After graduating and receiving a scholarship to work at Open Studio in Toronto from the Queen’s University Fine Art Department I was already on a trajectory for a continuum of a life making prints. I got the idea in my head to travel from a passing comment made by Professor T. during a class about the fabulous lithography printmaking facilities in Scotland. And so to Scotland I went. I was in the right place at the right time when I was hired to be a Print Technician for the Glasgow School of Art. From then on one placement led to another which included working as an assistant for a printmaker in her own workshop, printmaking residencies and a long stint as member and technologist at Glasgow Print Studio.
It took me a while to realize I wanted to do a post graduate degree. In 1997 I received an MA in Printmaking from Camberwell College of Arts (The London Institute, London, England) which had an excellent facility and was already on the cutting edge for digital printmaking. Funnily enough I did not gravitate to using computers to make art which was the reason I chose Camberwell. Instead I used more traditional media. It was not until 2004 when I landed a job as a Print Technologist at Sheridan College and where I am now, that I began to explore the potential for image making with digital equipment.
Before my current situation at Sheridan College I had revisted Queen’s on many different levels. I continued my involvement with the Fine Art Department as artist, store manager, teacher and technologist between 1999 and 2001. During the summer months Professor Carl Heywood would run the print studios so that we could continue to make use of the facility which was a fantastic opportunity to be able to find a place to access the particular equipment that the medium required in an environment that had already fostered so much learning for me.
I feel fortunate to be teaching and working in the medium that I love and to continue to pass on all the experience I have gained, particularly in an educational setting. You can find a more detailed account of residencies and my exhbition history on line at jillianbooth.com.
