New stone lithograph with artist Maria de Los Angeles - available soon

Milestone Graphics is excited to share that a new limited edition stone lithograph made in collaboration with artist Maria de Los Angeles will be available soon! The print is rooted in the themes Maria has been developing throughout her practice: migration, belonging, and identity. It also happens to be her first time working in stone lithography, which made for a really rewarding collaboration.

A new lithograph

Stone lithograph | 13 x 17" | Edition of 20

The image centers on a face — features soft and recognizable, with a small nose and slightly open mouth — while eyes multiply across the forehead and cheeks at every angle and scale. Some are carefully rendered, others more loosely drawn; together they fill the face with a sense of being seen from all directions at once.

The whole composition is built entirely from tusche wash, which gives the print a fluid, painterly quality. Tones range from pale gray to deep black, with the washes pooling and flowing in ways that feel both controlled and alive. A field of sweeping marks surrounds the figure, pressing in from the edges and giving the image a sense of movement.

The multiplied eyes connect naturally to Maria's broader work around identity and migration: the experience of moving between cultures, of being perceived differently depending on context. The face at the center is watchful but seems overwhelmed, which feels like an honest image of that experience.

Working with Maria at Milestone Graphics

Maria came to Milestone Graphics' studio in New Haven, CT to work with Irene Michnicki, owner & collaborative printer, on developing the edition. Although Maria's practice already includes printmaking, this was her first time working in stone lithography specifically. The two worked through the drawing, proofing, and printing process together from start to finish.

Stone lithography has a learning curve: the chemistry of the stone, the way tusche behaves on limestone, the back-and-forth of proofing — so tackling it for the first time while also developing a new image is no small thing. Maria took to it well, and the tusche wash technique she used plays to the medium's strengths nicely.

How stone lithography works

Stone lithography is an older, traditional printmaking technique still in regular use, and it's central to what we do at Milestone. The process starts with a slab of limestone, which the artist draws on directly using oil-based materials. Maria De Los Angeles was interested in using tusche wash which is a liquid that can be diluted and applied like ink or watercolor, allowing for a wide range of tonal effects depending on how it's used on the stone. Tusche also creates a texture specific to lithography called reticulation. This word, used not only in the process of lithography, is defined as an arrangement or pattern resembling a network or web. Think of undulating cloud-like structures that develop throughout pools of wash that are laid down and left to dry. Watching the tusche wash dry is much like watching paint dry, but it's very much worth the wait.

Detail of Maria De Los Angeles' new stone litho

Once the drawing is complete, the stone is etched with a gum arabic and acid solution that chemically fixes the image. From there, it's a matter of keeping the stone damp, rolling up ink, and printing one sheet at a time on the press. The oil-based ink sticks to the drawn areas and is repelled by the wet, blank stone everywhere else.

Stone lithography directly translates to the artist's marks; what goes onto the stone is what ends up on the paper. For work like Maria's, where the drawing itself carries a lot of the meaning, that directness is a real asset.

About Maria de Los Angeles

Maria de Los Angeles (b. 1988) is a Mexican-born, American artist working in drawing, painting, printmaking, and wearable sculpture. Her work focuses on migration, belonging, and identity, moving between abstraction and figuration to get at both personal and shared experiences.

She holds an MFA from the Yale School of Art (2015) and a BFA from Pratt Institute (2013), and is currently a Critic and Assistant Director of Graduate Studies for Painting and Printmaking at Yale. She has been an artist in residence at MASS MoCA, Anderson Ranch Arts Center, LACMA, El Museo del Barrio, and the Monira Foundation. Her work has been shown at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, LACMA, Self Help Graphics, and elsewhere, and is held in the permanent collections of the Museum of Sonoma County, Smith College, and the Green Family Art Foundation.

Her public murals can be found at Sutter Santa Rosa Regional Hospital, Santa Rosa Junior College, Luther Burbank Center for the Arts, and the University of Oregon, among other locations.

The edition: size and availability

The edition will consist of 20 signed and numbered impressions, printed on BFK Rives paper, measuring 13 x 17". Prints will be available through Milestone Graphics — contact us to inquire.

Collaborative printmaking: working together

Milestone Graphics has been a collaborative print studio since 1976, and working with artists like Maria on new editions is what keeps the work interesting. We're really pleased with how this print came out and grateful to Maria for bringing her work to New Haven.

To inquire about acquiring a print, contact us here.

Learn more about Maria de Los Angeles at mariadelosangelesart.com.