"Digital Hybrid Art" Workshop/Residency, Experimental Printmaking Department, China Academy of Art, Hangzhou (College Level)

I was recently invited to the China Academy of Art (CAA) to do an Experimental Printmaking Residency in Hangzhou, China from Sept. 27th to October 22nd. I was to create and teach an experimental printmaking course (based on my own "Digital Hybrid Art" approach). In my residency within the Printmaking Department I had the students create hybrid works combining conventional drawing and printmaking with digital techniques in Photoshop to illustrate/express an "Identity Narrative."

China Academy of Art Main Entrance

30 plus years have passed since I was last in China, when I was studying at The Central Academy of Fine Arts (CAFA) Middle School in Beijing as a teenager…and 40 plus years have passed since I was there as a child of 9 at the tail end of Mao’s Cultural Revolution running free with my little friends in Dazhai Village in the hills of Shanxi Province waving corn cob embers to draw animals in the night sky.

1971-Michael, Cathy and Alyssa Hinton in
Dazhai Commune, Shanxi Province, China

Shortly after I arrived, the security desk man (who's name eludes me) gave me some recent issues of the China Art Weekly Magazine to look at, and I was immediately struck by the realization of just how deep my early study of Traditional Chinese painting had truly been.

Even in my most recent work the influence was blatantly evident to me…mainly in the dramatic expression of the dynamic contrasts found in landscape.

China Art Weekly Magazine In Front of My Work

I found this to be very inspiring, and it helped me to reconnect with Chinese culture after such a long absence.

China Academy of Art Bookstore

CAA Digital Hybrid Art Lecture Preparations:

To kick off the residency, a poster was designed by graduate student Zhang Zi Hao, which his buddy and I adhered to walls all over campus.

Digital Hybrid Art Lecture Poster

Lecture Topics:

The poster was an invitation to my autobiographical Power Point Lecture in the Printmaking Department.

Department of Printmaking

I told the story of my artistic journey and talked a lot about personal identity. I also stressed the fact that mixed media, multi media, collage and montage lend themselves well to bringing the divergent parts of an individual together as a holistic way to represent the self.

Getting Ready to Deliver My Power Point Lecture

Using details, all the parts make a whole. This is the ideology inherent in mixed media or collage/montage. Because of this the medium itself can also become part of the message and a vehicle for self expression…

The Medium and Process:

My residency within the China Academy of Art Printmaking Department focused on having the students create hybrid works combining conventional drawing and printmaking with digital techniques in Photoshop to illustrate some form of expressive identity narrative.

Having a Look at Student Print Works

On Our Way To Get Noodles For Lunch!

About half way through the first week I found the need to explain the importance of thoroughly “owning” your mixed media and demonstrating how to truly make an image your own, despite the use of digital software settings and filters…... Never settle for the “pre-packaged” look!