New Associate Professor of Printmaking Megan Foster is inspired by “weird science” and the everyday.
When she was interviewing for a full-time faculty position in Printmaking – her major department when she was a student at RISD – newly hired Associate Professor Megan Foster 00 PR was asked to envision her “dream course,” a class for advanced students that would incorporate new technology with traditional printmaking techniques. She proposed a studio in which students would create stop-motion animations using multiple handmade prints and a scanner, a technique that’s become quite popular in the printmaking world.
“I’ve always crossed disciplines in my teaching and my own work,” Foster says, “and I’m excited to work with RISD students. I’ll be teaching at a level I couldn’t reach anywhere else.”
Since Foster earned her BFA in the department, she has returned regularly as a visiting critic while teaching full-time at the City College of New York and working as a master printer at Columbia University. A staunch believer in RISD’s hands-on approach, she says that “people outside the fine arts world still rely on those who can make things with their hands. Printmaking has always been a medium that pushes technology and mass production,” she adds, “but it’s coming back around to limited editions and specialized techniques like etching. And there’s a lot more respect for the medium in the larger art world today as well.”