Spent some time with an artist, Michael Ciesielski, who is currently operating out of St. Michael’s Printshop in St. John’s. His hands had less ink on them than I expected but they flipped through his tools just the same.
“I’m going to get my MFA in woodcut printing and then hopefully open up my own studio somewhere. Maybe offer classes or work as a studio technician. It’s not easy to make a living just by selling art.”
He’s doing a year-long residency at St. Michael’s, an artist-run print studio that provides a high-quality printmaking space for established and emerging artists. The studio is on Water Street, overlooking the harbour where cargo ships and cruise liners alike dock to do business in the small city. Across the bay the rocky hill of Shea Heights closes off the view of the ocean.
I never saw the studio in use, but I could imagine the large machine at work with creative handworkers guiding the pages and cuts into the right position. It almost felt like a timber mill with the stillness of its large machines, but it was thrumming with a soft energy that has always been missing for me in the dusty woodwork of shut-down mills. There were punk flyers on the corkboards and handwritten messages on the walls.
“It’s a good place to be. St. John’s is a cool city.”
“Would you live here permanently?”
“If drinks were cheaper maybe.”
We talked about Signal Hill, future art designs, his original inspiration from Albrecht Dürer, the feedback he recently got from a gallery curator. It’s not easy to make a living and it’s equally not easy to create work that you care about and put it into the world. I left the conversation with a newfound respect for creators and the risks they take in committing to the work they do.
He’s currently waiting on an order of expensive paper to keep printing. He likes his coffee extra large and he is thinking about getting a cat.
“I’m the saint.”
You can find Michael on Instagram.