Chicago, IL

Anna Hasseltine is a Boston-born artist who graduated from Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, NY
with a BFA in Printmaking. She is currently working and creating fauna and flora prints at Hoofprint Workshop in Chicago. She creates primarily through the art of printmaking, utilizing the unique quality of woodcut and silkscreen techniques. Anna has been a Teaching Artist and Studio Facilitator at Marwen since January 2016 where she teaches printmaking and design to Chicago youth in grades 6-12. She was awarded the Imago Foundation of the Arts Award of Recognition in 2015 and most recently an Honorary Award for Best In Show at the Chicago Printers Guild Publisher’s Fair Exhibition. In 2016 she participated in both the Supergraphic Fundraiser Portfolio curated by Bill Fick and the Speedball Professional Relief Ink Portfolio. She has been published by Cannonball Press as well as Hoofprint Workshop. Anna has exhibited work nationally and locally which include ven-ues in New York City, Chicago, Houston, and St. Louis.

Artist Statement

Through silkscreen, woodcut, and linocut techniques, I create fauna and flora prints influenced by a variety of literary muses. From Shakespearean comedies and tragedies to Aesop’s Fables, I use these stories and their fauna and flora as inspiration for my prints. I am particularly interested in innate animal behavior and how animal instinct manifests itself in our human con-duct and interactions. I find fascination in the actual physical carving of the fur, feathers, claws, and paws of these animals, specifically the way that they are composed and interacting with each other on paper. I use these animals as metaphors for our daily life on a personal, national, and global level. Power struggles, aggression, predator-prey relationships, and the battle for survival are common themes and concepts explored in my work.

View Artist Website

Images of Work

Techniques

Silkscreen and Relief Printmaking

Favorite Products

Speedball Professional Relief Ink: I use the Speedball Professional Relief Ink to create my woodcuts and linocuts with ease. The color is vibrant and rich, and it is of a soft consistency which makes for easy mixing. The colors lay down nicely on top of each other, as I like to create multi-layer prints. The soy-based ink makes it water-soluble, which creates an exceptionally easy clean up. I can use it like oil-based ink, but clean it up like any other acrylic or water-based ink. It is of professional quality, but have found that it works wonderfully for teaching students who are new to printmaking as well.

Speedball Screenprinting Ink: I often add color to many of my linocut and woodcut prints, and one of the ways I do this is via screen printed layers behind the line work. I use Speedball screen printing ink to do this. The brightly pigmented color mixes and lays down nicely on a variety of different papers and materials. I have used it on paper, wood, and fabric, proving the versatility of the ink. Most of my prints in my most recent series based of of Aesop’s fables have been printed entirely with a combination of Speedball screen printing and relief ink.