Book and Paper Studios Humming with Summer Activity

Jill Lanza (MFA, 2008) and Amy Rabas (MFA, 2012) have been getting down to business in the paper studios the past two weeks, each working on the projects they proposed for the first CBPA Alumnae Studio Access Award.

Jill, currently a member of the faculty at Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design, has been working on two different projects during her studio time. The first project is for her installation Hybrid, scheduled for installation at the Chicago Center for Green Technology this coming fall.


Detail from the project proposal for Hybrid

Her second project, Greener Spaces, uses Chicago’s local water, affected by agriculture run-off and industrial waste, to create sheets for her prints and drawings. Her aim with this interdisciplinary work is to expose the negative environmental effects of our actions on the water, creating positive informed dialogue, and hopefully instigating action and change.

In her recent MFA Thesis Exhibition work, Amy Rabas also reflected on man’s impact and relationship with the natural environment. During her summer studio access residency, she’ll further developing her work Rehydrated Fish, which consists of a series of pulp-painted prints based on manipulated imagery from a ‘zine of the same title she I created in late 2011. The ‘zine contains of a series of vintage images of men and women posing with their freshly-caught trophy fish. Amy has rotated the images, and uses color and graphic imagery to “add water,” in a symbolic attempt to return the fish back to the wild.


Part of the 'zine series Rehydrated Fish

Both artists are in residence during the month of July, one of the hottest on record in Chicago, adding a timely sense of urgency to the artistic dialogues they are pursuing in their current work. Enjoy the slideshow of their work and time in the studio here.