Glimpses in Time by Hamilton High School

“My life is my inspiration”

A HUGE thank you to Hamilton High School art teacher Daniele Vickers and her filmmaking class for creating short documentaries of local artists. I was one of those lucky few! Her class made a harrowing trek up my road to do the filming. The whole process was interesting and an amazing amount of preparation and background work went into making this movie. The students did a fantastic job preparing interview questions, setting up and running the equipment. They presented themselves professionally and edited quite of lot of film into this well produced documentary. 

Over the years Laughing Mule Press has grown significantly but the heart and soul of the company remains the same. I talk about some of the animals that have inspired my pieces and the process behind making the prints. The first step is getting inspiration from animals (either friends or my own) so I can share a glimpse of their personality in each piece. Then, I start sketching a series of images in my sketchpad and eventually onto my iPad. This is printed and traced onto linoleum. The carving is a slow, methodical process that takes 3-4 days to complete. Ink is rolled onto the print, paper is pressed by hand, and carefully peeled off - resulting in a beautiful, unique print! There are approximately 30-40 original prints made of each design to keep them in an affordable price range. We can also make you a custom frame from wood that we log with my mules and mill down on our portable sawmill into frame profiles.

More than anything Laughing Mule Press strives to bring people together, put a smile on everyone’s face and share some positivity in this big, messy thing we call life!  

Thank you to Hamilton High School and specifically: 

Director: Jay James 

Editors: Grace Keele, August Hughes, 

Camera Operators: Jay  James,  August Hughes, Dom Smith, Jaylyne Solis, Katy Laird Hollister, Matthew Clifton 

Sound: Aidan Clark, Jaylene Solis, Alexis Kaul

Interviewer: Katy Laird Hollister

Teacher: Daniele Vickers

Hamilton artist encourages creative endeavors to cure the COVID blues

Original Article by Michelle McConnaha published in the Ravalli Republic November 30, 2020

Hamilton Artist Wendy Holsapple works in her studio, carving a sheep into linoleum for printmaking. She said now is the best time to connect with art, while people are unable to have their usual connections in life.

Hamilton Artist Wendy Holsapple said now is the best time to connect with art, while people are unable to have their usual connections in life.

“People are missing their friends and their family,” Holsapple said. “People are stressed, more depressed and having a hard time with things right now [due to COVID restrictions]. So, looking at a piece of art that can make you smile can help.”

Sometimes, she said, a smile caused by beautiful or fun art is the perfect thing.

“Art can make people happy,” Holsapple said. “It can make people think of fun things, introduce them to new ideas and help them remember the past. There are so many things that make art great.”

Holsapple lives south of Hamilton and said her art reflects her life, often featuring her animals.

“My inspiration is often when I make an emotional connection with an animal or there is a fun story to tell about the animal,” she said. “I feel connected to the subject in some way and that inspires me to make that individual piece. For me, my life and art are connected.”

Holsapple’s printing business is called Laughing Mule Press. She has art for sale at Montana Bliss Gallery, is a member of Artists Along the Bitterroot and most of her subject matter has a focus on canine and equine. She works with horses, donkeys, does training, drives her mules, pulls wagons and does logging on the weekend with her mules.

Printmaking Artist Wendy Hosapple’s donkey. “Maya is a hugger,” Holsapple said. “It is amazing how such a little donkey can figure out how to wrap her entire body around you like a boa constrictor and does not like to let go. Donkeys often whisper before they let out a loud bray but Maya prefers to whisper all the time.”

Before moving to Hamilton, she worked in Wyoming as an outfitter and now is focusing on printmaking.

Holsapple grew up in a farm in Iowa, always had a sketchbook and spent endless hours outdoors filling her sketchbook with images of the natural world.

“I always loved to draw and make quick sketches,” she said. “I was a shy little kid and always spent time with myself. Drawing was the thing that I did. I just grew up doing that.”

She has kept all her sketchbooks and uses them to remind her of what was going on in her life at different ages and see how she felt about life at the time.

“Some people write journals and write down what they are doing in their lives, but I always sketch,” Holsapple said. “A lot of times before I go to bed I’ll sit down and sketch what happened in my life during the day. It’s what I’ve always done.”

Her current sketches evolve into prints that show quiet moments and her intimate connection with animals. Her designs come from her dogs, horses and donkeys, and from captivating tales of kindred canines and equines.

“My prints intend to portray a moment if only fleeting in the animal’s life,” she said.

Printmaking Artist Wendy Holsapple’s mule “Cooper” pulling a cart. “You will notice he is not wearing blinders, he is not a fan, “ Holsapple said. “As long as he can see what is behind him, he doesn’t care what it is — if he can’t see it he knows it is a mule-eating monster.”

Her process for printmaking starts with a pencil sketch which is transformed into a detailed hand carving in wood or linoleum. Then she rolls ink on top of the carved design. What is carved away does not print but whatever remains accepts the ink. She then places paper onto the inked surface and presses it down.

“I do everything by hand,” Holsapple said. “You don’t need that much weight, but you do need some weight and I put all my weight into it. You have to put pressure on to allow the ink to transfer. When you pull the paper off you have a print and can make multiple copies off the same block. They are all originals, all a bit different and all done by hand.”

She does limited runs of 10-30 of each design, selling them all for a lower price making her art more affordable.

“That’s one of the reasons I really like printmaking,” Holsapple said.

For the most recent Artists Along the Bitterroot Studio Tour, she assisted guests in trying their hand at printmaking. She had a friend hook up the lawn mower to a lawn roller and used that as a press for a fun way to get people involved.

“I don’t have a printing place and do everything by hand,” Holsapple said. “It’s just more inventive than pressing on it with a stone. We had people out carving and printing them with the lawn roller. I’ve seen people do it with a steam roller. We just tried it and it was a big hit that worked well.”

Holsapple feels compelled to create art every day.

“I do sketch every day, I don’t make a big piece of art necessarily,” she said. “I definitely have that drive to put something down on paper often, even if it is not a big piece. That kind of sketching is where my bigger designs come from, quick drawings that I then flesh out.”

She experiments with images, types of ink, qualities of paper, and variations of pressure to capture various moods of nature and unique artwork. She said that the COVID pandemic has not changed her life because she mostly works at home with her mules and in her studio.

“But I know a lot of people are struggling,” she said. “I’ve been really lucky to have lived rural all my life where the pace is a little bit slower. For me, it is nice to get people to slow down, enjoy little moments and connect with people or animals in their life. It’s good to have time to appreciate and be inspired by art.”

“Despair” Hamilton Artist Wendy Holsapple rarely changes from her typical subject matter of equines and canines, but this year has been different. “I wanted to try and express some of the emotion many people have been feeling,” she said. “I sketch almost every day like some people write in a journal. this is one of the linocuts that developed from those sketches.”

She knows many of her prints will find a home with rescue organizations as she often donates her work, “to further efforts in the humane treatment of all living things,” she said.

Holsapple is making frames for her artwork from trees in the forest, she has cut down, hauled out herself, milled down and formed into frames.

Reach her at Laughing Mule Press, hello@laughing-mule.com, 406-370-5640, www.laughingmulepress.com or through the Artists Along the Bitterroot website

https://artistsalongthebitterroot.com/artists/.

The Majestic Sheep Print

I finished up the sheep print a while back, but I wanted to include some extra information about it here. I normally pretty much stick to canine and equine subject matter, but I wanted to do a print that I could play around with another type of texture (wool vs hair) and some ideas for backgrounds to add some dimension to my prints instead of just strictly portraits.

I love how the wool turned out especially on his chest. I drew quite a few versions before I decided to just sketch him directly on the lino and let the carving bring out the texture of the wool instead of trying to draw it all out. I really like the tall blades of grass blowing in the wind too. The rest of the grass looks nice printed but is pretty similar to fur in a lot of ways. I wanted to try to capture the look of the field blowing and swaying in the wind.

This is the first print I used an oil based ink. I wanted to try Caligo Safe Wash Inks because I have heard so many great comments about them. They are a soy based ink that washes up with soap and water. It was much easier to print the solid areas than with the water based ink I have been using, and I needed a much lighter application of ink too. They definitely stay useable longer so I didn't have to rush as much while printing. They do clean up well, but not quite as easily as the water based inks. Since I don't have a press and print everything by hand they are perfect for prints with large dark areas. I will definately keep using both types of ink depending on the project.

It all worked out well because Chester (the sheep model) belongs to a friend of mine and she wanted a print of him, plus farm animals are cool too. She always calls him the majestic sheep because of how he often stands looking off into the distance with his head held high and attentive. But then the second he sees someone he comes running over to get ear scratches and ruins the whole majestic thing by being a snuggle bunny.

First 3 Prints of Granny

These are the first 3 prints of Granny. I did some touch up on them, but overall I think I'm ready to print a bunch.

Final Carving & First Test Print of Granny

Here are photos of the final carving before the first test print, inking the lino for the first time, and the very first print. I will need to do some touch up carving before the final prints can be made, but it's looking like a good start. It looks like I need to lighten up the shadows below the eye and on her cheek.