Rolling, Rolling, Rolling
Colby’s ‘Steamroller Printfest’ highlights art, community, and collaboration
In a celebration of art, community, and collaboration, Colby hosted its first “Roll Out! Steamroller Printfest” in the Roberts Parking Lot May 4. Organized by Assistant Professor of Art Amanda Lilleston, the daylong art-making event involved several Colby students and hundreds of kids from Waterville schools, who created large-scale woodblock prints with the assistance of an industrial asphalt roller.
Colby students who were part of Lilleston’s Jan Plan course Monumental Woodcuts & Maine helped lead the interactive event and demonstrated their printmaking skills.
“I’m really enjoying this, and I think it’s fun trying to get the community to be a part of it, too,” said Grace Yang ’25, an English and studio art double major. “Seeing it all come together is really nice.”
Added Noah Milsky ’25, who is majoring in environmental studies and minoring in studio art, “It’s a pretty cool and fairly unique project. … Art is an important creative outlet for me. I just love being in the studio, and I like using my hands to create something physical. That is what this project is all about.”
While steamroller printmaking events are common, Friday’s “Roll Out!” was a first for Colby. Using hand-held rollers and brushes, students inked and prepared 4-by-4-foot woodcuts they had previously carved, placed them on a flat section of the lot, and then carefully covered them with sheets of muslin to receive the ink, as well as layers of protective materials, including heavy, flat MDF boards.
Lilleston then slowly drove a three-ton roller over the woodcuts. The intense pressure of the roller pressed the black ink deep into the recesses of the woodcuts, filling every crevice and space. Cheers erupted each time the process was completed and a muslin print was revealed as the layers were peeled off.
Still wet, the prints were then hung from a rope line tied to trees on the perimeter of the lot.
The Jan Plan course and the project resulted from Lilleston’s year-long fellowship with the Colby Center for the Arts and Humanities. Fellows spend their year developing or reworking humanities courses related to either digital scholarship or environmental inquiry and offer a public program or event.
In addition to the students from Colby, students from Waterville High School, Waterville Alternative High School, and the George J. Mitchell School carved woodblocks and created their own prints. The Mitchell School students drew 500 frogs on their woodblock, which Colby students laser-cut into the surface.
Taking a break from driving the steamroller, Lilleston thanked all the participants, including the Portland-based art collective Running With Scissors, which regularly hosts these events and advised Lilleston, and Elizabeth Jabar, Colby’s Lawry Family Dean of Civic Engagement and Partnerships, who also offered input and ideas.
“These community printmaking events are a really interesting way to reach out and get many people involved in doing something together,” said Lilleston. It’s a lot of fun and very rewarding.”
