"Meet Your Tech" is a Q&A series that introduces current and prospective students to the multi-faceted artists and technicians who not only keep Herron's studios running but also serve as instructors and mentors.
You will almost certainly hear Sydney Craig's (M.F.A. Visual Art '17) contagious laughter if you walk by Herron's printmaking lab. As the school's printmaking technician and an alumna of the visual art graduate program, she understands how powerful laughter and cheerful camaraderie can be as a tool for student learning.
Craig teaches dozens of students each semester the age-old fine arts process of making impressions by hand, which includes techniques like etching and lithography. She guides students through each step of the process, encouraging them to take risks and have fun while learning. In a welcoming, supportive studio setting, she uses her knowledge of the discipline to assist each student in realizing their artistic vision.
HERRON: How did you get into printmaking?
SYDNEY CRAIG: Like any good love story, my relationship with printmaking is complicated. I often think back to when our saga began together, and I can pinpoint a moment when the universe stood still, and I was awkwardly hurled into a new world of process, perseverance, pain, and perpetual problem solving (also known as printmaking).
Even though I was a physical therapist major on paper, I enrolled in a drawing class the first semester of my freshman year of college. Fortunately, or unfortunately, depending on whether this is a comedy or tragedy, my instructor, Peter Suchecki, changed my life. He was a visiting lecturer who filled-in for the head of the printmaking department, who was on sabbatical. Throughout the drawing course, Peter continued to encourage me to take his 300-level relief printmaking course in the spring. I lacked all the prerequisites and emotional maturity, but I bravely enrolled in his relief class, which was comprised of junior and senior printmakers.
I attribute a great deal of my personal and artistic growth to this course and those upper-class students. I was pushed in ways that encouraged me to learn as much as possible, primarily so that I wouldn't embarrass myself in front of the class. Despite the physical and social challenges of this class, my instructor's endless, quiet support led me to love the art of problem solving that comes with printmaking. Peter once told me, "It's your curiosity, stubbornness, and sense of humor (and maybe a little self-loathing) that told me you're a printmaker."
HERRON: Do you remember the first print you ever made?
CRAIG: I fell into printmaking through the back door, but what cemented the life-long passion was studying etching and book arts in Venice, Italy, the summer after my freshman year. During this study abroad program, I remember finishing the first print I was truly proud of. It was an etching of an old Venetian couple who I portrayed as fish under the ocean.
This success marked a significant milestone in my development as an artist because it was the first time I was able to recognize the value of my work independently of the encouragement or criticism of those around me. With this lesson, though, I realized that printmaking would be the monkey on my back for the long haul, for better or worse.
HERRON: What inspires your work?
CRAIG: My artwork is largely inspired by traveling. In these foreign settings, I challenge myself to see things differently, and I enjoy playing the role of the voyeur. I tell myself stories as I explore, filling in the gaps of what I see and what I believe to be true. The more time I spend away, the better I understand what home means to me.
My work is largely autobiographical, and for the past few years I've been working with imagery of glaciers as a symbol of loss. I lament the loss of past selves, past lives, and I'm curious what this loss physically looks like, as well as what it replaces.
