Marie Watt, 2016 – 2017

Marie Watt
Julia D’Amario, printer
2016-2017

Workshop: October 12 – 14, 2016

Born 1967, Seattle. Marie Watt lives and works in Portland, Oregon. Watt received an MFA in Painting and Printmaking from Yale University in 1996 and also holds an AFA from the Institute of American Indian Arts and a BS from Willamette University. She has been recognized by the Joan Mitchell Foundation, the Betty Bowen Memorial Award, and the Anonymous Was a Woman Foundation. In 2011, Watt was awarded a site-specific commission from The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Watt has exhibited steadily since 1996 throughout the United States and held a residency at the Lower East Side Printshop in 2008. Her work has been prominently installed at the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian and the Seattle Art Museum.

Marie Watt is a descendent of the Turtle Clan of the Seneca Nation, and her heritage plays a distinct role in her artistic practice. She brings natural materials and community involvement to a Pop Art sensibility, combining Native American tradition with Western art history.

For this workshop, Watt made an image of a wool blanket using soft ground aquatint on three copper plates. One plate was used for transferring the impression of the wool blanket and another plate to transfer a graphite pencil drawing of a wolf that the artist drew.  The final print is a three color soft ground, aquatint printed on Hahnemuhle etching paper.

Watt has made several intaglio prints with master printer Julia D’Amario.  As Watt fielded questions from students about her work, D’Amario was asked about her years as a Smith undergraduate studio art major during the 1980’s.