During the April 20 event, participants of CeLOUbrate Print engaged in printmaking by creating large, hand-carved wooden stamps, or “woodcuts” and driving over them with a steamroller. With a quick training, a driver’s license and a rental steamroller, Singel was prepared to operate this unique printing press.

“The whole premise is building community,” Singel said. “One of the many reasons I fell in love with printmaking is it’s the democratic multiple. Where would we be without printmaking in terms of it is the way that we disseminate information?”

This art process involves creating an image via a woodcut, etching or engraving and using ink to create copies on paper or canvas like a stamp. Lithography and screen-printing are also forms of printmaking. An original work can be replicated endlessly with basic supplies and processes which eliminate boundaries to sharing work or marketing art.

Printmaking is inherently collective by nature and is a simple form of mass production of artistic work. The creation, production and sharing of a print can all be completed by one operator, removing many obstacles to sharing artwork or messages to build community connections. Additionally, many prints will have small variances from shifting equipment or blotting ink so despite being a mostly mechanical process, each print will have its own unique characteristics and value from the artist’s production.

“When people pull their very first print, it’s this really magical moment because their mind is blown, but they also understand exactly how and why it’s happening,” Lewis said. “You get to watch the light bulb go off.”

In addition to UofL, several sponsors and local businesses supported Singel and Lewis in their effort to bring more people together through CeLOUbrate Print and its workshops including Fund for the Arts, Printed Zine and Portland Museum. UofL alumni William Smith served as Lewis’s collaborator from Portland Museum and assisted with grant writing, advertising and planning the event over eight months.

Ahead of CeLOUbrate Print, Lewis organized over a dozen woodblock carving workshops to help prepare participants to make prints with the steamroller press. The workshops were an addition from Singel’s steamroller press events in previous years. Lewis’s passion for the project comes out of the desire to make printmaking more accessible and this is the driving goal of their studies in printmaking and public humanities.

“Printmakers assume things have to be in a very specific way, your borders have to be clean, no smudges so it’s usually done in a shop – it’s done with a press,” Lewis said. “It’s done this way, so I really wanted to have an event that not only made people know what printmaking is, but it also made that knowledge accessible and doable in your kitchen.”

Alongside the CeLOUbrate Print event, the Portland Museum unveiled a new printmaking exhibit titled The museum invited Louisville printmakers to display their work but encouraged the featured artists to invite other printmakers from outside the region to also participate. The exhibit is a practice of building connections between Louisville’s artists and other pockets of printmakers across the nation. “Shop Talk” will be on display at the Portland Museum until the end of August.

To keep up with UofL’s art students and programming, visit .

Two alums of got to be part of the action.

The company tapped Ashley Trommler, who graduated in 2011, to design the graphics for its installer vans. They also commissioned Carrie Donovan, class of 2016, to design a building mural in Portland, one of the first neighborhoods to receive the service.  

“While, yes, I’m stoked to have Google on my resume, this project meant so much more than that,” Trommler said. “I’m honored to be a small part of something so monumental for our city.”

Trommler said Google reached out to several Louisville designers in June to submit concepts for the van design.

“They gave us a lot of freedom,” she said. “It had to contain ‘Louisville’ in the text, no Google branding, represent our city in a unique way, and be inclusive and mindful of the city’s diversity and not isolating in any way.”

Trommler immediately got going, waking up at 5 a.m. for several days on her family vacation to hammer out concepts. She ended up presenting three different designs that included a breakdown of symbols and meanings and mockups on the actual van. Six days later, she received an e-mail from Google Fiber saying they loved her artwork and wanted to work with her exclusively.

Trommler, who is the art director at  marketing agency, spent the next month tweaking the design, knowing that Google Fiber would launch this fall.��

She wanted her design to convey the overall southern hospitality that Louisville is known for. She used a light-hearted color palette and playful “Hey Y’all” banner to give that friendly Louisville feeling.��

“In a community that is saturated with amazing design talent, I tend to fall victim to imposter syndrome more often than I’d like to admit,” she said. “This partially became a project to prove to myself that yes, I can do work for Google and it’s going to be great.”

Donovan answered a call for murals from  a partner with Google Fiber, and was one of three artists chosen to complete murals in the company’s initial neighborhoods. She worked with , a non-profit, pay-as-you-can restaurant in Portland, to come up with a mural design that represents their mission.�� 

“Letting the community shine was really important to Google Fiber, and I love that they are supporting the arts and neighborhoods in Louisville,” said Donovan, who works as a graphic designer at the .��

Her design says “Portland flows with promise” which represents all that happens in the Promise Building (of which The Table Cafe is a part). The semicircle and banner shape connect the different spaces in the building visually and the type style and layout represent ‘flow’ as Portland is near the river and the work that happens in the Promise Building flows into the community.

“My experience at Hite prepared me so well for a project like this, especially my letterforms class with Professor Steve Skaggs and Design for Public Issues with Leslie Friesen. They taught me to look carefully at type and to manage real life projects,” she said.��

Friesen maintains contact with both students and is proud of the work they are producing.

“I’m always impressed by what our alums are doing. It’s a great point of pride to see their work selected for projects like this,” Friesen said.

Surrounded by their art, he congratulated Miranda Becht, Tom LeGoff and Marie-Elena Ottman for becoming the first class to graduate from Hite’s Master of Fine Art program. The first courses for the 60 credit hour degree began in 2014. It’s the only MFA program in Louisville.

“I want to thank you for all your work these past three years,” Massey said to resounding applause.

The MFA Thesis Exhibition runs through May 27 in the Cressman. The diversity of art forms in the show reflects the diversity of offerings in the MFA program. Students may choose to practice in a variety of mediums or narrow in on one. Courses include ceramics, drawing, fibers, glass, painting, photography, printmaking, sculpture, design, mixed media, book arts and new media.

“I loved that the program let me explore,” Ottman said. “It was the perfect opportunity to grow as an artist.”

Her work at the Cressman, titled “Transplant: Fruits of their Labor,” features winding vines of ceramic, glass and metal. Ottman, who is from Panama, used the vines to metaphorically consider topics such as immigration, migrant labor and translation.            

Classmate and photographer Tom LeGoff displayed photographic cabinet cards to develop a visual story and mythology of a destroyed town.

He said he perused the MFA to better his craft and to “submerge myself more deeply in photography.”

He hopes to teach and Indiana University Southeast and the University of Kentucky have shown interest.

The program started small with just a few students a year as there wasn’t enough studio space to accommodate more. But, are coming to fruition. Construction begins this month and the space should be ready for students in spring 2018, Massey said.

The Portland space will allow the program to expand and broaden its reach in the city, which can only be a good thing, said Chris Reitz, Hite’s director of galleries.

“Artists trained in the global principles and practice of contemporary art-making are a real benefit to the city,” he said. “You really need an MFA program to become a nationally and internationally recognized arts center.”

Sixteen speakers gave an overview of their careers to the students, said Beth Davis-Sramek, associate marketing professor, who helped coordinate the day. The speakers included COB professors and staff, Army officers, a horse trainer, a police officer, a musician, dental hygienists, doctors, pharmacy students and employees from Papa John’s Pizza, Texas Roadhouse, Norton Healthcare and Heuser Health.

Every child received a t-shirt that read “Future ______.” The children used markers to fill in the blank.

“We handed out the t-shirts first, and then after the kids listened to all the speakers, they ‘filled in the blank’ with what profession they want to pursue,” Davis-Sramek said. “Our goal was just to give them exposure to people, places and ideas outside of Portland, and we are thrilled to have the local business community help us.”

Portland Elementary – whose 300 students almost all qualify for free/reduced lunch – has been adopted by the college in a program called the Elevate Portland Initiative. Since the fall, students, faculty and staff from the COB have donated warm clothing, snacks and tablet PCs to the school, which is part of UofL’s Signature Partnership Initiative.