Suzanne Stewart
Staff Writer
When Caroline Hertko and her husband, Brad, settled at their farm in Bath County, she considered herself a three dimensional artist. She got her degree in sculpture at the Art Institute in Chicago and became a third generation artist after her mother and grandmother.
“I always thought I can work with three dimensions, but I couldn’t work in two dimensions,” she said. “I could only build.”
That is until her grandmother downsized and gave her a printmaking press. Hertko pondered what she would do with the “giant” press and finally settled on putting it in the art studio she shares with her mother. The studio is a repurposed tobacco drying barn which has a spot for her mom to make jewelry and a large area dedicated to printmaking.
“When I got this press, I was like, ‘well, I guess I’m a two dimensional artist now,’” she said, laughing.
Hertko got a set of printmaking chisels and began carving creations into linoleum.
A year and a half later, Hertko made history with a recent print for the Pocahontas County Opera House – the first handmade poster for the organization. She made an 11×17 poster for the Opry Night event. The print depicts Mike and Mary Sue Burns, and several musical friends performing in the round under a festival tent.
At the bottom of the poster, Hertko carved the names of the performers and the date and time of the event.
“I think the idea organically came about,” she said. “I was printmaking, and it always has been a long-time dream to have a handmade poster for a show. It just kind of worked out because I work there. We thought the hand carved aesthetic work-ed really well with the style of the show.”
A limited edition of 25 posters were printed and available at the Opry Night event last Saturday.
Hertko also has a line of greeting cards for the Opera House that depicts a banjo and fiddle in front of one of the Opera Houses iconic windows. Hertko mixed a special “Opera House red” for the cards and said they will be for sale at upcoming events.
“The Opera House has a signature red that was really fun to make,” she said. “In the future, I could do them in different colors, but I just did this series in red.”
When working on projects – whether they are commissioned or her own artwork – Hertko has a routine she follows. She uses transparency paper to draw whatever she is making and then uses carbon paper to transfer the image to the linoleum before she carves.
That is how she is able to hand carve lettering backwards. She draws the words on the paper and is able to make sure no letters are reversed when she carves.
“I use the camera on my phone a lot,” she said. “I’ll take a picture and I’ll reverse it so I can make sure my writing isn’t backwards. It’s definitely a trick to get a font and so I’m really excited because I got letterpress. I just got my first set of type.”
The letterpress type Hertko has is similar to those used by The Pocahontas Times when the paper was hand set. Just like the images, she has to place the letters backwards in the block for them to print correctly.
While the letterpress will help with time, Hertko said she still enjoys carving letters which lend more to the handmade feel.
“It’s a different aesthetic,” she said. “I like the hand carved aesthetic, but I’m hoping to merge the hand carved and the more rigid type.”
Since she started her printmaking, Hertko has done a lot of commission work, including wedding invitations, party invitations, logos and the T-shirt design for the 10th Annual Plein Air Festival in Bath County.
Many of her linoleum carvings can be printed hundreds of times before they start to show wear and tear, but there are others that once she does an edition, that print is no longer available.
For example, she has a card of a UFO sneaking up behind a cow in a field that can never be reproduced from the original carvings.
“One of the more traditional ways to make a two-color image is you carve once and then you print however many you’re going to print and then you carve the same block for the next color,” she explained. “That’s what I did here and that means I cannot reproduce it because I’ve destroyed the first layer.”
While that is a common printmaking style, Hertko says she prefers to use multiple blocks so that she can keep reproducing images.
As she continues to do commission work and her personal art, Hertko now has a large project she is preparing to unveil – printmaking vending machines.
“I just got a grant from the West Virginia Department of Arts, Culture and History to do mini print vending machines,” she said. “One is going to be in Rivertown. One is going to Snowshoe and one is going to be in Lewisburg at the Wild Bean.”
The machine will be like those machines commonly seen at grocery store entrances where a kid can get a toy or sticker for a quarter or two. With Hertko’s machine, the prints will be business card size and will cost four quarters.
“It’s an accessible print,” she said. “They’re going to be Appalachian themed, so I’m going to have a ramp and a Mothman. I’m excited about that. That grant cycle is just beginning, so I’m just starting the process of making that.”
The Hertko family includes four-year old Craig Edward, who is channeling his artistic skills into painting, and 18-month-old Penelope.