Botanical Cyanotype Print Workshop with Francisco Cortes.

Young artists will jump into printmaking through cyanotype printing, an alternative and exciting photographic process first developed in 1842. Cyanotype printing is a photographic process that produces unique Prussian blue prints. To celebrate the upcoming spring season, participants will use prepared flowers and source nearby plants for subject matter.

Sometimes results are predictable, sometimes they are not. Artists will work with the Sun as their UV light source and the weather will determine the intensity and outcome of the cyanotype prints they produce.

Artists will create botanical cyanotype prints on traditional materials, as well as on a Contemporary at Blue Star tote bags that the young artists will get to take home.

About Francisco Cortes

Originally from Tuxtepec, Oaxaca, Francisco Cortés is a San Antonio-based artist, known for his photojournalistic storytelling, which ranges from pensive moments, to civil unrest, to the experiences of immigrants in their alternating contexts. Cortes’ formal training has been in Photojournalism and Chicano Studies at the University of Texas at Austin.  With film photography and darkroom printing techniques as his foundation, Cortés uses the contexts of his many environments to shape the manner in which he looks through the lens, altering his work with only a minimalist approach (accentuating, but not manipulating truths). Single-artist shows include: “City on the Rise”, “Desde Oaxaca”, and “The Live Recordings.”

In addition to photography, Cortes has been a public-school educator for 15 years.  During those same years, Cortes has also been a photography instructor for Black and Brown youth through San Anto Cultural Arts, the Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center, San Antonio Youth Centers, Mexic-Arte Museum, and his own non-profit: The Light Catchers Society.

For more information about this workshop and other arts education programs at the Contemporary, contact Education Manager Asaiah Puente.