Steamrolling into Val-David’s art scene
“They’ve created gems,” says Bonnie Baxter, a professor in Print Media at Concordia and one of the original members of the Atelier. | Photos courtesy of Atelier de l’île
This month, 20 Concordia Fine Arts students will get a chance to create art on a truly grandiose scale, using a steamroller to create large woodcut prints.
The Steamroller Project is taking place on Saturday, July 18 in Val-David, one hour north of Montreal, to mark the 40th anniversary of the cooperative print studio Atelier de l’île.
“This anniversary makes Atelier de l'île the oldest and most important artist centre in the Laurentians,” says Marcel Achard, the director of the studio. “Since 1975 hundreds of artists have come to print and enjoy the good air and beautiful scenery around Val-David.”
The event itself is the culmination of a nine-month-long collaboration between the students and twenty artists from the atelier, and is part of a larger anniversary celebration featuring a live band and poetry reading.
“It’s a really wonderful thing where students are working with professional artists, and working in the community,” says Bonnie Baxter, a professor in Print Media at Concordia and one of the original members of the Atelier.
As members of the planning committee for the 40th anniversary, Baxter and Achard had the idea to recreate the printmaking party — as a commemoration of the Atelier’s steamroller print performance in 1983 at the Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal.
“I hope we can get the same intensity, the same poetry, with a larger group of printmakers in 2015 — young artists from Concordia and members from the Atelier de l'île sharing the same passion for printmaking,” says Achard.
When Baxter brought the idea back to her students, she was overwhelmed by the enthusiastic response. One of her students, Kristina Parker, jumped at the chance to not only work with the medium but to do so alongside professional artists.
“This offers a great opportunity for mentoring, skill-sharing, and learning from diverse experiences,” says Parker. “But in the end, we are all creating works of the same format and technique, which will be exhibited together, which brings forward how aspects of the teaching and sharing can go both ways, inter-generationally.”
The original steamroller print performance took place at the Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal in 1983.
The students are working with a half-inch of Baltic birch wood and are using black ink to create their images. The pieces themselves will have a connection to the anniversary of the studio and will be based around the theme Faire Impression — which means to make a print as well as to make a good impression.
“I'm most excited for the moment when we reveal the first print made by the steamroller,” says Parker. “There has been much anticipation and a lot of hours contributed by so many individuals to make this project possible, and I know we'll all be holding our breath to see how the first print turns out, and to see if the blocks survive the huge pressure of being rolled over!”
In addition to the wood blocks, the students and artists are also creating paper prints of their pieces for the Atelier de L’îles archives, Concordia’s archives and for the Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec.
“They’ve created gems,” says Baxter. “People have risen to the occasion, they’ve taken the challenge and I’m flabbergasted at the work I’m seeing. It’s absolutely marvellous.”
After the July 18 steamroller event, there will be a soft exhibition at the Atelier de l’île, after which the woodblocks will be mounted on the outside of the Centre de exposition gallery in Val-David. That exhibition will be on display until September, followed by one in Mont-Tremblant.
Learn more about Concordia’s Print Media Department.