Conversations with Janis Sweeney

Today we’d like to introduce you to Janis Sweeney.

Thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, how did you get started?
I attended George Mason University, receiving a BFA in Painting, but during my last two semesters there, I took printmaking classes as electives and never went back to painting. I was smitten with the history and process of printmaking. Since 2014 I have pursued printmaking full-time. I have a studio in my home with a 31″ x 51″ etching press and several smaller presses, including a table-top letterpress. My favorite forms of printmaking are woodcut, collagraph, and screenprint. For all three forms, there is some amount of carving or cutting to create the plate, and I find a lot of enjoyment in that part of the process. For woodcut, I carve away at the plate; for collagraph, it’s a combination of carving away and adding to the plate, and I use Rubylith to cut and create my film plates for screenprinting.

Alright, let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall, and if not, what challenges have you had to overcome?
I’ve always been interested in art making as a career. Motherhood and becoming a single parent at an early age, with all the realities and responsibilities that bring, changed my career path. But I kept my toe in the art door, joining local art groups, taking workshops, and keeping up with sketching and photography. I did whatever art-making I could afford and could squeeze in between responsibilities for three very active kids. Going to college at night, I eventually received my B.S. in computer science and am grateful for the career it brought me. The project management, budgeting, problem-solving, organizational, and people skills I developed have helped me with today’s business side of my art practice. Since 2014 I’ve been pursuing art full-time. Today’s challenges are mainly related to juggling my work’s creative and business sides, ensuring the right balance. The business side is certainly something I need to pay attention to; keeping up and staying organized helps me spend more time in the studio making art. It’s tricky, and the balancing is ever-evolving.

Thanks – so, what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I am a printmaker. I specialize in woodcuts, collagraph, and screen prints on paper. All three require some form of plate making. The images I use for my plates come from my photographs or drawings. I’m especially drawn to architectural elements and industrial environments. My woodcut plates start with 3/8″ birch plywood that I carve an image into. Once the carving is complete, I roll relief ink onto the plate, lay printmaking paper on top of the inked plate, and then run it through the press. The pressure of the press imprints the image onto the paper. I repeat that process to make an edition of prints, usually 5-20. The average size of my woodcut plates is 24″ x 30.”

Collagraph plates can be a little more complicated but much less expensive. They start with a 12″ x 24″ mat or Environmount board, a refined “cardboard” with a smooth coating. I make images/textures on these boards by carving into them and adhering onto them a variety of items (thin paper, masking tape, aluminum tape, carborundum paste, sandpaper, and stenciled wood paste. ) To ensure the items are sealed onto the board a coating of shellac is applied on the front and back and the plate is dried overnight. Each board is then inked and strategically wiped. Dampened printing paper is laid on the board, and it is then run through the press. Again, the pressure of the press transfers the plate image onto the paper. The freshly printed paper is laid out flat to dry. Instead of printing a single collagraph plate, I like to layer my plates. I may run two or three different plates, layering them onto the same sheet of paper to create a single print. I incorporate ghost images in my prints by running a plate through without re-inking it. The pressure of the press transfers the slight residual ink left on the plate, leaving a lovely, interesting ghost of the original image. Because I use different plate combinations for each print and the ink wiping process is so unique to each print, I don’t edition my collagraph; each print is an original.

Screen printing is enjoyable, and I’ve used it to print on paper and canvas. Much of my work incorporates a more graphic style; screen printing is a great method for transposing them to prints. Images on acetate or vellum are transferred to a silk screen coated with a light-sensitive emulsion. The images are placed on the coated screen and exposed to light for some time. The light cure the emulsion around the image. When the screen is washed with water, the emulsion on the uncured areas is washed away. This process creates a stencil of the image. I can then push ink through the screen onto dry paper to transfer the image. Average Editions of my screen prints are using 15-30.

Before we go, can you talk to us about how people can work, collaborate, or support you?
I am collaborating with a wonderful writer/poet in Washington, DC. I admire her work and perspective. The project is a call and response. She provided her poetry, and I responded with a visual interpretation in the form of a print. The collaboration will eventually be an exhibit of her poetry prints/handmade books, and we’ll provide an artist talk about the work and what each of us brought to the project. It’s been a great experience, and I would love to do more collaborations like this. Last year I worked with an illustrator from Brooklyn, NY, to screen print an edition of one of his illustrations. I’m open to doing that same thing for local artists here in Kansas City. Now that COVID restrictions have subsided, I’m excited to see people attending gallery openings, art fairs, and pop-up markets. I’ve participated in Strawberry Swing and Chick events and hope to be out there again soon. I post information on my website about events I’m participating in. My contact information is also on my website, www.janissweeney.com.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.janissweeney.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/janis_sweeney