The year 2013 exceeded expectations in terms of the number of new artists (7) that have joined the Artist Printmaker Research Collection and the number of works of art (over 1400) added to the collection. Mary Hood, one of the new AP/RC artists, donated an exceptional range of twenty-two relief and intaglio prints and many of the matrices (41) used to print them. In addition to her prints, Hood also creates installations and books.

The prints range from 2005 to the present and incorporate a wide range of media, including laser relief, photo etching, inkjet, crayon lift, laser engraving, screen printing, and hand made paper. Recently Hood has applied these techniques to a variety of wood and wood-like veneers, achieving a distinct range of surfaces. In some cases she laser cuts into chipboard mounted to luan or a similar wood. Hood’s digitally-guided laser cuts into softer, lower quality woods heighten the textural surface of her prints. 

In several works she creates images by printing on both sides of the paper. She notes that her, “laser images are combined with other processes to present the impact and relevancy of digital processes as they relate to printmaking’s graphic identity, the creation of unique matrices, and the interconnectivity of printmaking as a system of visual language.” Hood’s subject matter shifts from silence, time, and environmental stress to utopias and dystopias.

Hood currently teaches in the School of Art at Arizona State University in Tempe. Prior to this, she taught at Carnegie Mellon University and the University of North Texas.

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