About Samantha Shelton
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Biography
Purpose & Philosophy: My passion for art was ignited after winning first prize in the Oregon Douglas County fair for a drawing of Charlie Brown as a child. Many of my adolescent summers were spent apprenticing in my uncle’s tile company in Arizona, where I learned to glaze ceramic tiles and compose wall murals and mosaics. These mosaics heavily influenced my work with geometric patterns. My artistic influences include Art Deco printmaker Louis Icart and Art Nouveau lithographers Alphonse Mucha and Raphael Kirchner.
I hold bachelor's and master's degrees in computer science and have worked in the tech industry for 20 years. My work in computer networking sparked an interest in the way the world communicated before the digital age. This led me to study traditional printmaking techniques, such as etching, lithography, and monotype. I learned to sew as a child, which inspired me to incorporate fabric, thread, and lace into my many of my prints. I studied etching, silkscreen, monotype, photography, and lithography at the Art League School and am currently an affiliate printmaker of Discover Graphics Atelier since 2015. In 2016, I joined the Torpedo Factory Art League’s Gallery 75 and exhibit in their juried monthly shows. I completed a visiting artist residency at the Torpedo Factory Art Center in 2017.
Process: I credit Icart, Mucha, and Kirchner for my current body of work of etchings contrasting light and dark tones and hard and soft lines. In addition to aquatint, I use drypoint, burnishing, soft ground texture transfer, sugarlift, and lithographic tusche to create a variety of visual effects. Additionally, I explore monotype printing techniques including embossing, viscosity, and Goldyne. I often paint into my intaglio plates to create varied and painterly prints. Currently I am exploring intaglio relief, which by deep biting a plate, you can print it in relief to create a photo positive impression. Basically yielding two prints with one plate. I am calling the relief intaglio prints "Inverso".
I hold bachelor's and master's degrees in computer science and have worked in the tech industry for 20 years. My work in computer networking sparked an interest in the way the world communicated before the digital age. This led me to study traditional printmaking techniques, such as etching, lithography, and monotype. I learned to sew as a child, which inspired me to incorporate fabric, thread, and lace into my many of my prints. I studied etching, silkscreen, monotype, photography, and lithography at the Art League School and am currently an affiliate printmaker of Discover Graphics Atelier since 2015. In 2016, I joined the Torpedo Factory Art League’s Gallery 75 and exhibit in their juried monthly shows. I completed a visiting artist residency at the Torpedo Factory Art Center in 2017.
Process: I credit Icart, Mucha, and Kirchner for my current body of work of etchings contrasting light and dark tones and hard and soft lines. In addition to aquatint, I use drypoint, burnishing, soft ground texture transfer, sugarlift, and lithographic tusche to create a variety of visual effects. Additionally, I explore monotype printing techniques including embossing, viscosity, and Goldyne. I often paint into my intaglio plates to create varied and painterly prints. Currently I am exploring intaglio relief, which by deep biting a plate, you can print it in relief to create a photo positive impression. Basically yielding two prints with one plate. I am calling the relief intaglio prints "Inverso".
