Printmaking is an ancient art form with roots in China, where artists would use wood blocks to transfer images onto silk. Today, one of the premier printmaking programs in the country is housed at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where artists like Christie Tirado are putting their own spin on this long-standing tradition.
Currently, Tirado is working on a new body of work for her solo exhibition at Tandem Press in Madison this spring. She told WPR’s “Wisconsin Today” that she believes printmaking has a special place in the art world because of its long history and ability to tap into both tradition and innovation.
“As printmaking continues to evolve, it still has that historical component to it, which reminds me of its enduring power to make art accessible and amplify voices that otherwise may go unheard,” she said.
Tirado offered insights into her creative process and explained why she wants to share the often overlooked stories of immigrant workers through her art.
Bringing migrant farming labor into view
Before moving to Wisconsin, Tirado spent eight years working as a K-12 art educator in the Yakima Valley in Washington state. She said that the agricultural town where she lived was nearly half Latin American, with many working in farms and fields.
“I realized that there was a lack of visibility within this migrant community and the work that goes into carrying out everyday agricultural labor in regard to picking cherries, the hops that go into our beer, the grapes,” she said.
So, Tirado started going out into the fields to interview the workers and “get a feel for the work that goes into sustaining our economy.” She wanted to “render visibility to these stories that largely go unheard and also unseen” through her art, she said.
Her process was to meet and talk to the workers, then photograph them and use that image as inspiration for a print that she would display in the community.
For Tirado, printmaking is a fitting art form for depicting labor stories because it is “a medium that, in itself, is very labor intensive,” she said.