Pam Beagle-Daresta

From Handprints to Art:  Printmaking for a Caring Community

Residency

When you think of printmaking, what comes to mind?  Finger-paint prints, handprints in ancient caves, the Guttenberg Press, copy machines, silk-screened tea shirts, cereal boxes and advertisements…the list goes on.

With printmaker, Pam Beagle Daresta, students create their own images and print them using nontoxic water based inks on recycled papers.   During planning, teachers and Pam decide the perfect project to fit the core curriculum. 

A wonderful aspect of printmaking is that the student artist gets to keep their work and give some for a cause.  Their art may become part of a larger collaborative work in the school or community to promote keepers of a green earth.  Posters could be made to educate about a local endangered species. Cards could be created as a fundraiser for a local humane society.  Whatever the product, the residency can become a powerful tool for teaching civics, citizenship and service learning!

The residency process includes:

• Research of the subject – to deepen core curriculum content  
• Concept development - by generating preliminary drawings based on research content
• Preproduction drawings are then engraved into relief, intaglio, or monoprint plates 
• Pulling prints give students their ah hah moment! 
• Reflection - ranges from learning to sign, number, and label prints, exchange prints, or begin to develop a collaborative project from the prints. 

4th-Adults/Visual Arts, Character Education, Science (plant & animal units, ecology & stewardship), Social Studies ( Native American studies &  ancient and world cultures)

(A longer residency can allow for multicolor printing processes utilizing subtractive printing and or layering techniques.)

Representing only the highest quality teaching artists and performers!