Blueprint & Brush: Mixed Media Cyanotypes – CAC PRESS & PULL

Date: Saturday, April 4th

Time: 1:00 – 3:00pm

Venue: The Children’s Art Carnival, 62 Hamilton Terrace, New York, NY 10031

For: Adults and Children Ages 12 and Up
Fee: $10

This workshop will guide students through the process of linoleum block printing. Participants will carve into linoleum, ink-up, and hand print your image multiple times. You will print in different colors using several different hand-pressed printing techniques. Students add to their practice with a whole new toolbox of methods as well as new conceptual approaches to the linocut medium. While some of the primary tenants of traditional block printing are covered, printmaking operates as a means to facilitate the student’s concept. Students gain knowledge of the fundamentals of linoleum block printmaking: carving, reproduction, inking, etc.

Lino printing is considered a traditional relief printmaking method and is often referred to as lino cutting. In this technique, a design is carved into a linoleum block. The uncarved, raised surface (relief) is then inked using a brayer and printed onto paper or fabric with the aid of a baren. This process enables the production of multiple copies of the same artwork, known as editions.

About Facilitator:
Dionis Ortiz is a multimedia artist, community art producer, and educator who works in printmaking, collage, and sculpture. Drawing from his experiences as a child born and raised in Harlem of Dominican descent, he creates geometric, process-based works from ill-regarded and found materials to celebrate the people of the African diaspora.

He was a participant in the Artist in the Marketplace (AIM) Program at The Bronx Museum of the Arts, received a Rema Hort Mann Artist Community Engagement Grant, and has been an Artist in Residence at the Children’s Museum of Manhattan. He has produced several solo exhibitions in New York and his work was recently included in Estamos bien: La Trienal 20/21 at El Museo Del Barrio (New York).

Community engagement is central to his practice and he has produced projects for Harlem River Park Fund, Museum of Art and Design, and ImageNation.

In 2021 he was Artist in Residence at Sugar Hill Children’s Museum of Art and Storytelling and his mural design was selected by PubliColor for an elementary school in East Harlem. His work has been featured in The New York Times several times and is included in Latinx Art: Artists, Market, and Politics by Arlene Dávila.

This community work extends to teaching and Ortiz teaches all ages from pre-K to teenagers and undergraduates at Hunter College and Cornell University.

He received his B.F.A from SUNY Purchase College and his M.F.A from CUNY Hunter College.

CAC PRESS & PULL is a community-based printshop at The Children’s Art Carnival (CAC) in West Harlem, grounded in equity, access, and experimentation. Inspired by the legacy of Robert Blackburn and Betty Blayton-Taylor, the program emphasizes non-traditional and accessible printmaking techniques that prioritize process, collaboration, and creative independence.

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