Born and raised in Fort St. John, Donna Bozarth was announced as Arts North East’s 2024 Artist in Residence, and will work with award-winning linocut printmaker Mary Ann Molcan as her mentor over the next six months.
Bozarth said she’s just getting started with her residency and is excited to work from home, where her pottery studio is located. A solo show is planned to debut this fall on Sept. 6 at Peace Gallery North, showcasing the art created during the residency.
Bozarth said her art is all about trying new techniques, learning new skills, and experimentation. She built her pottery studio last year and has been slowly getting back into the practice.
“When I was doing pottery many years ago, one of the things that I really wanted to do was printmaking and so I not intentionally, but started to get into printmaking and was kind of going in that direction,” she said.
“So, when the residency was posted, I thought it’d be a great opportunity to take those two mediums and combine them, and see what kind of possibilities and exciting opportunities I could up with,” Bozarth added.
A member of the Peace River Chapter of the Federation of Canadian Artists and the Flying Colour Artists Association, Bozarth has been an active member of the Northeast BC art community for many years.
There’s a wide variety of printmaking, says Bozarth, such as linocut, wood carvings, silk screening, mono-printing, stencils, lithography and more.
“It’s almost like a whole world in its own,” she said, noting the creative possibilities are endless.
“Taking that traditional printmaking and putting it on clay, it just opens up a whole new world of opportunity,” added Bozarth. “So I can do those traditional printmaking methods like silk screening and lithography, but instead of printing onto paper, I’ll be printing onto clay.”
Bozarth will also be creating her own ink for the prints, seeing what works best, and has been researching to prepare. She hopes to incorporate portraits and figurative work in the pieces, a focus she’s known for.
“I get excited when I can take that portrait and figurative piece and image, and take it to different places and explore possibilities,” said Bozarth.
She’s also enjoyed working with Molcan, who is best known for unique hand carved lino blocks. Molcan holds a Bachelor of Arts from Vancouver Island University with a minor in psychology, and has incorporated nature into many of her works.
“Mary Ann is absolutely amazing, she has a lot of experience and knowledge as a printmaker, but also as a potter, so it was a great match with my project proposal,” said Bozarth.
