Printmaking all over the globe
Multimedia artist Jordan Craig is in the midst of an extraordinarily busy couple of years. Following a 2016 residency at Kala Art Institute in Berkeley, California, she headed to Venice for a residency at the Scuola Internazionale di Grafica. She then completed a brief residency in Cork, Ireland, before arriving in Santa Fe in March of this year as a resident artist at the School for Advanced Research’s Indian Arts Research Center.
She was awarded an Eric and Barbara Dobkin Native Artist Fellowship, open to artists working in any medium. “The Eric and Barbara Dobkin Fellowship is specifically for Native American female artists,” said Craig, who is of Northern Cheyenne and European heritage. Much of her work as a painter, collage artist, book artist, and printmaker has focused on geometric abstraction. She emphasizes patterns and textures in atmospheric compositions, often rendered in grayscale. In Santa Fe, she was encouraged to make use of the IARC’s extensive collection of historic Pueblo ceramics, which not only introduced color schemes inspired by Southwest pottery into her work but also led to new ways of approaching her practice.
“I applied to look at pottery, basket weaving, and blankets,” she said. “Once I did my first tour, I limited it down to the pots because there’s so much visual inspiration there alone. It’s optional to use the collection as a resident but they highly recommend it. I knew I would be working with a lot of intricate patterns. I was able to look at objects and translate them into my own visual language. I had concrete things to look at as opposed to just thinking of things in my head. That was a huge transitional moment for my work.”
Craig researched other indigenous art forms for previous bodies of work, particularly tribal textile designs and Aboriginal art, but this was the first time she focused on Pueblo pottery. “I took a lot of photographs of pots for my own records. Then I would make patterns on Photoshop using my computer and then project the patterns with an old projector, and use tape and some simple measurements to translate the patterns from the computer to the canvas. I would first prep the canvas with six to 10 layers of paint, sanding in between each, and making a surface similar to the pots. Then I would transfer my designs. It was my first time using this method of painting. I studied painting in university and discovered printmaking much later.”
Craig is a graduate of Dartmouth College, and since leaving New Hampshire she has mostly been working in printmaking communities and printing workshops. Her time in Santa Fe also marked her first return to painting in several years. The result of the residency at SAR, which ended in May, is that five of the paintings — from a total of 13
she completed in Santa Fe — are being installed in La Fonda’s recently renovated ballroom and spa. Since then, she’s traveled abroad again, to northern Europe on an H. Allen Brooks Traveling Fellowship to study in communal print workshops across the continent. Her previous residencies in Europe were also made possible by the grant. She is currently taking advantage of a residency offered by AGA LAB, a graphics workshop in Amsterdam. “I came home, I think, for two or three nights and then I flew straight to Amsterdam to start this next residency. It was a quick turnaround. I had like two days in California, packed the day of, and now I’m here indefinitely.”
The AGA LAB residency was originally for one month, but she was able to extend her time there by an additional couple of months. Each month ends with public showings of the works produced by current residents. Craig has been included in two exhibitions in Amsterdam. The first, Sex, Guns & Motif, opened at De Bouwput Gallery on June 26; the other, Summer AiR, opened at the same gallery at the end of July. “I’ve been trying a lot of new print methods. There’s a textile printing table and I’ve never had access to that before. So I’m printing the patterns I created in Santa Fe here on textile for the first time, using textile ink and tiling the pattern. I also just completed an artist book with all the patterns I designed. It’s got like 48 prints inside.” AGA LAB is a Risograph printmaking studio that focuses on experimental printing methods. “It’s in an old school with a lot of other studios and ateliers and fashion designers and musicians,” Craig said. “Risograph is a printmaking method using a machine that’s kind of like a photocopy machine. People make a lot of zines with it. It’s a very vintage way of printing with a specific vibe to it. It’s hard to describe. It’s making a comeback throughout the world, but there’s only a few machines anywhere you go.”
After taking a little time off to visit Rome and Malta with her sister — a welcome, though brief, break of about 10 days — she heads back to Cork. “I was there for a month in January, right before Santa Fe. I loved it there. The community is really amazing. They invited me to return to teach a course in mono printing, and I’ll work on a whole other body of work as well.” Ireland won’t be the end of Craig’s working tour of Europe’s print shops, however. Later this year, she attends one more: a residency at the artist-run studio East London Printmakers in London’s historic East End.
Much of Jordan Craig’s work as a painter, collage artist, book artist, and printmaker has focused on geometric abstraction. She emphasizes patterns in atmospheric compositions, often rendered in grayscale.