ARLINGTON — A steamroller is not a traditional art tool, but a donation from Rex’s Rentals allowed Emily Palmiter’s students at Arlington High School to create eye-catching linoleum prints depicting the Pacific Northwest.
Palmiter’s sister works as a printmaker, and takes part in an annual steamroller printing festival in Tacoma.
“I was really inspired by her work, and thought this would be an awesome event for my advanced students,” Palmiter said.
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She also enlisted the aid of Calvin Rengen, the father of a student, who works in the construction industry.
“He called up Rex at Rex’s Rentals and agreed to be our driver,” Palmiter said.
From there, Palmiter tasked her students with photographing their surroundings for inspiration. When they came back to class, she taught them about linoleum print-making, including how to carve linoleum blocks.
Students set aside one week to draw their images onto the blocks, then another two weeks to carve the blocks, before spending almost a month carving them at home.
They soaked their paper the night before their printing day, April 29. It took a day to print the blocks.
“The printing process takes so long that we were only able to make about three prints per block,” Palmiter said. “Fortunately, Everett Community College was kind enough to lend us their large ink rollers, to make applying the ink a lot quicker.”
More than two dozen students joined in creating the images.
“On the printing day, it was fun to see students jumping in to help ink the blocks, even the ones that aren’t in my class,” Palmiter said.
Palmiter would love to do the project again for next year’s arts week at AHS, but she’d like to prepare her students better for the printing day itself.
“It was a lot more work than they had anticipated, although they were excited to do it,” Palmiter said. “As far as the artwork is concerned, I could not be happier. I challenged them with a project that is complicated in both skill and concept, and they certainly rose to the occasion..”
Palmiter noted that the school’s arts week routinely boasts “outstanding performances” by the band, choir and drama programs.
“I thought this would be a unique and dynamic way to show off what my students are doing,” Palmiter said. “It allowed their peers to see them in action. There are so many talented students in the art programs at AHS, and arts week as a whole is just a beautiful celebration of them.”
