PROCESS IN THE MAKING:
MY CATTLE, MY PRINTS, OUR LIFE
Thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for
Honors in Studio Art at Hobart and William Smith Colleges
Rio Kelly Schmidt
My Roots.
My family’s ranch, the Schmidt Hereford Ranch, was established in 1900 by my great parents on my father’s side of the family. They had three sons including my grandfather who ranched his share of the land for many years. He established one of the oldest Hereford bull sales in the state which ran for over fifty years. In 2007, my grandparents reached a point where they needed to retire, so my parents moved the family back home, and we took up the livelihood that altered my life and ultimately my artwork.
My work is partially influence by where I grew up. I was born in Mason, Texas, and returned there in the seventh grade. With a population hovering around 2,000 people, there are more cows on my ranch than the 200 kids in high school between ninth through twelfth grade. A few industries primarily support Mason, the first being the school and the second being the agricultural industry. I am a fourth generation rancher and contribute to the agriculture industry which supports our town, a tiny piece of the agriculture production that supports America and the rest of the world.
The cattle industry is particularly close to my heart for a number of reasons. The cattle industry supports my family, the small town of Mason, and in a way, much of the world. As a rancher I have the responsibility to care for the land I use and the animals that live there, including the cattle. I am intimately connected with a creature that is used in a vast process to help feed the world. To me, cattle are the starting point to a much bigger relationship between people and the food which they consume. As ranchers, we help start the process by managing these animals and the land they use so that someday people can be fed.
I, as a rancher, only contribute to the first step. After my job is complete, the cattle go on to be involved in several different phases of production that eventually lead to someone buying steak. While I only represent one part, the cattle are interconnecting numerous people, producing far more than just a source of food. Cattle provide jobs for ranchers like my family in addition to stockers, stockyards, auction barns, truckers, factories, stores, and many other sectors of society that contribute to someone’s consumption of beef. Cattle are vitally important to many individuals and collectively the society we live in.
My roots, as a cattle producer, answers the question of why cows? I grew up a rancher, but the vital link between me and the rest of the world is the animal with which I work closely. The representation of cattle in my art is an effort to honor the role cattle play in all of our lives. Cattle are an important link to a larger process to help humanity not only survive, but thrive, and in my work I seek to spotlight these beautiful creatures. Where I grew up and how I was raised has given me a unique first hand perspective on the impact of cattle, and by producing my pieces of art work I hope others will walk away with a more enlightened perception of cattle.
The Process.
Making art became an important part of my life during high school but became an essential part during college in the spring semester of 2016. I was a new student at Hobart and William Smith Colleges, and I did not know exactly what path of study to choose. What I did knew was that art was going to be a part of it, and during that semester I was introduced to printmaking, the form of art which would change my life. Intaglio printmaking was the first form of printing at which I tried my hand. While this technique has its own interesting characteristics, it was the process that is printmaking, which captured my attention.
Making prints is satisfying. Printmaking is comprised of several steps indirectly related to the final outcome, and while every decision made by the artist will come together and result in the final imagery, these decisions do not have the same directness as a brush stroke in painting. The indirectness used to create a final result is the part of printmaking that I fell in love with, and the process and nature of printmaking relates to many other aspects in my life.
A lot of people will say that life is not about the end result, but the journey to get there. Printmaking is a journey. It takes time, patience, and foresight to put together a final product. One of my favorite things to do in life is travel. I grew up in a family of six, and for vacations or even just for fun, we would load up in the Suburban and take off. We never really knew where we were going, especially in the days before cell phones and easy GPS. Instead, my parents would pick a place, get a map, and begin the journey. For hours, I would look out the window, letting my imagination run wild. I would get caught up in the beauty of the world around me. These trips never really led anywhere; they were about the journey. Sometimes we found ourselves at a hot springs or at my grandparents’ house, but ultimately the hours spent driving to a destination were not just a waste of time, but actually time well spent.
There are so many other examples of processes which occur in my life. I have spent my whole life competing in athletic competitions which ultimately led to a collegiate football career. I played many positions in high school and carried that into college for my first year, but after two years I whittled it down to focus on punting. I had a goal to be the best in my school’s history and set myself up for a shot at a professional career. I spent the next three years training with coaches and learning the steps it takes to skillfully punt the ball, not just kick it down the field. After three years of training and competing, the process that allowed me to learn how to punt well led me to achieve my goals, but also taught me to slow down a little. As the end to my football career drew closer, I started to lose sight of the journey, and my focus blurred. I was getting so close to the end that I could taste it, but I was not pushing myself to finish the process. Fifteen years of football came down to my most successful season, and a good, but not great, end that I had envisioned. However, the enduring process which I learned in football is directly relatable to the process of making a print. Every step builds upon the next and focusing on the end result rather than the mark being made blurs the focus.
Some of my friends in printmaking classes often wish the process would melt away and final products could come to fruition with more ease, but then it would not really be printmaking. The hard work done in producing a print only minimally goes into the print itself. The hard work is completed in all the steps that lead up to a final print. These steps are the process, and the process is what makes printmaking so special to me.
The Woodcut Medium.
In the fall of 2016 I was introduced to my first woodcut printmaking class. I was instantly drawn towards this technique as each mark is a record of the process in the making. There was an intimacy involved with the knife and the woodblock being carved. In a way, carving each mark is like shifting through the dust to find something beautiful. As each piece is removed from the block it comes one tiny step closer to its realization despite the fact that the carved away pieces will never show on the final print. In woodcut printmaking, the marks made are not like those in a direct medium such as painting. Each mark appears, but it is not the mark or brushstroke, which the viewer will see, but the area left behind. The carving is like a beautiful scar. What becomes the print is ultimately a combination of missing marks. It is not the mark itself that makes the print, but the space which is left behind, and the area which is influenced by this reverse method. This indirect process can be challenging, but is not the only aspect which the artist has to consider. The arrangements of the marks as a whole must fit the imagery in the flipped orientation, since making a woodcut print is actually like looking in a mirror. This creates a dual complexity in the work which must be overcome by the artist.
When creating art, the orientation of the piece is paramount to the influencing the viewer’s attention. Where the viewer’s eye enters the print and how it moves through the work can impact their judgement, but can also be influenced by the artist’s decisions. As a woodcut artist, the trick of making the block inversely of the way you wish others would see the final product is just one more interesting challenge that brings woodcut printmaking to my attention.
While woodcut printmaking is not limited to black and white, there is a unique challenge that presents itself when working with only two values. Without the use of color or even greys, I am forced to focus on the relationship between the white space and black space. Controlling the size of each space allows for the final image to have different areas of that are dominated by either white or black, but when they are combined precisely and evenly then a grey area is revealed. The trick is working within a dominated area so that it maintains its either white or black dominance, but is now a black-grey or white-grey. A few marks can go a long way in altering the dominance of a space and when an area is manipulated too much it can never go backwards. The relationship between white and black is striking, and the manipulation of their presence can determine the success of the image.
The finality of each mark is yet another reason that woodcut printmaking is challenging. Every time I take a piece of wood away I am altering the ratio of white to black and do so in a way that is irrevocable. Every cut is a decision, but every cut does not have to be calculated. In producing woodcut prints I have found it challenging to work with a random precision. If every single mark made is highly calculated, then the organic relationship between the wood and the print and the interest of the viewer can be lost. Finding the balance between calculated and natural marks is a key element to woodblock printmaking.
I fell in love with the naturalness of the woodcut print, which is most certainty linked to my home life’s close affiliation with nature. There is an intimacy with carving away parts of wood to reveal an image that is hard to find in other types of printmaking. The process which involves inverse thinking on multiple levels is challenging and rewarding. This process is further complicated by the limited palate of black and white. Producing a range in the work demands an attention to detail that can take on the challenge of inverse thinking so that each mark constructs the final print in a way that intrigues and inspires the viewer.
The Prints.
Choosing the subject matter and the medium through which I would present my subject was an easy decision. Woodcut printmaking spoke to me as I connected with its difficulties and aspired to use them in the creation of my art. In my work I sought to display cattle in a way that held them in high esteem and honor their contribution to human society. In a way, the natural aspects of the woodblock print and the naturalness of cattle seem to come together in a harmonious relationship. The medium and the subject matter are interconnected and present an obvious answer to the first decision I had to make.
However, this easy decision is the only one to present itself, because the building a unified relationship between medium and subject matter has been difficult. The first of the woodcut cattle came at the end the Fall of 2016 semester. I was faced with a challenge of producing two separate prints which related to each other. The subject matter was left up to choice, so I naturally gravitated towards cattle. I produced the prints, and while they were both cattle, neither one of them had any unifying traits. The first was focused on the animal itself, and the second was focused on the powerful mark making and relationships within them that woodcut prints possess. Drawing inspiration from both images has led to a portion of the development of many of my prints over the past year.
In my work I seek not only to represent the cattle but also to manipulate the balance of black and white space, and the marks enabled by woodcut printmaking. Working in a way that balances the representation of the cattle, and the marks is difficult, and in some cases unsuccessful. In the process of designing a piece and completing it, it can become a difficult balancing act to maintain these qualities. In some cases, my pieces become overwhelmed with the mark making, and in other pieces the mark making becomes secondary to the cattle being represented. Through this year it has been a challenge to balance the mark making and representation, but when I am successful then at least one aspect of my intentions has succeeded.
While maintaining an equal presence of mark making and representation is difficult, there is another key element to each piece that must also be incorporated in a way so that it, too, does not overcome the rest of the imagery. The third element is associated with the rectangular shapes that form within and around the cattle. These rectangular shapes, or as I call them, “blocks,” add a different, but an equally important element to the prints.
The blocks have a two-part construction to the creation of the prints. The first part is related to the blocks aesthetic contribution and the second is on a conceptual level. Aesthetically, the rectangular shapes are meant to contrast the organic shape that the cattle bring to the print. The cattle are composed of flowing, yet bulky shapes that come together in a way to make the representation of the animal. By itself, the cattle have very limited hard edges, but the blocks introduce straight lines into what would be a curving composition. They are a hard edge that diverge from the organic shape of the cattle, and while they may contrast with the cattle in general, the blocks are also used to construct the representation of the cattle. The blocks use their hard edges as well as the organic marks of woodcut printmaking to work with one another and produce the representation of the cattle. As the mark making and representation of the cattle fight for equality in dominance, so do the blocks. This three-part image is a trifecta of intentions that must be organized in a way that communicates all the elements of my prints. These blocks are therefore used in a way that cause the viewer to ask why and how such an organic subject matter can be composed of such hard edges?
The second and more significant element to the blocks are their conceptual properties. These blocks highlight the reason I chose cattle as my subject matter. The blocks are a metaphor for the process which involves cattle with humanity and are a part of the way in which I seek to honor their role. The rectangular shapes embody the characteristics of simple building blocks. As a child, some of my favorite toys were Legos. They link together and build upon one another to result in a final creation, but if one piece was missing, or the foundation was not established then the whole project might fall apart. Cattle, as described above, play a vital role in feeding humanity, and creating jobs for people like my family and many others. They are a dynamic piece to a larger system, and without them, humanity would be lacking. Cattle are the foundation to the larger process, and through the use of these blocks to intermingle and create the representation of cattle in my art, I am given the ability to honor their role.
These blocks, like the cattle, are much more than an aesthetic contribution to art. They represent the significance cattle play in our lives. The blocks that activate the image are an indication to the importance of process. While they contribute to the final print in multiple ways it is their metaphorical aspect which continues to bring them into the trifecta of my woodcut prints.
My Inspiration.
No artist is a one-person art show. People draw inspiration from their family, friends, professors and artists who came before them. For me these inspirational artists span from the early 1900s to the present, and the first of many is Pablo Picasso. Picasso was a genius and applied his abilities across many different mediums from painting to sculpture to printmaking and more. Picasso’s biggest contribution to my own work was his development of cubism. Cubism has two goals. First, cubism seeks to break down the traditional perspective and secondly inserts geometric shapes and hard lines into the formation of the artwork. The second part to cubism has really shaped much of my own work as I too seek to involve hard edges with the organic shape of cattle.
The era of German expressionists that overlap Picasso have also had a large impact on my own creative progress. Artists like Erich Heckel and Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, are prime examples of the German expressionist art movement. While both are painters, for me their woodcut prints are the most inspiring pieces. The movement itself is characterized by its emotionally charged messages and by the calculated, bold mark making evident in the prints. This type of mark making preformed masterfully by both Heckel and Kirchner is a something I draw from and seek to use in my own art, without it becoming the dominant style in the prints.
Leonard Baskin’s work while different from the artists above is still very impactful. His work varies but tends to be constructed out of a confined mess. Many of his works are filled with lines that go everywhere, and yet overlap in ways that develop the lights and darks of the print. In a way, Baskin controls chaos to create imagery that appears to be free and random but maintains control of his work. The freedom exhibited by Baskin is something I am searching for. In much of my own work I can tend to be overly calculated and measure each mark that I make. In hopes to develop my own work, I draw from artists like Baskin who seem to marry random marks with a soundly constructed image.
A present day hero of mine is Chuck Close. His work is a combination of parts that come together as a whole. From a distance, Close’s paintings are unmistakably recognizable as faces, but with closer inspection the squares that make up each portrait become much clearer as the portrait itself diminishes. Each square acts as a pixel and is uniquely created, so that when aligned together and viewed from afar, the imagery is clear. In my own work I have sought a similar aesthetic. Each mark is unmistakably unique, but when viewed in its entirety the representation of the cattle is clear within the print. Close’s use of parts creating a whole is also relevant to my role in the cattle industry. I represent a small step in a larger process in which cattle are involved, but without each piece there cannot be a final product.
Artists like Picasso, Heckel, Kirchner, Baskin, and Close represent only a few of the artists from who I draw encouragement. As I move forward with my own work and continue to develop my artistic expression, I will always look back on those who have come before me so that I might build upon my own abilities. I am lucky there are many great artists for me to to learn from, and I will continue to lean on them as I grow.
The End...For Now.
Despite my youth, as life has progressed it has taught me the importance of process, especially within art. Creating a work of art with a concentration over two semesters has not come without its challenges. It is difficult to maintain motivation. To innovate my ideas, and produce prints which fall within a similar context while also maintaining their individuality. This particular process which revolves around the Honors Project is a small but significant piece of my development as an artist, and a human being. Everything from my roots, my travels, my athletic passions, my faith, and my artwork, are all wrapped up in their own processes which then combine to make me who I am. It is my hope that my art will bring a sense of joy to those who take the time to see it, that some part of their hearts are touched, and the deeper message residing within the print will reach them so that they too can understand the importance of small things that often lead to making big differences.