My internship at P.R.I.N.T Press has gone by in a blink of the eye. As the end of the semester is approaching, I would like to give some thoughts about all the amazing things I got to experience this past year at P.R.I.N.T Press.
The memory is still vivid in my mind. It was also during the final week of the spring 2012 semester that I nervously sent out my email to ask for the internship after seeing an announcement on the Printmaking blog. As a Printmaking major, I had been to open house events at P.R.I.N.T Press before, but I wasn't sure what P.R.I.N.T Press exactly was. I knew almost nothing about a professional print shop, other than that P.R.I.N.T Press often hosted visiting artists and workshops each academic semester. I had absolutely no idea what I was going to do at P.R.I.N.T Press, nor was I very enthusiastic about it. I was just happy I got the offer.
Over the course of the next eight months, I gained a great deal of knowledge about the print shop and the professional world of printmaking. My very first project was constructing a collaborative artist book for our exhibition at the Business Council for the Arts at NorthPark Center. Although I had just taken a bookmaking class a month prior interning at P.R.I.N.T Press, the project really gave me a chance to sit down with our Director, Lari Gibbons and carefully master each steps leading to constructing an accordion fold book. It was a rare chance for an undergraduate like me to prepare such item for an exhibition outside from school.
Once I get to know the shop better, I started to love coming to my shifts because there would always be some cool stuff for me to learn everyday. And my coordinator, Laura Drapac was a great colleague. She was the one who gave me detail instructions and advices so that I could successfully complete my daily tasks. Other shop assistants, including Jon Vogt, Thomas Menikos, and Nuray Packard also gave me tremendous help during my internship. I believe I wouldn't be able to finish all my tasks without their help. For example, during our Multi-pass Monotype workshop, I got to assist the artist, Gretchen Schermerhorn and other workshop participants by prepping materials and providing hands-on printing experience. It was a lot of fun. I also got to meet and work along a lot of amazing artists such as Beauvais Lyons, John Risseeuw, Scott Ingram, and Ryan Burkhart. I could say that I've learnt to handle all the steps necessary to host a successful event at P.R.I.N.T Press, from packing, unpacking, and installing works for exhibitions; preparing event documentations, editing photos; and printing event invitations.
As the semester comes to an end, and my internship at P.R.I.N.T Press is about to conclude, I would like to thank P.R.I.N.T Press staff, who helped make my this past year a very memorable experience. One thing I'm sure when I leave P.R.I.N.T Press is that all the experience I got here really gives me confidence to work at any other professional print shop.
Su Tran a.k.a Quynh Tran is an undergraduate senior majoring in Advertising and Printmaking at the University of North Texas.
