Ijele: Art eJournal of the African World (2000)

ISSN: 1525-447X

A CONVERSATION WITH EVANGELINE J. MONTGOMERY

Gina Rollins

Each February, Parish Gallery, Georgetown features prints from the Brandywine Workshop. Now celebrating its twenty-fifth anniversary, the Philadelphia-based Workshop in a nationally recognized non-profit printmaking center. Dedicated to cultural diversity, the Workshop has hosted 200 visiting African, Asian, African-American and Latino-descended artists over the years. At Brandywine, artists collaborate with a master printmaker and technician using offset lithography techniques combined with collage and serigraphy. In addition to its printmaking operations Brandywine Workshop also has significant community outreach and educational arms, brining artistic instruction and demonstration to Philadelphia high schools and neighborhoods throughout the city.

Parish Gallery owner, Norman Parish, initially exhibited prints from the Brandywine Collection because he found the quality and original print production in keeping with the Gallery's fine arts format. The February, 1998 Brandywine exhibit featured only one artist, Washington-based Evangeline J. Montgomery. E. J. (as she is widely known) has curated numerous exhibitions and mentored a generation of artists. Her own work ranges from metal and fiber sculpture to photography and painting. Gina Rollins interviews E. J. about her experience at Brandywine and about her craft.

GR: How did you get involved with Brandywine?

EJM: I have known about Brandywine for about twenty years. I've been in the visual art field organizing exhibitions for quite a few years and along the way I've met the heads of most African-American arts organizations. Brandywine asked me years ago if I'd like to participate in their programs and finally in the latter part of 1996 I found myself here on the East Coast and had time to go and take part in their artist programs.

GR: Let's talk about your experience at Brandywine. How long did it take you to produce the works for the Parish Gallery show?

EJM: It took a year. Brandywine usually has artists in for five or six days and they produce a body of work, one image with variations of the one image. But my residencies were short, over weekends. And I have four different images with variations. My first print had nine runs through the printer, some only have seven. I used silk- screens which changed the process, and then I added motifs which changed the images completely.

GR: What did you learn from working at Brandywine?

EJM: For one thing, I had never collaborated with other professionals in that particular medium. At Brandywine, an artist who doesn't necessarily specialize in printmaking can, with the introduction of a collaborative process, express their ideas and have someone else help carry them out. And that was a unique experience for me. Also, I was able to combine several techniques, work on a much large scale and have someone else do the heavy work. I am a mature artist, and when I was coming along in art school we worked with a wind-up press and lithography was done with heavy lithography stones. The technique at Brandywine is offset lithography and you create your image on a place and someone else runs it through the press. They're able to produce multiple images very quickly once the images are complete and they also do silkscreen work. I had done silkscreens and most of them were fairly small 12" and 14". And at Brandywine they use 25" x 30 or 35" x 40" screens and someone pushes ink through the screen for you. And they also have the facilities to adhere the imagery to the screen and various things like that which I had always done by hand.

GR: Did the process change the message?

EJM: Yes, maybe somewhat, although my thoughts, directions where I seek inspiration, those kinds of things don't change. I did a lot of enameling on metal, and I noticed that the process was somewhat the same in that I build up layers of colour and in the enamel. You have the individual grains the consistency of sugar, and each little grain stands on its own so there's a lot of colour but yet when you overlay it adheres and you get tones from it. The offset process is similar in that you blend colors over colour and it builds up the same way and gives depth to the piece.

GR: Are the prints that will be shown at Parish Gallery part of a series?

EJM: Yes. Its entitled Configurations of Memory and the works are related in that I was thinking about landscapes. The prints are very abstract.

GR: From where do you derive inspiration?

EJM: I'm usually thinking about several things: landscapes, Californian and African, rural and urban. Also, I'm a strong spiritually minded person and I think about ancestral associations, worship, mountain ranges, water, and the weather.

GR: You work in a variety of media. Do you have a favorite or do you go through different stages?

EJM: I think I go through different stages and at this particular time I don't have access to a studio of my own. I find myself working in some technique I can carry out in a small setting or something that I'm able to do in larger workshops like Brandywine to make use of their facilities. I am trained primarily as a metal- smith and fiber person. I also find that I have a need to work with colour and so that lead me to the printmaking and at the present time there's a lot of satisfaction in using the serigraph method.

GR: Are there things you're looking forward to? Any media you haven't worked in, for example?

EJM: Yes, I'm anxious to use the computer technology available today and incorporate it. And I want to blow glass and use it in combination with metalwork.

GR: This is a special time for Brandywine celebrating its 25th anniversary. What do you see as its significance?

EJM: Well, first there are very few workshops that are available for artists to go and do collaborative work. Philadelphia is a strong center for the arts and the art of printmaking. There are many types of workshops in the Philadelphia area and Brandywine is significant in that it has gone on for twenty-five years. Its leadership is primarily African-American and it is open to artists worldwide. Also the interaction with artists collaborating with master printmakers and other professional artists is a very important and much needed relationship especially with the introduction of mixed media technology.

GR: I understand Brandywine is currently running a 25th anniversary show. Are any of your prints included?

EJM: Yes. They choose one of my works from their collection.

GR: You must feel excited about that.

EJM: I am very pleased to be associated with an organization that has a history with significant artists from all over the world. To part of that is very encouraging and suggests that my work will have a much wider audience eventually. Also because they create limited editions but a number of the same image. I can access a much larger public and body of collectors whereas the other type of work I do doesn't allow for multiples. So I'm very happy to engage in a collaboration, work in a medium I couldn't work in solely, I have multiple images and extend myself further. Also, they have permanent archives, so work can be borrowed by institutions for exhibitions and they can sell work there to continue the workshop itself.

Citation Format

Rollins, Gina. (2000). A CONVERSATION WITH EVANGELINE J. MONTGOMERY. Ijele: Art eJournal of the African World: