Barbara Belle Sloan

My journey into printmaking is informed by early work in the screen-printing industry. After graduating from the University of Oregon in Fine and Applied arts, I went to work at Bay Street Productions in Oregon as a color matcher and screen-printer for fine custom wallpapers. From there I’ve built a busy full time studio practice, making art daily. In addition to printmaking, I work in painting, ceramics, jewelry, fabric and combined techniques.The ancient tradition of the print is always at the heart of the work. Now decades into this journey, the pleasure of process and a newfound freedom with materials and techniques keeps it all moving into new territory. I make prints not as copies or reproductions at all. Silkscreen yields the jazzy and juicy layers of color, and clear shapes. Intaglio and monotype renders deep blacks of varying densities and values. Chine collé provides “moving parts” in the form of favored shapes and colors. Layering of colors, use of multiple plates, evolving plates, and marks allows the medium to “talk back” at some point. I treat printmaking as an open ended and ongoing investigation into a hidden world.Most recently I have established screen-printing courses at the Schack Art Center in Everett, Washington, and at the Kirkland Arts Center in Kirkland, Washington. In 2014 I taught a reduction screen-print workshop in Venice, Italy at the Scuola di Grafica. I worked in 2015 at the Skopelos Foundation in Greece. I am an active member of Print Arts Northwest, Seattle Print Arts, and Los Angeles Printmakers Society. Many of the hand-printed silkscreen prints are placed in national and international collections. At present my studios in Kirkland Washington, and in Downtown Los Angeles are open by appointment.While all this history is of value, real life is lived in the joy of process, in a world of visual wonder. My mission is to continue to share it, and to live it fully every day.