Brought to You by Big Oil and Irresponsible Government

PIPELINES & BORDERLINES: People Can't Drink OIL! Print Portfolio

"Brought to You by Big Oil and Irresponsible Government" Relief Print by Jill Kramer

Bio:
Kramer is a printmaker based in Oak Park, Illinois. She is a native of Chesterland, Ohio and received her BFA from Kent State University. She obtained her Masters of Arts in Art Education from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and is currently the Education Center Supervisor for the Elmhurst Art Museum.

Jill’s current artistic practice focuses on landscape and it’s deterioration, through natural and man made causes. She uses relief and screen print methods to investigate her inquiries into this natural erosion and express her thoughts on idealized scenery. Her most recent projects have revolved around issues that allow her to contribute to group dialogue and participate in collective action on social justice environmental issues.
Jill works from her home studio where she lives with her husband and two children.

Artist's Statement:
I grew up in a rural area of North East Ohio. On hot summer days, nothing was better than cranking the water pump out side to take a gulp of ice cold well water from the natural spring on my parents property. I can still remember the slight metallic taste of iron that lingered in my mouth as the refreshing liquid ran down my throat.

Nowadays, I drink from the same water source that all Chicago area residents rely - Lake Michigan. And while this water still quenches a thirst, it remains flat in it’s delivery. The thought of reaching for a glass of water, with tiny amounts of benzene and arsenic from the runoff of Dilbit that has been transported through pipelines that cross the United States is a bit unsetteling. When Dilbit spills, as it did in 2010 outside of Marshall, Michigan, ground water is contaminated with small amounts of benzine and arsenic. These chemicals are used to thin the heavy oil so that it can flow easily through pipelines. When there is a spill or leak in these lines, ground water and drinking water becomes contaminated. Benzine is a known cancer causing chemical and arsenic has been used mainly as an insecticide for agricultural usage.

I cannot image now, taking a sip from the water pump of my childhood, and having to wonder if I was consuming cancer causing chemicals and known poisons at the expense of trying to quench my thirst.

The Geology of Louisiana #3

PIPELINES & BORDERLINES: People Can't Drink OIL! Print Portfolio

 

"The Geology of Louisiana #3" Print by Pippin Frisbie-Calder

Untitled

PIPELINES & BORDERLINES: People Can't Drink OIL! Print Portfolio

 

"Untitled" Print by Natalie Woodlock

Flush BP

PIPELINES & BORDERLINES: People Can't Drink OIL! Print Portfolio

 

"Flush BP" Screen Print by Janet Schill

Artist's Statement: 
A Toilet – is this what it comes to. We are given an opportunity to take care our planet. Watching those who turn our environment into a waste dump is sad and frustrating. If we don’t say something it will be too late for all of us. Bev Keys in her quest to creatively expose some of these problems has led me to the screen print called “Flush BP”. No more should be said. A large toilet is what they think our lake should become. Doesn’t matter, we drink, swim, and fish out of this lake. It’s a waste dump to the refinery.

Bio: 
Janet Schill is a printmaker who lives in Riverside Illinois. She received a BFA 1987 from Southern Illinois University in Carbondale. After moving to Oak Park, Illinois, in 1991, she joined Expressions Graphics. In the summer of 1996 she graduated from Northern Illinois University with a Masters of Fine Arts degree. She currently serves as executive director of Expressions Graphics gallery and press shop which is located in Oak Park. Her current focus is in screen printing on paper. She has exhibit in both national and international shows.

Just Add Water

PIPELINES & BORDERLINES: People Can't Drink OIL! Print Portfolio

 

"Just Add Water" Print by Fawn Atencio

British Prostitute

PIPELINES & BORDERLINES: People Can't Drink OIL! Print Portfolio

 

"British Prostitute" Linocut by Carlos Barberena 

Bio: 
Carlos Barberena is a Nicaraguan self-taught visual artist based in Chicago, he has exhibited individually in Costa Rica, Mexico, Nicaragua, Spain and The USA. His work has been shown in important Art Fairs, Art Biennials, Museums, Galleries and Cultural Centers around the world.

Mr. Barberena’s work was selected to represent Nicaragua in the XIII Art Salon, Identity Imprint: A Glance at Ibero-American Printmaking at the Mexican Cultural Institute in Washington, DC.; the 6th KIWA at the Kyoto Museum of Art in Japan; the 8th Triennial - Mondial de L’Estampe et de la Gravure Originale in Chamalieres, France; and the V Biennial of Caribbean Dominican Republic. He was invited to participate in the III World Body Art Conference in Venezuela and more recently, in the exhibition “Les Saltimbanques” an homage to Gustave Doré at the Musée d’Art Roger-Quilliot - MARQ - in France, where his work was exhibited alongside Doré’s Masterpiece.

He has received various awards, most notably the National Printmaking Award 2012 given by the Nicaraguan Institute of Culture in Managua, Nicaragua and the award- poster for the Ecology and Human Rights in Banana Plantations in Costa Rica, given by GEBANA in Berlin, Germany. Barberena’s work is in the collection of KIWA, Kyoto, Japan; the School of Fine Arts, (UNAM), Mexico; the Triennial Prints Cabinet, AMAC, France; the International Exlibriscentrum, Stedelijke Museum in Sint-Niklaas, Belgium; the Lia Bermudez Museum, Venezuela; Praxis Gallery of Nicaragua, the National Gallery of Costa Rica and the Museum of Contemporary Art "Julio Cortazar" in Managua, Nicaragua.

Whiting Springs

PIPELINES & BORDERLINES: People Can't Drink OIL! Print Portfolio

 

"Whiting Springs" Print by Geoffrey Sciacca 

Bio: 
Geoff holds a BFA (Auburn University) and an MFA (Lousiana Tech University) in Graphic Design—the field in which he currently serves as a professor at Elmhurst College. While his design background undeniably influences his prints, geoff finds screen printing to provide a welcome respite from the digital environment, and an ideal medium for communicating.

Statement: 
With the vast amount of communities relying on the Great Lakes for drinking water, the thought of the refinery in Whiting, IN dumping increasing, unacceptable amounts of waste into Lake Michigan in order to refine a dirty source of fuel is beyond upsetting. This satirical piece brings this to attention by recontextualizing drinking water from Lake Michigan; it alludes to the historic nature of the Whiting refinery through the stylistic treatment of the bottle label; and makes reference to the corporate greed behind this expansion through the color and symbology of the background pattern. Perhaps the notion of polluted drinking water is more tangible in a plastic bottle than looking out at one of the world's largest lakes.

The Resource Curse

PIPELINES & BORDERLINES: People Can't Drink OIL! Print Portfolio

 

"The Resource Curse" Print by Michelle Mashon 

Artist statement:
I've always been an illustrator at heart, wanting to tell a story through every painting and print. As a New Orleans native, this subject was near and dear to me and I had a lot of feelings about it- my goal was not attempt to say everything, but to focus on one or two results of the many tragedies BP has brought upon the US and present these in a print drawn in the allegorical tradition.

Muck-Minded Sentries of the Ruby

PIPELINES & BORDERLINES: People Can't Drink OIL! Print Portfolio

 

"Muck-Minded Sentries of the Ruby" Print by Liz Born

Toxxxicity

PIPELINES & BORDERLINES: People Can't Drink OIL! Print Portfolio

“Toxxxicity” Linocut Print by Joshua Kolbow 

Joshua Kolbow’s Statement 
The concept of “Toxxxicity” is pretty cut and dry. America is a whore selling her freedom for the right price. Elected officials, “Big-Oil” lobbyists, and corporate devils have become America’s pimps. They sell her to increase profits and obtain power with no concern for citizen welfare or America’s future. Like all whores, America will eventually become tainted with disease and cease to be profitable. Her infestation of greed and corruption will make her expendable garbage. Until then, we watch as each devil takes their turn riding America for the money shot.

Artist Bio 
Joshua Kolbow is a 2011 graduate from University of Wisconsin – Stevens Point with a B.F.A. focusing on Drawing and Printmaking. Heralding to the precision and composition of Renaissance and Baroque masters such as Durer and Caravaggio, Joshua fuses Renaissance draftsmanship with graphic – novels’ dynamic narratives and forges compositions with forceful satirical motives. Joshua’s work has been exhibited primarily in Wisconsin, including Stevens Point, Manitowoc, and Milwaukee. He recently participated in an international print exchange featuring over 150 artists from 20 different countries. Joshua teaches relief printmaking workshops to bring his passion for prints and art to new people so they can experience new ideas and become part of the printmaking community. Joshua resides and works in West Bend, Wisconsin where he pursues his printmaking career and plans to enter a graduate program.

BP Arrives

PIPELINES & BORDERLINES: People Can't Drink OIL! Print Portfolio

 

"BP Arrives" Linocut by Rene Arceo

Artist's Statement:
"My print is about the pollution threat we, in Chicago, are under because of the PB plant located in Whiting, Indiana, a stone's throw away from the third largest city in the United States. On the bottom of the composition I included several Chicago buildings and coming from the top a giant gentle, ghost-like figure, beginning to cover and darken the sky. The giant ghost, who comes from BP plant, leaves across its path the polluting chemicals that plant processes and dumps in our environment. This includes ammonia, sulfur, nox, pm10, voc, so2, co, chloride, mercury and lead."

Spew

PIPELINES & BORDERLINES: People Can't Drink OIL! Print Portfolio

 

"Spew" Print by Ruthann Godollei

Artist's Statement:
I was born in Indiana when Gary was dark at noon from industrial air pollution, now I live in a state extracting Mississippi River sand and the water for washing it for fracking oil and gas elsewhere. We also have a 300-mile Canadian tar sands crude oil pipeline in Minnesota with record of ruptures and fires. Reading about the oil contamination in the Gulf of Mexico, I was struck by the smallness of the words used to describe huge events: "spill", or "leak". The text and images in my prints point to policy and consequences. That we decide as a society to allow deep water drilling and hydraulic sand fracturing strikes me as absurd. That we let corporations decide environmental policy strikes me as criminal.

Ruthann Godollei is a Professor of Art at Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota. She exhibits internationally, incorporating political and social commentary in her prints. Her work is in many internatinal collections, such as the Centre For Fine Print Research, Bristol, UK, the Polish National Museum of Art, Poznan, KUMU National Art Museum, Tallinn, Estonia and the penang State Museum, Malaysia.

Bioaccumulation

PIPELINES & BORDERLINES: People Can't Drink OIL! Print Portfolio

 

"Bioaccumulation" by Michelle Rozic 

Artist Statement: 
Representational art affords a greater understanding of the everyday world by focusing in on moments to contemplate, inherently questioning what is real and what is imitation. Today these distinctions are blurring because of advances in science and technology. With copies developing at ever quickening rates, it becomes difficult to decipher what is original to nature.

Images of flora and fauna from Lake Michigan’s food web shed light on industries impact on local ecosystems. Bioaccumulation occurs as environmental contaminants accumulate in organisms during the cycle of producer, consumer, and decomposer. The contamination magnifies as predator eats prey, with those at the top of the food chain receiving the highest dose.

These representations bring to light acceptance of the reproduction as a stand in for the original – malformed animals for healthy – asking what is lost and what is gained by these evolutions.

Artist Bio:
I received my BFA in fine arts from the Columbus College of Art and Design and MFA in printmaking from Indiana University, Bloomington. Currently I am an assistant professor of art and printmaking area coordinator at California State University, Northridge. My work has shown throughout the U.S. and abroad. Recent projects include curating Edge of Life: Forest Pathology Art, a collaborative, invitational, art and forestry exhibit and accompanying catalog. In 2010 I spent time at the U.T. Dallas Central Trak artist residency creating work for Edge of Life.