From Flatbed Press:
“Flatbed welcomed Colleen Blackard to Flatbed for the 2025 Jerry Manson Residency in February.
After a decade in Brooklyn, Colleen Blackard recently returned home to Austin, TX. She received her MFA in Studio Art at The University of Texas in Austin in 2024, and her BA from Hampshire College, MA in 2009. She is the recipient of international residencies and fellowships such as Atelierhaus Hilmsen in Germany, Cill Rialaig in Ireland, and Jentel in Wyoming. She received the Pollock-Krasner Grant in 2017 and the Dorothy LaSelle Travel Fellowship in 2024. Her work has been exhibited internationally in galleries such as ACA Galleries and Owen James Gallery in NYC, Mönchskirche Gallery in Germany, ISSO Gallery in Tokyo, Foltz Fine Art in Houston, and SPRING/BREAK Art Show. In 2021, her solo exhibition at Redbud Gallery, Houston, was awarded “Top 5 shows in Texas” by Glasstire.
At Flatbed, she plans to create a series of work responding to her recent travels through Tuscany last summer to discover the space that emerges when combining her memories and the history embedded in these sites with the will of the press. Look for Colleen’s show in early 2026 at Flatbed!”
From February – April 2025, I had the honor of being the 2025 Jerry Manson Resident at Flatbed Press in Austin, TX. This allowed me 24/7 access to the printshop, where I had the privilege of learning from Joshua Orsburn, the master printer there, as well as taking a soft-ground etching workshop with Belinda Casey. I also learned so much from the experienced printmakers who make up the Flatbed Community Printshop, and my printmaking practice flourished. I began working in layers in my monotypes and translating my monotype process to photo lithography and photopolymer etching. I incorporated other intaglio processes such as soft-ground etching, chine collé, and sugar lift etching into the layers of my work. All of this came together in my work, An Unfound Door, a series of monotype prints on my recent adventures through Italy.
Last summer, I was fortunate enough to be the teaching assistant for Learning Tuscany, the University of Texas at Austin’s Art & Art History summer program. As the teaching assistant, I supported students as they learned art history in historical sites such as the Vatican Museum and the Duomo in Florence and developed their photographic skills in such places as the Campo in Siena. Spending a week in Rome and then staying in the town of Siena for 5 weeks, I was immersed in the culture and the colors, sounds, and smells of the Tuscan summer are imprinted on my mind. I was also able to travel to Venice for the Biennale for the first time, and to paint with my artist friend Julia Zaremba near the Tuscan town of San Quirico. After the course ended, I traveled to the artist residency, Arte Studio Ginestrelle in the town of Assisi with my partner, writer Sam Teeter.
The layering of history was ever-present in my experience of Tuscany. Etruscan and Roman archaeological sites were found below medieval and contemporary buildings alike. On a tour of Onda’s Contrada Museum in Siena, I was shown the Etruscan site being excavated in their basement. At a bar in Montepulciano, I looked down through the glass floor to see the Etruscan and Roman ruins below. In Assisi, the Roman temple built to honor Minerva currently houses the catholic church, Santa Maria sopra Minerva, and my residence was built with stones from ancient Roman buildings. Nature encrusts all of this human history with grapevines and olive groves growing between cobblestone walkways. Birds nest in trees and eaves alike.
I meditated on all these experiences while creating work this past spring at Flatbed in Austin. Within my monotypes, I discovered the space that emerges when combining my memories and the history embedded in these sites with the will of the press. I look forward to sharing the results at my upcoming solo show at Flatbed Press, An Unfound Door, opening Saturday, January 17th, 2026 at 6pm.
