STEAMROLLER PRINT FEST
Illustrations and text by Colin Secore
The Neighborhood Print Studio has begun an annual tradition of celebrating local artists and art educators with a printmaking festival of grand proportions on Art Walk weekend in Kingston. More than 30 artists took on the task of carving a beautiful design on a 2-by-2 feet linoleum block. Then, on the 20th of September, all of the blocks were gathered at the Neighborhood Print Studio before being inked and arranged together in trios. The entirety of Iwo Jima lane was sanctioned off so the titular steamroller had the space required to make its steady path over a wood board that would print the blocks onto a fabric banner. This upscaled artistic process was complete all thanks to an entire construction vehicle. There was also the Teaching Artists’ exhibition at the DRAW Gallery, displaying the works of MKAD staff and art educators who have taught with us over the past several years.
While the act of steamroller printing is a sight to behold in its own right, the most beautiful part of the event in my opinion is the way the individual styles of these many artists are brought out in such big and spectacular ways. The combination of dark ink and distinct linework makes the array of art very visually striking, the finer details of personal art styles made clear in the process. This community has gathered a vast collection of artists from different backgrounds and generations, people who are passing on their knowledge to anyone willing to learn and people who are only now emerging into the art world. That’s what MKAD really strives to highlight and celebrate. The Neighborhood Print Studio now houses the collection of proofs that were printed in preparation for the Steamroller Print Fest, all currently on display and for sale.
FEATURED ARTIST: PABLO SHINE
Pablo Shine is a painter and musician based in Kingston, teaching all levels of watercolor painting at the Neighborhood Print Studio and performing in his Latin jazz band. He got his start in Puerto Rico, learning oil painting from his father. He’s had many jobs throughout his life, but his favorite is being a teacher. He worked as a watercolor paint professor at SUNY Ulster until he quit in 2020 and became an educator for MKAD, leaving people with the experience to embrace a new accessible form of expression. Being able to provide people with tools and knowledge to engage with creation and beauty is a philosophy that’s woven into Pablo’s goals as a teacher and artist.
Pablo has followed his heart his whole life, working with different kinds of painting and styles and subject matter that are all born from his love of his culture. Over the past decade, his passion lies with representing the deities of the Yoruba religion that was brought to the Caribbean in the African diaspora and the Latin American culture of that time period. Said deities were not allowed to be worshipped, and the people at the time looked for depictions of Catholic figures with similarities to pray to their deities. Pablo has represented these deities with a deep honor to be a descendant of that culture, painting their likenesses with incredible detail resembling the iconic and spectacular religious paintings of the Renaissance. The subjects emanate a lively, earthly divinity brimming with love and life.
“As an artist, you look for something you want to speak about. Some people paint landscapes, some people paint portraits, still lifes, abstraction. It depends on what you’re attracted to. I got that attraction to speak about that particular period of the Caribbean.” -Pablo Shine
