A Peek Inside a Printmaking by the People Workshop

It’s a beautiful Saturday morning, one of the few May weekends this year that is free of rain, yet the studios of the Brandywine Workshop and Archive and the DaVinci Art Alliance are buzzing with activity.

This morning, people from all walks of life and all over the city are gathering with great purpose — to re-imagine what the Declaration of Independence might say if it were written today, and to create original artworks that embody their ideas. The workshops are part of Printmaking by the People, a signature public art project leading up to next year’s Semiquincentennial.

Ask them why they came, and they’ll say they are there to speak their mind: What should this country to aspire to? They are there for the camaraderie they find in joining with other people in this conversation. And they are there because they want to create, to make with their own hands an artwork that conveys their message.

Ask them what they learned, and they’ll say much more than they expected. They found a new connection with this founding document, energized by its vision, empowered by making a statement about the world they would like to see, and embraced by the process of pledging with others to a common purpose.

At Brandywine, people are working on linocut prints that they are conceiving, carving, and printing themselves, under the guidance of artists Marta Sanchez and Caleb Perez and Mural Arts project leader Todd Bressi.

Creating a linocut can be solitary, demanding work, requiring concentration to conceive an image in reverse and to carve the stiff linoleum blocks safely. But the camaraderie kicks in fast, as the workshop attendees help each other out with their ideas, and Perez, Sanchez, and Bressi circle around the worktable to lend a helpful hand, guiding people through design challenges and helping with the carving. And when things get too quiet, the soundtrack evolves to Latin funk and jazz, and the participants unwind by taking a break and Sanchez leads them in dancing around the studio.

At the end of the process, the attendees work with Perez to pull their prints, and most make many more copies than they expected – one for Mural Arts, one for Brandywine, one for themselves, and extras to give to their friends because they are so excited about the prints. They ceremonially sign and date their prints, then pledge to check in with each other again when the exhibition of their work launches at the Free Library next year.

A few blocks away at DaVinci Art Alliance, the sunny day means perfect weather for a cyanotype workshop. Cyanotype, also called blueprinting, involves the use of sunlight to create images in white and a distinctive shade of blue.

Surrounded by paintings by Philadelphia-based artist Dominique Samarco, the space is alive with creative energy and a conscious connection to place and the people around us. Artists Sofie Seymour and Joy Lai bring their passion for cyanotype, historical knowledge of the medium, and excitement about this particular process to a unique workshop in which participants co-create a collaborative Declaration.

In the first part of the workshop, participants explore the Declaration and experiment with the cyanotype process by cutting out text from the Declaration and collaging it with images of Philadelphia and natural elements such as flowers and plants. They put their collages inside the clear sleeve and then expose to the sun outside to make their prints.

Next, participants organize themselves into groups of three to work on collaborative skills by co-creating a print together, using the technique.

With these building blocks in place, the group of ten works together to create one large cyanotype that is a collaborative declaration. At this point, the room is filled with conversations, and people are forging a new relationship to the Declaration through the act of reading it and cutting and reconstructing its language.

The group takes a moment to read their new declaration out loud together, each participant signing the document before cheering and clapping. It is a powerful moment, gathering together and imagining a better future for our community collectively among strangers.

Then it was time to expose this large print in the sun, watching the light green paper fade to a deeper blue. As Sofie rinses the chemical out with a hose, the final step of this process invites us to gather in a circle and pause for a moment of silence, a common Quaker practice, before sharing our reflections on this project. Many are surprised by what they have learned through reading and reworking the text this afternoon. Some say it was the first time they had ever felt a connection to this document. It likely won’t be the last.

FIND OUT ABOUT UPCOMING WORKSHOPS HERE.