Printmaking Studio Intro

Third Switch Studios is a printmaking studio.

In 2011 Third Switch Press was formed as a dedicated printmaking studio. However, throughout my career I’ve come to work in a variety of media, with a variety of people, and a variety of disciplines so in recent years I’ve started to consider how to encompass them all under one roof. “Third Switch” was too good of a name, so it stays, regardless of how it may complicate the branding.

I studied printmaking in undergrad and was the focus of my BFA. I worked with mostly intaglio processes, but also had a deep love of lithography. My undergrad wasn’t what one would typically envision a printmaking program to be…in that there were other students. I mean… there were, but not printmaking MAJORS. I was the only undergrad at the time, with a handful of grad students. So while printmaking is often conceptualized as a community venture, and collaborative in nature, I never got to truly experience that for any length of time.

Upon graduating in 2005, my habit was then to just go off on my own and do my own thing. It took until 2009 to get my first press, which is why I started painting (see Third Switch Press is a painting studio). My boyfriend then, and now partner, Ryan was a sculpture grad just finishing up his MFA when I found some plans to build a press. We gathered the parts and in a short time “Marlene” was born.

Initially, when my studio moved out of my apartment and into a larger space, Third Switch Press was going to be a contract printing kind of thing, and it was, for a time, but ultimately it wasn’t really the direction that I wanted to head in. I still do some collaborative work, but it isn’t the primary focus.