Artist Mentorship Program (AMP)

I was very new to printmaking when Covid started and took many on-line print making workshops with Zea Mays. And then, had a wonderful opportunity to participate in the Artist Membership Program. I am so very grateful that Lynn Peterfreund was my mentor.

Perhaps the most important part of the process for me was the “trust” relationship built with Lynn. When she talked with me about my work, I trusted that her words came from a sincere place in trying to know “who I was as an artist”…..knowing “what I wanted from the program”….and how to best help me in “achieving my goals to grow in the areas of composition and color”. Toward the end of my mentorship, I moved from making prints to primarily using print making to make collage papers and collages. This is what I love most about print making and will continue along this path. Again, I so value Lynn’s support and “eyes” in helping me learn how to “look” and “see” more clearly.

I was awarded my first artist residency: a week in a dune shack on Cape Cod National Seashore. I felt I needed some artistic guidance to develop the work created during the residency into a uniform body of work. A print project mentorship with Zea Mays was the perfect solution for me. Conversations with my mentor before the residency began triggered ideas and artwork created on site. Development of print imagery after the residency has been enhanced by further interaction; critiques, short demonstrations of print technique and color use tailored to me were extremely useful and gently steered me down my artistic path. We even came up with a new print technique!

Lynn is a joy to work with. Our discussions about art and life and the intersections of both were very meaningful and inspiring. She shares from a wealth of knowledge and experience with great respect and care. I appreciate the way she has structured our work around my particular work and goals. Lynn and Liz have helped me find ways to make the mentorship work in spite of the challenges of the distance of my home (in NYC) and family commitments. In preparing to write this summary of my experience, I printed out and re-read the notes Lynn sent after each of our session. These are a great resource for me to look back at. There are many suggestions of things to look at, to try, to think about. I feel very grateful for the experience of the Mentorship program, and I think I now have a more organized framework for my art practice. I look forward to finding ways to continue this process.

My mentor helped me see where I was at the present moment and what steps to take to move my printmaking practice forward. She helped me set priorities and break a project into steps, a process I find challenging. My mentor was always there for me and that meant a great deal to me.

The Zea Mays mentorship has been an incredible experience for me. While many of your mentees are likely established artists looking to further develop their practice, I was in search of a mentorship relationship that would help me establish a regular studio practice, build an portfolio and provide accountability. Joyce has done that for me and so much more. I’ve always admired her work and appreciate her thoughtful feedback and encouragement — not only when I’m feeling great about where I’m at, but also those times where I question my own potential.

The Zea Mays mentorship program was a great opportunity for me to connect with another professional to help guide me toward expansion. The feedback was critical to my process and it help me to shift perspective when needed. I appreciate my monitorship and the lifetime knowledge that I will take with me on my journey.

Participating in the Artist Mentorship Program at Zea Mays Printmaking has given me a sense of where I want to go in my work. Having a great mentor to lean on and give constructive feedback during our meetings and support as I move further into the many techniques available in printmaking. My way of working is task oriented and my mentor has realized that having definite projects to work on for each session is very much my style. I feel the mentor puts emphasis on recognizing how my background fits best for the work I want to do and thus provides me with reasonable pressure to accomplish that. Getting acquainted with the studio and the equipment is important in order to feel secure while working independently – learning this is also a part of working with a mentor. I feel respected by my mentor and encouraged to try new ways.

My mentorship with Meredith has had a profound effect on my studio practice this year. With her encouragement, I have moved my woodcut designs to a whole new level, aesthetically if not technically. Meredith always has probing questions that cause me to dig deep and identify what is important to me, what excites me in my work, and what challenges I am facing. She has introduced me to many artists I had not previously known — artists whose work connects to mine in some way. Together we identify what I need to prioritize, plan for and schedule into the coming months to meet show deadlines and organize my studio administration.

My self-regard has grown under Meredith’s coaching, as I trust her completely and she sees value in my art practice and skills and expression.

I wanted three things from my Zea Mays mentorship: a deepening knowledge of printmaking, an increased confidence in my work and in myself as an artist, and a greater sense of myself as a part of a community of artists. I got all three from working with Joyce this year. I will always have more to learn—this is one of the joys of the work—and it is the mentorship that has opened these possibilities to me. I cannot praise it (and Zea Mays) too highly.

Words cannot convey how much I learned and grew as a printmaker during this time.  Nancy not only helped me work through the inevitable obstacles and pitfalls, but encouraged me to seek out the expertise and perspectives of other Zea Mays faculty, who offer an amazingly deep and broad range of wisdom, talent, experience and support.  The mentorship program enabled me to achieve the goal I stated in my mentorship application, “ to gain the experience of transforming an idea into a body of work with the hope that will enable me to work more independently with higher confidence and success.”  A profound thank you to Zea Mays!

The mentorship program helped crack open my practice. I applied because I felt that I had gotten to a point where my work wasn’t growing anymore and I was making things that were no longer interesting to me. Because I know I have a lot of gaps in my print knowledge, I thought that Zea would allow me to learn new techniques and create deeper, richer, and more interesting work. It has! I’ve been challenged in a supportive environment and it’s given me confidence to experiment, trust my intuition and trust the process again. For a mostly virtual mentorship, it’s been deeply effective. Working with multiple mentors allows me to triangulate what I’m learning, hear different ways of thinking, and really branch out. I’ve learned new techniques, really unexpected ways to approach a print, and it’s caused me to re-examine the relationship between the print and the paper. Overall, the Zea Mays printmaking community is really welcoming, empathetic, and gloriously curious.