Summer, Evan

Person

Summer, Evan

1948-

Evan Summer has been making prints for over 35 years. He started when he was a chemistry major at the State University of New York College at Cortland. After completing his degree in chemistry, he moved back to his home town of Buffalo, New York, and began art school at the State University at Buffalo. He studied painting, printmaking and drawing, but printmaking quickly became his main interest. It’s combination of drawing and technical challenges ideally suited his abilities.

He had the opportunity to study with two outstanding teachers: Harvey Breverman in printmaking and Seymour Drumlevitch in painting. During this time in Buffalo (1970-73) he worked primarily with the collagraph, which at the time was a relatively new printmaking medium. Collagraph plates are built up like a collage and printed like an etching. Often he liked the plates better than the prints and this later led to interest in collage. After receiving his B. F. A. at Buffalo, he entered the graduate program in printmaking at Yale University.
Summer continued working with the collagraph and began experimenting with stronger, more durable materials to create his printing plates. He also started working seriously with etching.

He graduated with an M. F. A. from Yale in 1975. Subsequently, he held a number of summer and temporary teaching jobs at Creative Arts Workshop in New Haven, the State University of New York at Buffalo, Pratt Graphics Center and Wesleyan University. He moved to Philadelphia in 1978 and worked as an Artist in Residence under Hitoshi Nakazato at the University of Pennsylvania and taught at Tyler School of Art. The residency gave him a chance to develop his imagery and etching style. In 1984 he was hired at Kutztown University, one of the schools in Pennsylvania’s State System of Higher Education. He is now a Professor at Kutztown University and lives in Kutztown, Pennsylvania with his wife and two of four children.

He is a specialist in etching, sometimes combining it with engraving and drypoint. He does all preparatory drawings, plate work and printing himself without print shop collaborations. His copper printing plates usually go through 10 to 20 states, and he often works on a single plate for over a year.

Artist's website: http://evansummer.com/