Devon Stackonis
Devon Stackonis is a mezzotint printmaker pursuing her MFA from the University of Wisconsin Madison. Her intricate prints are that of years of experience, keeping a centuries old art from alive in the modern age.
Mezzotint print making is defined as “An engraving technique developed in the seventeenth century which allows for the creation of prints with soft gradations of tone and rich and velvety blacks” (tate.org.uk).
“My current body of work serves as a personal reflection of the mountainous coal regions of Eastern Pennsylvania where I grew up and the environmental and socioeconomic impacts of an obsolete industry. My ancestors immigrated and settled in this part of Pennsylvania from Eastern Europe, primarily Lithuania and Poland. They were miners of Anthracite coal in Pennsylvania until the mines closed in the early 20th century. The inhabitants and the landscape never truly recovered from this industrial past, and I find this to be compelling grounds for my research and visual art.
My imagery is rendered after hand-built maquettes made of paper, tape, and other found materials. More recently my models are covered in a heavy carborundum grit or sand, representing the fragility of these structural systems subjected to a harmful past and an industry which has abandoned them. The carborundum functions as an agent with which to bury something: a memory or difficult history which is purposefully forgotten. Through mezzotint, I slowly recover these forms from a black ground to echo the record of wear on the landscape and its local communities.” -Devon Stackonis, 2022
See examples of Stackonis’ work
Venture in the process of how a mezzotint print is made from start to finish.
Listen to an interview with Devon Stackonis and learn more about her exhibition in March, 2023.
Read about the journey of Devon Stackonis and her journey as a Mezzotint printmaker.