“Expressing Independence” Printmaking Workshop

In the month of July, the “Expressing Independence” printmaking workshop was held at the Philadelphia Sketch Club, as a part of the “Printmaking by the People” project. Created by Mural Arts Philadelphia, this project is where printmakers across Philadelphia are recruited by Mural Arts to teach printmaking classes. These classes will be lead for the creation of a mural in 2026, to commemorate the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. Sponsoring the project is Philadelphia250, an independent non-profit organization funding projects regarding the 250th anniversary. During the workshops, attendees learn about printmaking techniques and create prints connecting to topics, such as, the Declaration of Independence, colonial history, colonial printmaking, and poster arts. These prints and designs are then being used as inspiration for the future mural.

For the printmaking workshop at the Sketch Club, attendees had a wonderful time during which they created not just one, but multiple prints, as well as discussed, their prints and thoughts on topics such as freedom, independence, artistic expression, the U.S. government, and more. They were stationed in the 2nd floor upstairs gallery space, where they created their designs and printmaking plates, but used the printmaking workshop in the basement to actually print. The type of printmaking used for this workshop was erasure, a subsect of monotype, which unlike all other types of printmaking, only produces one print per plate. Erasure is a technique that uses negative space to create an image; attendees covered a plate with ink, and then “erased” the ink using Q-Tips, which creates an inverse effect when printed. Many of the designs produced a graphic quality, that resembled the more modern aesthetics of 20th and 21st century poster and print arts. Examples of both U.S, colonial printmaking (woodcuts, engravings, etc.) and contemporary U.S. printmaking (silk screen, lithography, etc.) connected people to their roots, while relating to the present.

At the beginning of the class, instructor Chloë Epstein, gave attendees a history lesson on the Declaration of Independence, and asked them to keep various questions in mind when creating their designs; If you were to declare independence today, what are the rights that you would seek? Name one “grievance” or concern that you would want to bring to the attention of our political leaders? By the end of the class, participants had a discussion where people showed their prints and explained their designs using the questions above. Attendees talked about topics such as the intersection of justice and love, access to clean water, voting rights, gun violence, women’s rights, and more. Participants were also asked to consider symbolism when creating their designs, seeing examples from both the colonial era and modern day. Many of them used universal symbols such as, hearts, doves, fists, and more, combined with U.S. and Philadelphia specific symbols such as, the American flag, the liberty bell, and the love statue. Overall, the workshop was a success in getting people to express themselves creatively and think critically about the origins of our country and how that relates to the modern day.