and Nature. If you are able to be in the Stevens Point area next week, drop by and see Armstrong and the rest of the artists working at the MONOPRINT 2013 symposium. You might even get to work with Armstrong on one of his pieces......

Armstrong now works in his own studio, often collaborating with other artists. Here is a video where Armstrong talks about his work. http://vimeo.com/55539874

Contact: john@armstrong-prior.com Tel: 602-253-5784    

Ellie Honl's Coping Construct/Destructions Grab Attention at the MAPC show

Wisconsin's Ellie Honl's two multi-media constructed prints at the 2011 Fall Members' Mid America Print Council show conjure up environments filled with trepidation, anxiety, danger and something imminently unpleasant. Her "Abandoned" piece (at the top) shows a boarded-up dwelling, with slat boards and patched panels. Set amidst a swarm of thousands of starlings, the dwelling seems secure enough, but the sheer number of encircling birds make the structure's odds for survival seem slim. Also, the ground swell of color surrounding the dwelling would suggest the starlings' wave of motion has actually lifted the structure from the earth, and is swirling it up into the sky with the birds.


"Play Dead" (2nd image) shows a cluster of smaller dwellings that at one time were unified and standing upright, but now 'assume the position' of playing dead; again set against an impending storm of starlings as they approach the play dead structures. The ground is as nebulous as in the former image, but the position of the structures and sticks indicate they sit upon an open patch of earth amongst the sweeping colors. Their possum approach to survival is tenuous at best, for once the starlings swoop down upon the structures their momentum will surely sweep the fragile containers into the sky.


From her website, www.elliehonl.com/, I also enjoy her installations which compliment her 3D glass house and figurine maquettes set against the prints. In that, she is akin with the works of Jennifer Bartlett, who also broke ground in the 80s and 90s with her built constructions set against her paintings. 


These pieces come from Honl's Coping Strategies series, and she says they are about coping with change - both external and internal. --
   "In response to a chaotic, uncertain world, this body of work explores individuals’ coping strategies. Turbulent skies and ambiguous swarms threaten communities comprised of delicate glass shelters. These complex constructions are stand-ins for facets of a person’s psyche...those individuals that effectively cope with their changing environment are left stronger and more resilient." 


I get that. I get what she's talking about. The structures act as shelters and actual embodiments of the people who live on the land. In this case, Honl describes a journey through the Midwest as the source of this series and actually witnessing the incredible flying patterns of starlings. I've seen them myself and stared in wonder at their lyricism, and their rolling thunder as they fly. It is an amazing thing to witness. 


There are changes and fluctuations in life - some we can handle, some we can't.  Imminent and threatening things, which we defend ourselves against or engage in the battle to survive. It's being human. And the one thing most people who live in the open stretches of this country experience is that direct engagement with our environment: the storms, the tornadoes, wild fires and floods. We live in it, with it, survive it, and come back more resilient than ever to stay our course and live where we choose and do what we do.  


Honl's work speaks eloquently of survival - not only the physical sense, but also the internal, psychological. Her wooden and glass-like structures, though they seem in peril most of the time,  are more than capable of surviving an onslaught of little birds that could peck away the glass surface (our skins), and still leave the wooden frame (the psyche) intact.  Honl's work engages the human spirit and reminds us that life is full of surprises. She reminds us also that we must have faith to know we can weather those trials and upsets.