This week Miranda speaks with artist, educator, and all-around print friend Vanessa Jo Bahr.

Vanessa is the founder of Scavenger Studios in Ashland, Oregon, where she runs a community print studio and artist residency, alongside teaching printmaking at Southern Oregon University and maintaining her own incredibly rich studio practice.

Vanessa is a scavenger in a very real sense of the word. She collects objects from the natural world, works with reclaimed copper plates, makes inks and pigments from plants and other materials, makes paper from studio scraps, tans hides, and follows materials all the way back to their origins. Her work asks what happens when, instead of constantly looking for something new, we pay close attention to what is already around us.

They talk about running artist residencies, the particular magic of spending long days in the studio with other printmakers, and why sometimes the best work happens when it’s late, you’re running on fumes, something has gone completely wrong, and you just have to figure out what to do next.

This is a conversation about printmaking, but it’s also about curiosity, resourcefulness, and finding ways to live a little closer to the materials and landscapes that make our work possible.

Vanessa's Website

Vanessa on Instagram

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