Press Relief, aka Masy Chighizola, is a linocut artist born and based in Louisiana. When she was eight years old, she wrote in her school journal that she wanted to become an artist, and hasn’t let go of that dream since. The pursuit to find her true path in art wasn’t a straight one, but Masy found her passion for printmaking when introduced to relief printmaking at college in 2012. She used the money made at her senior show to buy an etching press, and thus her fate was sealed.
After college she received an MFA in 2017 with an assistant-ship in Teaching. Masy explains; “Though I enjoyed teaching, I always had a business mindset since I come from a family of entrepreneurs“. Today, she works as a full time studio artist and part time printer at a letterpress shop.
Her designs are inspired by a gumbo of things: “Being from Louisiana, you will see some of my culture’s flare, but you will also see my love for pattern making and the decorative arts“. Masy sees her work as divided into two subjects; the first continues the concept of her MFA thesis, finding inspiration in the things that we as individuals collect and how they become a representation of us. This work focuses on people and their collections. The second subject portrays a more playful side and explores wearable art, finding ways to turn her carved blocks into one of a kind wearables and garments.
www.pressreliefprints.com
@press_relief
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