This past summer I spent about 47 hours working with Philadelphia artist Leslie Friedman. She has worked with different subject matters, but we were focused on Jewish myths and stereotypes. That is something that is very important to her, but she does “poke fun” with those ideas through her images. She is a screen printer (silk screen, but not on fabric). She prints many of her images on linoleum tiles, like the type we walk on. I learned how to do color separations for multiple color printing, too.

I was able to earn 1.5 graduate credits towards my MA in Art Education working with Leslie in her Kensington studio this summer. When it was 95 degrees outside, it was 105+ degrees in her studio. We sweat… a lot. I helped her with printing on the tiles, coating them with a polycrylic sealer, and washing the screens after printing. We also spent some time at Tyler School of Art working in the computer lab, coating screens with photo emulsion, and making new exposures.

I am finally going back to grad school at The University of the Arts after a long 4 year maternity absence. Leslie is a recent MFA printmaking grad from Tyler School of Art. She teaches at Tyler, University of the Arts, and Muhlenberg College. She attended Brown University for Political Science before entering the art world.

One of the projects that we worked on printing tiles for was a half-pipe skating ramp in Grand Rapids, MI. She raised money for the project from donations through the USA Projects website. After it’s built, she will adhere all of the tiles that we printed and shape them to adorn the ramp. This project is in the works right now. I had such an incredible experience this past summer and would love to work with Leslie in the future.