Featured Artist: Ren Adams

I recently took a class on dry-point etching from Ren Adams at New Grounds Print Workshop. Ren is a cross-media artist and has introduced classes that use hybrid printing methods that break down the boundaries among various printmaking techniques.

: Ren Adams: Cross-Media Artist

I enjoyed the class very much and am incorporating dry-point printing with my monotypes to create a new group of paper quilts. (See my blog “Creating New Art with Dry Point Etching“)

Ren move to Albuquerque from California in 2005 to pursue a BFA in Studio Arts (printmaking) at the University of New Mexico. She also has an MFA in Visual Art from Lesley University College of Art & Design.

Ren has a studio above New Grounds where she works on her new media, installation and other work. (She does her video and experimental photography work at home — better computer system!)

San Fernando (tomorrow, never) Mixed Media Print by Ren Adams (2015) from her series Desert (Loss)

Ren has been a great addition to the New Grounds faculty. In addition to dry-point etching, she teaches classes in trace monotype, multi-plate “stamping” and experimental methods in monotype. These new exciting techniques are inspiring new work by the artists who take these classes.

According to Ren, “The combination of inherited tradition and its application to emerging technique offers the perfect, time defying approach. . . There is something complimentary about print and brush, trace and formation, a relationship I continually explore by combining these mediums formally.”

abstract print using monotype and other techniques. There is a poppy in the background.

Language of Memory 2 Mixed Media Print (2017) by Ren Adams from her Poppy Receding series

With her interdisciplinary and cross-media approach to visual art, Ren Adams is an artist to watch. I find her work exciting and look forward to seeing where she takes her art from here.

Find out more about Ren Adams at the following sites:

Website: www.renadamsart.com
Blog: renadamsmfa.wordpress.com

— Vicki Bolen, Paper Artist Extraordinaire