Silk-screen prints by Roger Horine will be on display this month in the Narthex. Starting with a series of lightning bolt cards he made in high school to the images of our church and Nantucket scenes he created during a break from his career in tech marketing, his art showcases his lifelong love of screen printing.
Roger described how his enthusiasm was piqued as a young teen:
“My middle school in Connecticut was often bedecked with beautifully produced silk-screen prints that 8th graders created during their spring semester art classes. Influenced by the psychedelic art that flourished during our time in the late 60s, many of the posters promoting school dances and other activities were wonderfully creative.
“I was eager to become an 8th grader and learn the process, but my hopes were dashed when I learned that screen printing was only taught every other year, and my year was the one off. So, I bought a little screen-printing kit and taught myself. There was a lot of error in my trials, but eventually I got the hang of it—along with so many of the ways it can go off the rails.
“The materials were expensive, so I invested in a large screen and began a small business producing posters for town event organizers, along with volunteer efforts like printing bumper stickers for our town’s Democratic Party during the 1972 presidential election. My “Darien for McGovern” stickers
enjoyed a limited popularity among my friends and local Democrats, though the town was overwhelmingly Republican.”
Now, Roger enjoys silk-screen printing holiday cards, in recent years celebrating Winter Solstice. In one burst of enthusiasm, he adapted a sunset photo he took at a friend’s lakeside cabin in Maine to create a trilogy of sunset prints showing moon phases under different skies. “I mixed various shades of sparkly ink to get a shimmering effect, and no two prints are the same.”
Where is the sweet spot for screen printing these days? “High-end inkjet printers can produce stunning images—often called “giclee” prints to make them sound more upscale, but they have a limited color range. I love using inks that are beyond what inkjet printers and commercial lithographers can produce. If you see a card with thick, exceptionally vibrant ink—including metallic gold and silver—there’s a good chance it’s a screenprint.”