Karl’s Website - https://karlleclair.com/home.html
What is your primary medium?
I primarily work in printmaking. And printmaking is a really sort of vast field within visual arts, it incorporates a lot of different techniques. And so within printmaking, as an overarching umbrella, I tend to focus on monotypes, intaglio process and relief. And each one has its own specific tools and techniques and materials associated with it. I think that's why I think I'm interested in printmaking, it's within those sort of boundaries there's a lot of different possibilities, a lot of different options, in how you get to creating a final image. And a lot of it's really process heavy. So like the materials, I like the process. It's almost like, there's definitely some science involved. It's kind of almost like a pseudo science maybe. So it's, it's this interesting intersection between materials, image making, alchemy maybe sometimes. Printmaking I think really kind of originated with the desire to make and print and distribute information through books. And, and so it was kind of born out of bookmaking kind of born out of metal smithing, actually, with artisans who are working in metal smithing trying to share the intricate designs that were being made in armor making or creating different motifs in metal and trying to disperse designs throughout different different towns or throughout different maker communities. And those kind of relate to different aspects of printmaking, so the metal smithing, that kind of led to the development of intaglio process, which is traditionally working on metal plates, creating an image on a metal plate and then pulling the image out of the metal plate through ink and paper. And then bookmaking was I think, really started out more in the relief area, which is traditionally wood carving. And today, you know, carving a low relief image into a piece of material, making the surface of it and then taking the image off the surface of that plate. And then monotypes are maybe a more painterly process. So the former are definitely more graphic, more graphic processes. Monotypes offer a little more flexibility in how you're developing your image and maybe a little bit more loose in the handling of the material and the rendering of the image. So in each of these ink is involved, paper is involved. So ultimately we're making works on paper and using primarily ink to create the imagery. So monotypes nowadays use a piece of acrylic, a piece of Plexiglas essentially, and you essentially apply ink to the surface of the plate, and you can take multiple impressions off the plate, traditionally, you get one full-print and then one ghost print. So that's after the full inked surface has been printed, you typically print another one and get a ghosted image. And that can provide just different variety of the way that the image is presented. In relief printing, that kind of came from wood cuts. So you're carving away areas that you don't want the ink to lay on the surface of a block and you get that really bold graphic imagery. And then within intaglio, I primarily focus on dry points and engraving, and that's working with copper plates. In dry point you're using a stylus or like a diamond point stylus. And you're inscribing lines by hand into the surface of the copper. And in that process, you're just essentially shifting where the copper sits on the surface of the plate. And so you're creating burs, where the ink can sit in those lines and engraving you're using a burin and the burin is actually removing pieces of the copper from the plate and so you're creating a very well defined line and both of them are a dry process. I also do a little bit of etching which is using an acid or a chemical process to actually inscribe the lines as opposed to physically doing it by hand.
What got you interested in doing printmaking?
I had one class in high school that was a printmaking class. I was fortunate to go to a school that had a pretty robust arts program. And something about the process, I think drew me in at that point in time. We got to go on a visit to the local university and the printmaking studio was in the basement of this old building, it was dark, pretty dirty, all this heavy equipment and you know, chemical processes happening. So again, I come back to kind of the intersection of the arts and sciences, materials, process heavy. It's something about the process that I think really ultimately drew me in. When I went to school, I just kind of immediately gravitated towards that. I was at the time doing design, graphic design and photography. And somehow printmaking really kind of sits at the intersection there almost. It can be used as a tool for designers. It's very similar in certain elements of the process of photography. But I think it opens up for, for me, it opened me up to having more flexibility and expressing myself creatively than necessarily photography or anything else.
Where do you get your inspiration for your different designs?
I don’t know. That's good question. I think a lot of it comes from, for me, trying to describe ideas or feelings or thoughts or observations that I have about life. Things that might be difficult to express through words or through language. Maybe it's trying to express things that don't have language assigned to them, certain experiences, certain feelings. So I think it's definitely an emotional process, an intellectual process, trying to interrogate my own thoughts and ideas, trying to interrogate my own experiences in the world. I would definitely say I grew up in New England, and I've lived out west now for about just over 10 years. And so the landscape was something that I hadn't really focused on before but after spending so much time in the landscape and in the vast open landscapes of the West. I think that's definitely a pretty big impact on my work recently. I think inevitably, being immersed in space for a period of time, it inevitably sort of seeps into your consciousness, seeps into how you were evaluating your experience and the type of work and making.
What motivates you to come out here and have a space to create in?
Printmaking I think out of most of the visual arts is the most community oriented in that printmakers typically are working in a communal space, sharing ideas about process, sharing ideas about how you got from one thing to another, new materials, or making adjustments. But I think for the most part, and that's a bit challenging here, is that we have one small community print shop, and the university has a print shop, but there's not a lot of spaces for print makers to come together here. And so I think, most recently, I've fallen into a very solitary practice, which is also something that I need, work is very demanding socially and I wouldn't necessarily consider myself a very social person so the ability to come into this space and have the space for myself, as selfish as that seems. It helps me feel successful and healthy in the other areas of my life to be able to have quiet time to be with myself I guess. That's part of it. I think the other part is continuing to grow and explore and learn. So some of my work is research based, some of its research based on thoughts or feelings that I have tried to figure out where those ideas come from or learn more about certain things and explore, you know, that research through a visual application. I don't know, community too, I think it's about, you know, as artists, it's a different way I think. I think it's a different way of looking at the world through the lens of being a visual artist. Noticing things, creating commentary, bringing those things into dialogue with other people. And of course, like sharing, you know, sharing my creative endeavors with people. Whatever happens in here, hopefully, at some point is shared out. But I'm not, I can tell you the things I'm not motivated by. Like, fortunately I don't have to make a living through making my work. So I do have, you know, sort of the pleasure to be able to explore the things that I want to do, versus doing things that I know will make money. So it's not really a huge motivator for me is making work to sell or even making work that's consumable. I'm really, my practice is rooted in doing this for me and doing what I want to do.
What kind of opportunities do you think that you've been afforded by being in Boise?
Boise’s been really good to me. I mean, coming out here, I came out and I didn't know anybody when I went to Boise State, and I just started showing up to things, you know, all the art openings that my professors were having, that friends were having, that other older students in the program were having, just showing up and talking to people. And I think it's one of the best things you can do within any arts community is to show up and support other artists. And I think eventually that support will come back to you. People will show up for you when you need them there. And so, yeah, I think I've grown, I have a really good sort of inner circle of friends that support me and I support them and we share ideas and share a desire to have a practice, share a desire to see Boise be more supportive. I think that's, you know, in the job that I do is definitely, you know, working to support the arts community, support artists here to advocate for the arts. And so I do that both in my professional life and in my personal life. So I think, you know, just even Boise State having a program, that was an opportunity for me to be here to learn. The city having the program to support the artists, that makes being an artist here more manageable, because there is support on the municipal level like that. Very early on, I was a member of and on the board of Treasure Valley Artists Alliance, so just understanding how an arts business works like that, that was a great opportunity. Working with Surel’s Place artists in residence program, serving on their board, but also, you know, continuing to learn how sort of the nonprofit structure works, how community based programming happens. Right when I graduated from Boise State, I was accepted into the 2017, Idaho triennial at the Boise Art Museum. That was a great sort of validating experience to just be coming out of school and be selected for a pretty prestigious exhibition. So that was a great motivational point. I just got accepted again to the 2020 Idaho triennial at the Boise Art Museum. So again, that's another great point of validation in terms of motivation to come to the studio. So like I said, I'm not explicitly making work for that type of validation, but when you do receive that type of recognition or that validation, it's really meaningful to say, you know, my time here is well spent that I am creating works that are communicating something of value to other people. So I think those types of opportunities, having opportunities to show your work and be appreciated for it is always nice. And, you know, opportunities to work, and work with other artists and have that community.
Why is art important?
Art is extremely important to me. You know, not just in my day to day life being in studio making. I've dedicated my professional life to working in the arts. You know, whenever I travel, I always go to the art museum, the galleries, try to see what's happening in whatever community I'm going to. So it really has become really integral to everything that I do in my life. And I think it's so important because well personally, being able to have the freedom to express yourself in whatever manner, whatever way, through whatever means, I think is an extremely important part of being a human being. Being able to let other people know what your experience is like, how you're dealing with life, what your thoughts are. So I think that's, maybe it's cathartic to be able to get some of these things out of your head, to be able to put these things out into the world, to create dialogue. I think that's probably the most powerful thing that art can do, is bringing people together, to talk about ideas, to share ideas, to share emotions. I think art will always have that place. Because I do think that, you know, certainly there's art that's motivated by money, but in a large part, our art's not motivated by anything else other than that individual maker’s vision to say something, whatever that may be. And I think that space to express those kinds of ideas, to express those emotions, to have those conversations, it's going to be extremely important as history unfolds, or as the future comes. We need to be able to protect that space.