News Article

College instructor exhibits original works


4/4/2003 10:36:45 AM


2nd year Print student Matthew Hart and Sharon Puddester in the print studio -- Bay St. George Campus, Stephenville


2nd year Print student Samantha Eluck and Sharon Puddester in the print studio -- Bay St. George Campus, Stephenville

April 4, 2003 - Sharon Puddester, Visual Arts instructor at the Bay St. George campus of College of the North Atlantic (CNA), is one of 13 artists whose works are being shown in The Power of Place, an exhibition marking the 30th anniversary of St. Michael’s Printshop.

The 50-piece exhibition represents three decades of production at St. Michael’s – a print production workshop based in downtown St. John’s. It is being presented at the Art Gallery of Newfoundland and Labrador (AGNL) in St. John’s from March 14 – April 27. Organizers expect it to tour to several other Canadian venues and in Ireland through 2005.

Puddester has been an instructor in the Visual Arts program at Bay St. George campus since 2000 teaching painting, printmaking, and art history. A St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador native, she studied art at Capilano College in Vancouver, BC, and earned a Bachelor of Arts, a Bachelor of Education, and a Masters in Philosophy from Memorial University.

Puddester held the first solo exhibition of her prints and paintings entitled “A Part of the Landscape, A Part of the Energy” at the AGNL in 1995. In 2000 her prints were included in an exhibition at the AGNL entitled “Wood: A Sculptural Investigation”, which later toured Ireland. Her work is in the permanent collection of The Canada Council, the Art Gallery of Newfoundland and Labrador, and the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador. Her experience as an artist assists her in teaching students in the arts program at CNA, says Puddester.

“As a visual arts instructor at the college I think that my exhibition experiences help students to know that they can develop their own professional art practice upon completion of their studies.”

The fact that she’s had several of her pieces shown internationally also encourages her students to do the same, says Puddester.

“Aside from the sheer enjoyment of working in the print medium to create their art, students are drawn to the fact that the market for and circulation of original print exhibitions in commercial and public galleries is well established at the international level.”

Puddester is also heavily involved in the art community in the province, and has played many roles, including that of Director at St. Michael’s Printshop from 1990-97. There, she produced her own print work and assisted in the management of the studio, the centre’s archival collection, and in the development of St. Michael’s visiting artist program and exchange residencies at the provincial, national and international level.

She also taught printmaking in the Visual Art program at Memorial University’s Sir Wilfred Grenfell College in Corner Brook from 1998-99, served as the visual arts representative on the board of the Newfoundland and Labrador Arts Council from 1994-97, and is currently a board member of the Association of Cultural Industries of Newfoundland and Labrador.

The current St. Michael’s exhibition includes three of Puddester’s prints: “The Weaver’s Nest” (1993), “The Weaver’s Call” (1993), and a triptych, “The Swimmers” (1992). These particular works use the intaglio print technique of drypoint on aluminum printing plates. This process involves drawing directly on metal plates with a metal tipped drawing tool. The marking of the plate raises the burr of the metal. It is this “burr” on the surface of the plate which holds the printing ink. An impression of the image is then produced by running the plate through a printing press under extreme pressure. The artist’s images reflect her love of nature in its purest form.

“My art explores elements of the natural world - landscape, animals, the human figure - as a metaphor for the fragile and temporal relationship which I feel exists between us and our environment,” says Puddester.

The fact that her work has been chosen for the St. Michael’s exhibition is especially pleasing, not only because of her past connection with the centre, but also because as the exhibition moves to other venues, it may bring new opportunities.

“The show will bring the work of Canadian printmakers, especially Newfoundland and Labrador printmakers, to a wider audience. It certainly will promote and strengthen an appreciation of the visual art of this province. These touring exhibitions often lead to further exhibitions, connections to commercial galleries, or residency opportunities for the artists involved,” says Puddester.

The exhibition entitled The Power of Place: 30 Years of Printmaking in Newfoundland contains works almost entirely drawn from the St. Michael’s Printshop archival collection. To shape this exhibition, curator Patricia Grattan focused on the work of 13 artists for whom St. Michael’s has been a seminal influence or who have played a part in its history and operations over the past 30 years. Participants include Heidi Oberheide, Bill Ritchie, Jerry Evans, Sylvia Bendzsa, Helen Gregory, Christine Koch, Otis Tamasauskus, Harold Klunder, David Umholtz, Don Holman, and the late Don Wright and Anne Meredith Barry. Each artist is represented by three to five works selected for their individual quality and strength.

Grattan says she selected individual artists as much as particular works to represent and reflect on St. Michael’s role in each person’s artistic practice and/or their role in shaping the Printshop.

“Of the 50 pieces selected, three are Sharon’s. They are, I think, the only examples of drypoint etching in the show and I was attracted not only by the rich blacks and flashes of colour in the works but by the dynamic quality of Sharon's lines and gestural marks,” says Grattan.

“She is an example of a Newfoundland artist whose work and perspectives on art making were enriched by the other artists she encountered at the Printshop and by the opportunities she had to travel elsewhere as an artist and shop director for several years. As director, she was, of course, an important contact point for the visiting artists and some very significant outreach initiatives happened during her time there.”

Selected prints represent a variety of conceptual and stylistic approaches as well as a range of printmaking media. The power of place and the natural environment that has made St. Michael’s Printshop such a unique printmaking centre in Canada is evident in all the works, says Grattan.

Print technical information and materials will be included in the exhibition to add didactic value to the exhibition’s rich visual mix and provide a good basis for school tours and hands-on children’s activities.

The exhibit will follow with a presentation at the Christopher Pratt Gallery in Bay Roberts, Newfoundland and Labrador and then travel on a national tour through 2004 with plans in progress for an Irish tour in 2005.


St. Michael’s Printshop
St. Michael’s Printshop was founded in 1972 by artists Heidi Oberheide and Don Wright in the small coastal community of St. Michael’s – located on the southern shore of the Avalon Peninsula.

In the mid 1980's it was relocated to a former sail loft on the harbourfront in downtown St. John’s, where it has become part of a vibrant network of artist-run centres, galleries, and performance spaces. It is also part of a Canadian network of print production centres that are funded by The Canada Council for the Arts in order to provide artists access to the necessary equipment and extensive work space which printmaking requires, and to encourage its development as an art and technical craft.

St. Michael’s Printshop has hosted hundreds of printmakers from across Canada, Europe and the USA through its visiting artist program, student residencies and formal exchanges (most recently with Black Church Studio in Dublin, Ireland). The studio has also served as a point of contact between Newfoundland and visiting artists who have been drawn by the unique setting and culture of this province. Both the studio and its 2,000 plus print archive are important national resources and the exhibition will make them better-known to artists, students, art historians, and the general public throughout Canada.

For a low monthly fee, artists may rent the printshop to produce their own work, with 24 hour access, seven days a week. Among other activities, St. Michael's Printshop organizes workshops and seminars, arranges for the display of shop produced art in public buildings, coordinates or participates in traveling exhibitions, conferences and symposia, and creates portfolios of prints for special occasions.

For further information on the exhibition itself, contact Patricia Grattan at 754-1716; on St. Michael’s Printshop programs, rentals, etc., contact Anne Gamberg at 754-2931; or to book school/group tours of the exhibition, contact AGNL educator Karen Hewett 737-3575.

For information on the Visual Arts program at College of the North Atlantic contact Student Services at (709) 643-7730.


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For more information, cotact:

Stephen Lee
Communications Manager
(709) 643-7929

or

Tanya Alexander
Public Information Officer
(709) 643-7928