One might say Irena Raulinaitis is at home with pressing matters.
The printmaker goes back and forth between creating black ink etchings and colorful collagraphs on a press in her Glendale home.
For both techniques, Raulinaitis creates images on plates. The image is cast from the plate onto paper after running them through the press.
For etchings, she uses sharp instruments to create the design on metal plates.
“With etchings, you create an image with acid and you end up with your image that is in grooves on the plate and patterns,” she said. “When you take an ink like an oil paint and run it into the plate, whatever goes into the grooves stays.”
For collagraphs, she adheres found objects like fresh flowers, lace and string to a cardboard plate and applies a lacquer. When the lacquer dries, she applies ink or paint with a roller over the plate. When she runs the paper through the press, the design on the cardboard plate is cast onto the paper.
Her printmaking will be featured in a group show opening June 27 at the Brand Library Art Galleries. The other artists are Joyce Kohl and Nancy Kyes. All three artists’ pieces have a number of similarities, one being that they all work with found objects, said Cathy Billings, art librarian and gallery manager at Brand Library.
“Joyce uses industrial metal, Nancy the detritus of everyday life, and Irena’s objects from the natural world,” Billings said. “As the title of the exhibition suggests, they are all playing with these materials and combining them in unexpected ways.”
Another commonality is the artistic process that each artist has gone through, Billings said.
“Selecting and arranging objects for a collagraph print is similar to the layering and placement of objects that Nancy uses to create her sculptures,” she said. “The final work of art is very different, but the process that each artist has gone through is evident in their finished works.”
Billings loves the rich, deep colors and textures Raulinaitis uses in her collagraphs.
“Collagraphy is one of the more spontaneous printmaking techniques,” Billings said. “That spontaneity combined with her use of leaves, flowers and plants results in prints that are alive with movement, as if nature has come to life on the paper.”
Watercolorist and printmaker Jane Friend of Glendale said she is impressed by Raulinaitis’ use of found objects in her collagraphs.
