A few words with Suzie Smith...

Suzie Smith (SS): I am often interested in creating systems in my work that allow room for difference. I like to employ the tools and processes of printmaking that are often used for creating multiples but use them to create series of unique compositions. It is both celebrating what you can do with print while at the same time pushing against the rules or norms of the process.

Using a limited set of shapes that can fit together in several ways allows the work to surprise me in the process. The background stripe designs also offer different ways the blocks can match or not match. I like having the possibility that these little easter eggs or glitches can happen when blocks are paired together.
I wanted to continue making this type of work but expand it into relief printing with different imagery than what I have used before.

SS: I was thinking about the vessel as a starting point. I enjoy how small adjustments in the form allow for shifts in how we interpret the vessel’s use, its history and other associations.

The inspiration comes from everywhere; historical and contemporary museums, everyone’s kitchens, thrift stores etc. There is something reminiscent of the dishware section of a thrift store where a large variety of different shaped objects with different designs, from different places, different decades, owned by different people etc are in the same place displayed together that I am inspired by.

SS: Working with Laine was a joy. He is simultaneously so skilled at printing and open to experimentation. Since we are both printmakers, we enjoyed playing with some of the nuances of the process and kept building on what we had done. On the first day the pieces were small, by the last day we had more elaborate compositions and systems to incorporate different inking densities (picking up on the texture and grain of the wood), moving blocks efficiently, or to plan out designs (time limit). The process of working with the blocks was generative and it was great that Laine leaves room in the process for ideas to grow and develop.

SS: I have had this idea in my head for a while that I wanted to try laser etching/cutting wood to create building blocks that could fit together in different ways, like a printed version of building blocks. I did some tests on a recent residency at Anderson Ranch in Colorado but was excited to work with Laine at Smokestack and David Trautrimas (laser cutting support) to fully realize the idea. Sky Dheere, a Winnipeg based designer, also helped me with the Illustrator files.

I enjoy how this project incorporates the oldest print technique (woodcut/relief printing) while at the same time incorporating a newer digital fabrication approach for making the blocks. This fit well with the ideas of the vessel forms inspired from antiquities to the present.

I always enjoy how immediate relief printing is. You make a mark, then you can endlessly print it. This project takes advantage of the stability and versatility of this method.