After a three-year hiatus, printmaking is again being offered at the Mendocino College Ukiah Campus.

The Fall semester welcomed the first group of printmaking students back to the school and marked the maiden voyage of a brand-new printing press. The heavy-duty Takach press allows for large prints, and cuts down on wait time for students. The studio also has two small presses, great for beginning students.

Registration is currently open for ART 234A&B, Beginning and Intermediate Etching. Students of all levels are invited to explore the beauty of the 500-year-old process of creating images with copper, acid, and ink on Asian and Western papers. Artists throughout the centuries, from Rembrandt to Francisco Goya; Robert Rauschenberg to Julie Mehretu, have explored etching as a unique means of visual communication and a way to expand their art practices.

Etching describes the printmaking technique in which an image is produced by incising lines into a metal plate with a drawing tool, submerging the plate in an acid (we use low toxicity ferric chloride which is a corrosive salt), applying ink to that plate and then transferring the image onto paper using a printing press. This process allows you to make multiple copies of your artwork, using different colors and techniques.

The course is led by local artist and educator, Solange Roberdeau. Roberdeau was the recipient of the 2023 ACMC and Mendocino County Board of Supervisors Artist Champion Award. She completed her BFA in Printmaking at the Rhode Island School of Design (2005), and earned an MFA from the Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore, MD (2012) where she also taught as an adjunct faculty member (2019-22).

The course meets one day a week on Saturday and runs from Jan. 27 to May 18. The full-day format gives students the opportunity to really dig in and get the most out of their class time – learning new techniques through instructor demos and lectures, using specialized equipment, and working out ideas for images, without feeling rushed.

Printmaking is a process-oriented art and having the time and space to really sink into it with all-day classroom access is a real gift. Students may also elect to take the course as “pass/fail,” which allows for more flexible attendance.

If you have questions about the class, contact Solange at SRoberdeau@mendocino.edu. Please direct general questions about the Art Department and other course offerings to Lisa Rosenstreich at LRosenstreich@mendocino.edu

Register online at https://www.mendocino.edu/ or on campus at 1000 Hensley Creek Drive.