Artist’s Studio
“Printmaking is poetry without words.”
The artist’s studio is a sacred place. For Kim Morski, her studio is a product of decades of dreaming and the patient process of collecting printmaking equipment. Kim’s studio is outside her back door in a detached garage in the Harvey Park South neighborhood. It is a nexus of community and creativity, a place of artistry and generosity, home and hospitality.
The initial inspiration for Kim’s studio was a college professor’s backyard garage print shop. Her own vision would take 15 years to become a reality. Over the years, she has purchased and was gifted large print making equipment. It was collected in storage units and family basements. When her family moved into their home in 2021, the collection of timeless printmaking machines was assembled in her garage studio, steps from her back door.
For Kim, the garage studio provides a connection to people and place. In juxtaposition to a white-walled and sterile art studio space, the garage door raises to invite in natural light and sounds from the neighborhood. With three young children at home, accessibility to her studio has proven critical to creating. Printmaking requires extensive time in setup and cleanup, so proximity is essential to her creative efforts. Outside the studio, her daughters play in the backyard and often participate in their own artwork in her studio. Kim’s current work reflects this integration of art into family life rather than a separation from it. Home and studio coexist with care, having a place both integrated with her family and dedicated to her art.
A printmaker’s studio is unique among artists’ studios, as traditionally printmaking has existed in communal spaces. Artists have rarely had private print shops due to the cost and space equipment requires. “Printmaking feels like it's meant to be done with other people," Kim shares about her conviction of the democratic and social aspects of the medium. She ignites about the printmaking artform she participates in. “Printmaking is a way for people to have original, real art. It's not just access to it virtually or reproductions. Printmaking is an affordable way for people to own art that touched an artist's hands, and that matters to me.”
The social aspect of Kim’s creativity and her art studio has been expressed in a spectrum of ways. She hosted a letterpress broadside with a local poet, where prints were created while people gathered on blankets on the hill in her backyard to hear poetry about Colorado. She hosted a three-day children's art camp. “We did paper making, textile printing, and linoleum block carvings; they editioned on the press.” Kim proudly shares, “They did high-level techniques. The children made their own handmade paper, and then edition prints on it. And it was super beautiful.” She shares her hope for her garage studio to be a place for people to gather and to be grounded. Her studio is a place of printmaking and placemaking.
An artist’s studio is where the complexity of creativity is often revealed. “When you look at a print, it's really hard to understand what goes into it,” Kim vulnerably shares. “When people come into my shop, and they see a block that I've carved by hand, and then they realize I’m rolling ink onto this and hand cranking it through a press, it gives them an appreciation for the work.” An artist’s studio provides visibility to the labors of love required in any artistic expression. For Kim, her studio is the place where she creates timeless prints that reflect her deep conviction for her family, her home, and her faith. An artist’s studio is a sacred place.
Thank you to Kim Morski for her contribution and the conversation about her studio and her generative creativity that extends to neighbors and friends. You can discover her work at kimmorski.com.
