By Kalena Reynolds | Staff Writer
Love is in the air, and with Valentine’s Day on the horizon, the Martin Museum of Art’s annual Print-a-Valentine event is approaching. It will be held from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Feb. 14 in the student lounge in the Hooper-Schaefer Fine Arts Center.
Allison Chew, director of the Martin Museum of Art, said the event will include a series of six wood-cut design templates from which attendees can choose. The method of creation for the prints is called relief painting, which involves a wood block engraved with a laser cutter that is inked and put through a roll press to print the design on a piece of paper.
Chew said the designs range from Baylor-inspired and love-themed to anti-Valentine’s Day-themed.
“Even if you don’t have a sweetie, you can make one for your mom or your dad or your brother or your sister, so there’s a lot,” Chew said. “There’s six different options all in different colors so that people can make different ones that they want.”
Each print is 5 by 7 inches and has a blank side on the back to write messages or letters to the recipient.
“It is more like a postcard. It’s just a single-sided piece,” Elisa Crowder, education coordinator at the Martin Museum of Art, said. “But we’ve had students come and print them and sit in the lounge and write notes on the back and then hand-deliver.”
The event is free and open to the public, welcoming students, faculty, staff and more.
“Every couple of years, we make new plates so that students and anybody who wants to do it can have different versions,” Chew said. “It’s open to the general public. Students can do it. It’s free for everybody. You can make as many as you want to. Faculty and staff come in sometimes, and they bring their children.”
