DID YOU KNOW? The Utah Arts Festival presents several dance companies, including the Repertory Dance Theatre, the Children’s Dance Theatre, and Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company, all performing on the Festival Stage.

Photos by Grecia Sanchez.

Many Utah Arts Festival visitors have been drawn to the exhibition and demonstration of large relief prints being presented by Saltgrass Printmakers.

While crowds certainly enjoy the spectacle of seeing a 1.3-ton steamroller work its magic on paper and ink applied to the raised surfaces of plywood matrices upon which intricate designs have been cut, the intriguing use of industrial commercial technology and tools is an excellent reminder that an original print in no sense is a reproduction.

“This fine art process either can produce multiples or one-of-a-kind print,” Erik Brunvand explains. “The steamroller clearly demonstrates that each print is, in itself, an original work of art produced by the artist, one at a time.”

This is the second time that local printmaking artists are demonstrating the process using a steamroller. The preparatory process is quite extensive.

Plywood has proven to be the perfect board for making woodcut matrices, Brunvand says, adding that designs can be as intricate as the artist desires. For example, a fish woodcut being used in the festival demonstration took 35 hours to carve.

The artists apply a standard oil-based ink with inexpensive adhesive rollers usually just before the print is to be made. The ink will hold for up to a half hour maximum, Bruvand adds.

What might seem a bit surprising to visitors is the paper being used to execute these prints via the steamroller. The Japanese fiber paper at first glance doesn’t appear to be capable of withstanding the pressure of heavy equipment but Brunvand says the “fibers are really nice and long” in the paper that is half traditional wood and half kozo, a type of mulberry plant. It also is ecologically appropriate as kozo is grown as a farm crop and can be easily replanted each year.

Also, it is not as expensive as gampi, which has a beautiful sheen and is often used as very thin tissue paper in conserving books and chine colle printmaking. Brunvand says the paper they’re using for the steamrolling press comes in 60-meter rolls at $175 each, perfect for sizing the large relief prints such as the ones displayed in the fourth floor gallery of the City Library next to the festival grounds.

Once the woodcut is inked, it’s placed on the ground, covered with a sheet of paper, and a blanket. Taped guidelines demarcate a lane through which the steamroller moves. “If you stay within those guidelines, only one pass with the steamroller is needed,” Brunvand adds. Otherwise, the steamroller is put in reverse for a second pressing.

As much as the steamroller seems like a curious novelty, its use underscores the historical connection that printmakers have with commercial production technology. For example, Rembrandt, who went through a fair bit of trial and error in printmaking, settled on gampi to print his atmospheric prints that absorbed black ink richly even when the paper was as thin as tissue.

As Brunvand notes, the steamroller is a compelling reminder how the process authenticates the print as original.

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