Student artists learned how to sell and market their work at the print sale on Friday, Oct. 6.

Eastern’s Student Art Association member Travis White, who is also a senior graphic design major, said the proceeds earned go back to the students who created it.

White said it could help students show their parents, “Hey, mom and dad, I’m not just going to be a starving artist. I’m actually making money from this.”

While he has done other types of prints including “litho” and “woodblock,” White said screen-printing is his favorite by far. His favorite of his pieces in the print sale, “Rin as Anubis,” features his dog as Anubis in a screen print doing eight impressions to get all the details in the final print.

“I enjoyed making it because it’s usually my kind of style, a kind of grungy type of style where it’s a little messy and a little dark,” White said.

Student Art Association member Rhana Headley, said she enjoyed creating three layer prints with a watercolor monotype on top of the third layer.

“The cool thing about print making and screen-printing in particular is that you can create multiple prints of the same exact thing repetitively,” Headley, who is also a senior art major, said. “Monotype is completely individual and watercolor monotype is extremely difficult, but it adds a really cool variation.”

Clair Gentry, an Illinois Art Education Association member, said creating a button at the sale was interesting and fun, especially since it was her first time creating one.

As a student in one of the printmaking classes, Gentry said her class took a week off regular class activities to organize the sale and it was gratifying to see all her work pay off.

“I can walk up and I know all these people and I can support them as artists as well so that’s cool,” Gentry said.

Art professor Allan Pocaro said the print sale teaches students the business aspect of art making.

“This gives the students a situation where they are making all this work and then they are putting it out in front of other people who are not only responding to it aesthetically, but they are also responding to the work financially,” Pocaro said. “They see it, they like it and it’s like, ‘Hey, boom, I want that.’”

Pocaro said raising public awareness about the amazing art being created on campus is something he hopes is accomplished through the print sale.

“Art is a living vital force in the every day lives of people. It isn’t this thing that happens in St. Louis or you have to go to Chicago to get it or you have to go to Indianapolis,” Pocaro said. “Art and art making is where you’re at and it’s a really important part of who we are as people and as a community.”

Chrissy Miller can be reached at 581-2812 or clmiller9@eiu.edu.