the Artist
Longing for place, Pascale Jarvis split their formative years between Phoenix, AZ, and Western Massachusetts. They learned their craft, relief printmaking, while studying creative writing at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and, in 2019, returned to Massachusetts to refurbish an old farmhouse at the foot of Mt. Tom.
“I grew up hiking Mt. Tom with my dad. As a little kid, it’s where I learned to embody what it meant to be myself: to temper my hyperfocus with tactile soothe, to hear the tiny movements and moments of a treefrog symphony as a call to ease.”
Working as a barista during the early days of the farmhouse project, Pascale pivoted back to printmaking in 2021, experimenting with printing on leftover clothes from a clothing swap. Going through a gender transition at this same time, they also found printing on the clothes they wore to be a way to move attention away from the body, relieving some of their gender dysphoria. Pascale continues to use gently worn garments as the foundation of their printmaking practice. The form of the fabric itself determines the placement of each design. Photographing plants and creatures on Mt. Tom, sketching and carving them from linoleum, and printing them by hand, their practice continues their stewardship of the mountain. To them, their prints are a way to focus one’s exquisite attention to place - and to all the renewal accompanying that deep connection.
“Today, I try to repay the mountain through my stewardship of an acre that rests at its feet. A love letter to a forever-evolving landscape, my printmaking serves as an ode to everything the mountain has taught me.”
These days, Pascale’s printmaking business, raskl., runs most of their life, although they also garden and freelance as a writing coach/editor specializing in public rhetoric.
Maddie Maney Photography
the Process
It all begins with the photos Pascale takes of the flora and fauna they encounter around the farmstead.
After a few initial drawings on paper, these images are sketched onto linoleum, preparing to be carved. Pascale uses specialized chisels to carve out the design from linoleum. This creates what is called a block, which acts like a hand-carved stamp.
In between bouts of carving, Pascale thrifts garments onto which they will print the designs and gives them a deep clean with borax. Then, the printing part of the process begins.
Using a brayer, like a rolling pin with a handle, Pascale rolls a thin layer of ink onto a smooth surface. The ink is rolled onto the linoleum block, which is then carefully placed onto the garment. Pascale applies even pressure to the back of the block with a tool called a baron, ensuring the ink on the block makes consistent contact with the fabric of the garment. Finally, the grand reveal as the block is pulled away - and the print is done!