Printmaking Major Researched Ways To Create Her Own Canon
This is the last of four articles in a series about Tyler's Spring 2023 CARAS grant awardees.
In Printmaking major Deejay Bosca’s lithograph Diez Años del Movimiento Colibrí (Pink), the head and shoulders of an ethereal figure loom large in the center of the composition as a small, delicate figure floats prostrate on hair-like tendrils below. A shadowy face with an arched eyebrow stares from the upper right corner, while vertical striations, diagonal shafts of light, and bulbous forms appear suspended in air.
Printed of Rives BFK paper at 22” by 30,” the artwork, whose title translates to Ten Years of the Hummingbird Movement, is one of more than three dozen lithographs that Bosca created using some of the largest and heaviest stones in Tyler’s Printmaking studios in summer 2023 as part of a six-week research project funded by a Temple University Creative Arts, Research and Scholarship (CARAS) grant.
“I made 37 prints in total, all slightly varied,” said Bosca, whose research delved into the history and science of stone lithography, as well as the aesthetic properties, and how an artist can draw inspiration from their past works. “To present the work, I made my first book, A Stone that Rests and Remembers.”
Bosca said the idea for the CARAS project sprung from a fall semester spent at the Temple Rome campus, where she exhibited a collection of works called Points of Release: A Full Year of Reflection. The exhibition comprised 42 drawings (out of 100), selected for their canonical nature in representing the connection between current and past works.
Diez Años del Movimiento Colibrí (Pink), Stone lithograph on Rives BFK, 22" by 30"; detail below
“That collection marked one of the most significant shifts in my professional art practice, but I felt that there was additional room for expansion,” said Bosca, who completed her BFA in Printmaking in December and will walk at Tyler's Graduation Ceremony in May. “While taking a litho class with Professor Albert Fung in the spring, I realized lithography was a perfect way to continue that project.”
With the grant, Bosca hired an assistant to help move and grate the stones used to make print, and hand-dyed 75 sheets of Rives BFK paper, a gold standard in mold-made grade manufactured in France. The lithography stones are 24" by 36" and weigh a few hundred pounds.
“Through working on this project, an admiration of stone lithography was cemented in me. This medium satisfies my desire to draw while still providing a nuanced quality that print matrices achieve so well,” said Bosca. “The grant pushed me forward significantly in my interest to make paper as well. I became deeply interested in the specific material qualities that push a piece to success in my eyes,” adding that she developed greater interest in the investigation of materials through the research project.
Bosca intentionally made two of the prints with the idea that she would expand on them after graduation, leaving space in one for printing with a copper plate and the other for pastel overlays.
Since completing the grant Bosca has spoken with other artists about helping them begin working in stone lithography and will be working this summer to teach an artist in Buffalo, NY. She also hopes to work as a studio assistant to an artist in Pennsylvania after graduation.
And Bosca encourages studio art majors to think about applying for a CARAS grant. “My advice is to focus on how funding can build community. Being selected to get funding is amazing and incredibly helpful, but for me the best thing I did with the money was hire an assistant. The conversations I had with my assistant propelled my work to new heights, and I learned more about myself as a leader.”
Being able to afford high-quality materials was important as well, Bosca said, “but this opportunity is unique because you can use it to alter your perceptions of yourself as a maker, and the best way to do that is to find a way to either get out of your studio and explore or to invite someone in.”