How a road roller was used to print artwork at Teton Valley festival Saturday
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TETONIA – Two local art studios partnered for the first-ever Steamroller Printmaking Festival at 6263 South Main Street in Tetonia Saturday afternoon.
Tribe Artist Collective in Tetonia collaborated with Foxtrot Fine Art Gallery in Driggs to showcase the work of 10 artists. Each one carved images into a two-by-four wood block prior to the event. Each block was covered with ink and laid in the street, where it was covered with paper. A steamroller drove on top of it to print the image onto the paper.
Each paper will be put onto canvas and put up for sale. See how it works in the video above.
Michele Walters, Tribe Artist Collective owner and one of the organizers of the event, tells EastIdahoNews.com there isn’t any particular theme with the art. The idea is simply to inspire creativity in the community.
“It’s a collaborative art event that gets the community inspired and involved in the arts,” Walters says.
Similar events have been held in Jackson Hole before and Walters thought it would be fun to have a similar event in eastern Idaho.
Walters is among the artists who participated. Each of the participants have different skill sets and come from Boise, Jackson and everywhere in between.
Bernadette Regnier of Rigby got involved after hearing about it from Katy Fox, who owns the Foxtrot Gallery. Regnier has worked as a linoleum printer for the last 40 years. Linoleum prints are typically displayed on people’s walls. She has artwork on display in the Willard Arts Center in downtown Idaho Falls.
Though Regnier creates a variety of images in her art, her favorite pieces are about nature. She carved an image of a blue heron and some flowers for the festival, which she says requires a lot of “backward thinking” to create.
“It’s interesting to see the carving process. It always prints backward. I usually do multiple color prints, but this is a one color print,” Regnier says as she points to her blue heron print. “You have to think backwards to get your colors correct on the plate.”
Emme Monique lives in Felt five miles north of Tetonia. She started working as an artist for the first time this spring. The 51-year-old mainly does fabric fiber art putting images on patches for quilts.
She’s done a few small-scale lino cut prints, but this is her first time doing a giant piece of art for a festival.
“It’s so wonderful. It’s so fun watching what other people did and to see other artist’s creativity,” Monique says.
Her contribution was a print of a cassette tape, and she explains what inspired it.
“I love cassette tapes. It’s how I listen to music all the time. I’m not a CD person because they scratch. We went to a yard sale and the people gifted me a giant box of Jerry Garcia tapes from his live shows with Grateful Dead,” says Monique. “I even had my partner take my stereo out of my tundra and put an old cassette player in it because I have thousands of cassettes.”
Monique’s work is visible through her Patreon and Instagram pages. She’s hoping to do pop-up shops for her art in the near future.
Once the prints at the festival are put on canvas, they will be sold for $400 a piece through Foxtrot and Tribe Collective.
Walters is hoping to make the Steamroller Printmaking Festival an annual event. Regnier and Monique are looking forward to it and Monique already has an idea for her next submission.
Walters is excited about the prospect of building a culture of art throughout the Teton Valley.
“If you didn’t make it this year, please come and see us next year. It’s a great event and everyone gets to participate, so we’d love to see you,” says Walters.