Reflections

by Blake Sanders

Frogman’s Print Workshops have been going strong for 45 years. Over the decades some of the finest print educators in the world have shared their expertise with generations of printmakers and enthusiasts. Supporting the workshop faculty, and the inner workings of the workshops, have been a small army of outstanding workshop assistants. I assisted off and on for six years while Frogman’s was still hosted at the University of South Dakota, working closely with print powerhouses like Art Werger, Tom Huck, and Lynwood Kreneck. My peers at that time were extraordinary. Weeks spent with Emmy and Carrie Lingscheit, Meghan O’Connor, and Brandon Sanderson, to name a few, plus the exemplary educators who were past assistants like Matt Egan and Nicole Hand made it clear a Frogman’s assistantship was a pipeline into a long print career.

In 2011 my partner and I organized a huge exchange portfolio featuring nearly four dozen past and present assistants to mark Frogman’s 30th. Many of the participants had become print faculty around the country, or were well on their way. There was no doubt that the tradition of assitant excellence would continue long after we’d put in our time.

Now fifteen years later I’m happy to see that we were right. It’s exciting to see print innovations and new technologies in the work of this cohort of assistants. It’s humbling to see the ambitions of others who are pushing theme and scale. The influence of previous workshops is evident in some, but there is enviable novelty and individuality as well. The small blessing of the virtual home for Graphic Impressions is that we can easily showcase a broader selection of these artists’ work than could be accomodated at the workshops. Clearly Frogman’s has dependable, skilled hands to help Jeremy and the workshop instructors going forward. I’m excited to see these assistants joining the ranks of print people who keep pushing SGCI into the future as well.