Painting & Printmaking :: Printmaking
The Printmaking program is an integral part of the Painting and Printmaking emphasis but is also encouraged as part of interdisciplinary study within the other emphasis areas, including Book Art, Multi-Media, and Graphic Design. Our mission in printmaking is, as in all of our other media emphases, to prepare our students for graduate level study and for real world conditions facing professional artists. We guide students in gaining technical and conceptual mastery of the unique vocabularies inherent in these diverse hands-on mediums and encourage them to explore and refine their own visual concerns and ideas. Courses include instruction in lithography (including photo processes as they relate to contemporary fine art practice), various techniques in intaglio and drypoint, woodcut, and letterpress (including moveable hand set type and digital imagery printed from photopolymer plates).
Recent graduates from the Printmaking discipline have been accepted into the following prestigious MFA programs, among others: Chicago Art Institute, Columbia University, New York; the Cranbrook Academy of Art; the Pratt Institute, New York; San Francisco Art Institute; University of Leeds, UK; University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, University of Southern California.
| Undergraduate Program | Graduate Program |
| Area Facilities | Faculty Bios |
| Student Gallery | Faculty Gallery |
Undergraduate Program
Undergraduate printmaking classes range from the beginning level to the advanced level. Prerequisites for printmaking courses include all basic core level art classes (i.e., beginning and intermediate drawing and design). After introductory black and white classes in each medium, students may explore other technical processes including color and photo based media at intermediate and advanced levels. Advanced printmaking students have critiques in conjunction with students at their level in other media, encouraging cross-disciplinary investigation. Printmaking area students may take electives from the other areas as well, including applied design, bookmaking, sculpture, etc.
We encourage multidisciplinary and multimedia projects at the intermediate and advanced levels. Our mission is to develop well-rounded students who are experienced in a variety of media at the B.A. level. While the craft of printmaking is very important, we try to focus on conceptual issues relating to the work the at the entry level.
Click here for the Painting and Printmaking Undergraduate Checklist (requires Adobe Acrobat Reader)
Graduate Program
Consistent with all of the art emphasis areas is the primary goal to educate our students in the highest criteria of art as it is practiced today by creating a studio art discipline which reflects contemporary art discourse. Our graduate printmaking area requirements are consistent with all other fine art emphasis areas (i.e. painting, photo, etc.) Our goal is to prepare graduate printmaking students as professional fine artists.
We encourage the exchange of ideas between the disciplines, through which students can begin to work productively within a truly multidisciplinary learning context. We strive to establish an environment that bridges disciplines that have historically been seen as separate artistic endeavors, by providing access to all of the intellectual and physical resources within the school.
Click here for more information on SDSU Studio Art Graduate Programs.
Area Facilites
We offer black and white and color lithography classes. We have three presses (Charles Brand, Griffith, Takach) capable of printing 30"x 40" stones (of which we have fifteen) as well as many smaller and mid size stones. We also have facilities for metal plate litho as well. The program encourages experimentation with digital and photographic media used in conjunction with traditional lithography.
Facilities for intaglio and relief printmaking and book art classes include 60" x 35" and 16" x 29" Charles Brand etching presses, a large new rosin box and low toxic etching equipment for both copper and zinc plates. We also have a Vandercook sp25 and sp15 proof press for hand set letterpress and text, digital or photographic media printed from photopolymer plates. Bookbinding equipment includes two nipping presses and a large board shear.
Faculty Bios
Michele Burgess
Michele Burgess is a printmaker, painter, and book artist. She is co-director (with Bill Kelly) of Brighton Press, an internationally recognized publisher of artist‚s books. She studied at the University of San Diego and received an MFA from the Cranbrook Academy of Art. As an artist, Burgess has collaborated extensively with Montana-based poet Sandra Alcosser and New York-based poet Nancy Willard. Her work has been exhibited in museums, libraries, and galleries, including the Fresno Art Museum, Fresno, California, the Memorial Art Gallery at the University of Rochester, New York, the Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego, and the National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, D.C. Her artist’s books are held in over twenty public collections, including the Achenbach Foundation for the Graphic Arts, San Francisco; the Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles; the Library of Congress, Washington, D.C; the Museum of American Art, Giverny, France; the Newberry Library, Chicago, the New York Public Library, Stanford University, and the Mandeville Special Collections Library at the University of California, San Diego, where the Brighton Press archives are also housed.