Paper Talk

Rachel Singel is an Associate Professor at the University of Louisville. Singel grew up on a small farm in Charlottesville, Virginia and received a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Virginia in 2009 and a Master of Fine Arts in Printmaking from the University of Iowa in 2013. She has participated in residencies at the Penland School of Crafts, the Venice Printmaking Studio, Internazionale di Grafica Venezia, Art Print Residence in Barcelona, Spain, Wharepuke Print Studios in New Zealand, Proyecto’ace, an Artist-in-Residence Program in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and AGA Lab in the Netherlands. She has studied non-toxic printmaking at the Grafisk Eksperimentarium studio in Andalusia and recently continued her research of papermaking with invasive plants in Japan in summer 2024. Her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally and represented in private collections and public institutions.

We had a meandering conversation about papermaking, printmaking, applying for grants, residencies and exhibiting.

Bee, Intaglio on handmade paper with Oriental bittersweet and abaca fiber, 14″ x 20″, 2024

We talked about the Young Papermaker’s Conference that Singel attended in Kyoto, Japan in 2024. You can read more and see images in Paul Denhoed’s instagram post. “The Tesuki Washi Seinen no Tsudoi (Young Papermaker’s Meeting) was initiated in the 70s as an opportunity for younger papermakers to meet each other, exchange information, and encourage each other. The event is held annually or biannually, each time in a different location in Japan. Day 1 focuses on lectures; Day 2 centers around hands-on demonstrations and is open to the public.