Devon Stackonis

Mezzotint was the task of last week, and this week it's aquatint! Here's a bit of the process this plate has been through so far. I'll finish the final tonal step etches tomorrow, and should have a proof soon after. Working on this during the typhoon that hit here this past weekend was an experience, and definitely intensified my feelings about the content of the river lock gates. More to come!

Plate progress and highlights of the last week at including the Thai Contemporary Printmaking Exhibition at the Guanlan Printmaking Musuem. It's incredible to be immersed in such incredible works and culture.

making me look much cooler than I am on a very hot humid Wrocław day. We walked along the Odra river in June and got photos by some of the places that have inspired my current work (plus a test photo with some roses that I loved). Thank you CJ!!!! You rock. ✨

Big plate underway! This will be my largest copper etching. I'm going to try and work some mezzotint into the gate structure. Settling into drawing lines through hard ground the first few days of the residency during heavy rains. So thankful for this focused studio time.

Guanlan Original Printmaking Base. I've dreamt of participating in this residency for as long as I've known about it. It's so surreal to be here. Two months begins now! So excited to get to work on some larger etchings and thrilled to be here for my first time alongside for his 10th! ✨

Last proof I printed in Poland before the end of a very busy second semester! Combining etching with overlayed mezzotint here. I may scrape some more before running a small edition of this one, and then maybe a larger version. Water tower by the rail station in Gliwice, with some trees on top.

Thank you for having me as a visiting lecturer !!! I really enjoyed presenting here and connecting with such an engaged community. It was a pleasure ✨

SUB(SCAPE) opens tonight!

This print is going to be on view in a few places in the near future! ✨✨✨

SUB(SCAPE) exhibition at Manifest Gallery in Cincinnati (opens tonight!)

9th Graphic Art Biennial of Szeklerland, International juried exhibition at the Transylvanian Art Center in Sfâtu Gheorghe, Romania (opens in October)

You, Me, and the Moon (part II) Across a Great Distance and Increasingly Dire Circumstances

I decided to revisit a print I made in 2020 during a residency at (as many things have been feeling like a fever dream relapse into 2020) You, Me, and the Moon (mezzotint) featured two tower structures based on water pressure towers around Brooklyn / NYC area leaning in towards each other over a fabricated paper landscape with a moon. It was meant to get at themes of Covid isolation loneliness, witnessing major political shifts, watching and waiting. Having become totally infatuated with the old water towers in Poland, and at a distance from my own country (feeling a different kind of desperation and helplessness as events unfold) I thought it would be appropriate to approach it again 5 years later, this time as a triptych.

The center panel beam structure is inspired by the Wieliczka Salt Mine, which has these elaborate wooden support systems embedded between the salt rock to prevent collapse. The outer panels are based on two abandoned water towers in the Śląskie region: on the left, Chorzów that used to serve the former Zakłady Azotowe nitrogen plant, and on the right, the oldest surviving water tower in Zabrze (built 1871) which served the Zabrze steelworks.

I’ve been engaging with the idea of these abandoned water towers as witness to the heavy industrialization of this region. Towers (water towers, prison towers, watchtowers, hunting pulpits) have always intrigued me, as providing a vantage point, surveying or controlling something. I’d like to continue working with them as a visual metaphor for control, or the lack thereof.

I’ve been digging into the online database as a source for this project. Incredibly thorough documentation of historic water towers in my region, many of which I’ve been able to visit in person.

I’m so thankful for this time to explore new places and subject matter during my grant period. I’ll be having a small exhibition of the works I’ve made in Poland at (more on that to come soon!)

I don't believe I ever shared these two little mezzotints from last year on this page, and I have more impressions of these available. $40 in the US, I am here for the next week, so if you're interested in having one, now is a good time!

"Downward Spiral" I and I. Based on the spiral staircase interiors of abandoned water towers in Poland. 2 3/8 x 1 7/8" plate, 7 1/4 x 6" paper