Community Printmaking Workshop with Ellen Coleman Izzo

Ellen Coleman Izzo from the Neighborhood Printing Collective is partnering with the Brooklyn Public Library to bring a free, open to the public workshop.  On October 29th, we will be making art with and gathering stories from the community in celebration of our neighborhoods.

During this workshop, participants will learn how to make and print collagraph plates.  Collagraph is a simple printmaking technique that can be made with easy to find materials and printed in a surprising variety of ways.  We will use old file folders to cut, arrange and glue making a “plate“ representing a person, place or thing of importance from the neighborhood.  Plates will be inked and printed multiple times on papers and/or a simple fabric flag for workshop artists to take home.  As we are working, Ellen would love to hear and record stories from past or present about life along the Verrazzano/BQE/Gowanus Expressway.  These stories and plates will become part of a large-scale collaboration between workshop participants and the artist.

Ellen Coleman Izzo is a visual artist working primarily with printmaking mediums. She lives and works in Brooklyn, NY, maintaining a studio practice in a storefront often open to the public. Her desire to build a community around an etching press has resulted in First Fridays at PrintSpace, which has been growing since 2019. PrintSpace workshops are devoted to the exploration and experimentation of printmaking techniques for the novice and experienced artist. Ellen has exhibited extensively through the New York Society of Etchers, NARS Foundation, St. Josephs College, and the Lower East Side Printshop. She has been included in numerous group shows in the US and abroad. Ellen has concentrated on domestic and social issues and has relied heavily on printmaking techniques as the vehicle for driving change. Eliciting change and providing choices are what she strives for as an artist and a teacher.