Big Print Muskoka at Nuit Blanche North 2024

Four artists, one 900-lb. lawn roller, one amazing night!

Muskoka Printmaker Collective founding members Christina MacBean, Dawn Huddlestone, Elise Muller, and Karen Gray introduced large-scale printmaking to Muskoka in the first-ever Big Print Muskoka at Nuit Blanche North on July 20, 2024.

Many members of the Muskoka Printmaker Collective include relief printing in their artistic practice, in which a block of wood or artist-grade linoleum is carved with a mirror image of the desired print, with the 'negative' (or unprinted areas) carved away. Ink is rolled directly onto the raised areas of the block, then transferred to paper with pressure applied in a printing press or by hand with a device like a printmaker's baren. Even a wooden spoon or a smooth-bottomed glass will work!

But what if your block is too big for a press and too tedious to print by hand?

Inspired by other Big Print events where a steamroller is used to apply pressure, we purchased a lawn roller with the help of a grant from Huntsville Festival of the Arts for Nuit Blanche North 2024. Each of our members carved a large sheet of 3/4" birch plywood in advance, then under the lights in Huntsville's Kent Park, we inked them up, and wowed the Nuit Blanche North crowd with our really big print demonstration.

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https://video.wixstatic.com/video/9ca1f0_6ebeecbd9bac430fae64b40b15e598ef/720p/mp4/file.mp4

Our sincere thanks to Huntsville Festival of the Arts for their ongoing support of local artists.