Jake Saunders

Jake Saunders is a Chicago artist working in printmaking as well as drawing and painting. Hailing from Muncie, Indiana, Jake grew up with a love for a variety of narrative based art forms, which became a focus in his art practice. After becoming fascinated with the unique aesthetics of woodcuts and etchings and their aptitude for seriality and multiplicity, Jake earned a BFA and MA in printmaking from Ball State University and went on to earn his MFA at the University of Connecticut. He has since gone on to show nationally and internationally. Today, Jake’s work amalgamates narratives to explore the concept of tragedy in forms both grand and mundane.

Services Offered:

  • Exhibition Opportunities
  • Printmaking Commissions

Website:

jakesaunders.net/

Residency Period:

Sep 2016–Dec 2016

Project Statement:

Through the use of pre­-established and widely known narratives, my works use symbols, references and visual tropes as a foil for personal and often common experiences. My use of these stories provides a ready-­made visual language of symbolic and allegorical tools in which I utilize to my own ends. An array of artists have frequently used self images as acts of strategic and symbolic significance. Caravaggio frequently portrayed himself as the dismembered head of Goliath, Medusa or Saint John the Baptist while leading an extremely self destructive and violent life. In the same fashion I utilize my self image and the images of friends and loved ones strategically. This way my works tell a story within the confines of another story. Using a well known narrative to express things outside its traditional confines, I inevitably comment upon the narrative itself, its subject or its origin. I often use a story against itself to criticize, subvert or bring to light problematic areas of a culturally relevant anecdote. Print media is philosophically in line with the storyteller. The print’s high aptitude for multiplicity and seriality go hand in hand with storytelling and its need for proliferation. However, more than anything, I view print media like intaglio and relief as a way of extending the act of drawing. As a natural draftsman, I often engage printmaking as a means of refinement.

Classes by this Artist:

Relief Printmaking
Etching & Intaglio Printmaking (May 2017)
Relief Tester & Refresher (Sept 2017)
Relief Printmaking (Sept 2017)
Etching Tester & Refresher (Oct 2017)
Etching & Intaglio Printmaking (Oct 2017)
Relief Printmaking
Etching 201: Color
Etching Tester & Refresher
Relief Printmaking
Relief Printmaking: Carving & Printing Woodblocks (July)
DIY Greeting Cards: Relief Printing

Products by this Artist: