Julianna Kirwin

As a printmaker, I am constantly seeking new adventures in the myriad ways there are to make prints! In 2025 I was thrilled to have a solo show in a large theater space in Albuquerque, giving me the opportunity to experiment with the idea of a theater setting, and expand the scale of my work. Specializing in woodblock, I wondered how I could use the medium to be visible from a distance, filling the eight-five-foot wall of the theater and the twelve-foot-high ceilings. I decided to work from large sheets of plywood. The pieces would have bold, flat colors, simple shapes and just a few carved lines. Each block needed to fit on the 24” wide press bed of my Takach etching press. I reviewed some of my favorite older prints and chose tiny parts from each one. For example, a little table, the tumbleweeds that I use repeatedly in my work, two three-inch portraits of grandparent figures and a man’s suit from one of Pablo Neruda’s odes. From New Mexico landscapes, I drew crows flying over our Rio Grande River, and large sunflowers. Working with charcoal, I drew freely onto the plywood, then cut the one-inch-thick plywood shapes with a jig saw. My electric carving tool allowed me to make fluid lines. I inked and then printed the blocks onto a heavyweight roll of Kozo from Hiromi Paper. From each woodblock I made very small editions of five or six prints. Three of the prints are above. Thanks to Albuquerque Urban Enhancement Trust Fund for supporting this show.

Julianna Kirwin was named after her grandmother, Julianna, an immigrant from Poland whose objects around her house and the cut paper traditions of Poland became part of the inspiration and language of Julianna’s artwork. Her printmaking career began as soon as she got out of college when she became a student at Sagrada Art Studios in Old Town, Albuquerque. With a master's in Art Education/Bilingual Education from the University of New Mexico, Julianna taught art for several years in the public school district of Bernalillo which served four Native pueblos. An emphasis on literacy combined with art has continued into her personal work as an artist. In 2016, she purchased a Takach etching press and began hosting printmaking classes and community projects in her studio, obtaining grants to do community printmaking projects in her neighborhood. Frequent travels to Mexico from 2018 to the present have allowed her to study with prominent printmakers and her training in printmaking has mostly taken place in Oaxaca. In 2021, she co-founded the collective, Herstory Printmaking and has taught many members of her community to make prints as part of Banners on Mountain Road and the Wells Park Community Mural Project. “I believe printmaking should be a collaborative effort with people interacting around the press and taking supportive roles in each other’s projects.” Her work is represented by Hecho a Mano Gallery in Santa Fe, NM.

2-D, Printmaking/Lithography