Alexandra Blum

Bio: Ali Blum grew up in Ithaca and Brooklyn, NY and moved to San Francisco in 1997. She holds an MFA in Printmaking from Washington University in St. Louis and a BFA in Painting from Cornell University. She works in printmaking, painting, and mixed media. Her exhibits include solo shows at The Mission Cultural Center in San Francisco and Cornell University, as well “Four Artists” at Ligne Roset, “The Day of the Dead” at the Legion of Honor, “The Eye of the Storm” at Markham Vineyards, and “Chicano Visions” at the De Young Museum. She has held artist residencies at the de Young Art Center in San Francisco and the Lower East Side Print Shop in New York, and most recently the August 2010 De Young Museum Artist in residence. Ali has also at a wide range of institutions including community centers, at risk youth summer programs, and special events and workshops at the de Young Museum and SFMOMA.

Ali Blum has taught at Drew since 1998. The students serve as a source of constant inspiration “to be in a room full of young artists and then to go home to studio time keeps my perspective in the moment and reaching for new images and ideas.”

Ali uses childhood memories and dreams as inspiration for her prints. One of her media of choice is monoprints. Monoprints are created by painting a plate with ink. A moist piece of paper is placed on top of the plate and rolled through an etching plate which transfers the ink from the plate to the paper. Each color is a separate pass through the press. The characteristic of monoprinting is that each print is a unique image. Monoprints are essentially printed painting. The beauty of this media is its unique translucency, spontaneity, and combination of printmaking, painting, and drawing mediums. Ali also works in oil, acrylic, and encaustic paint often adding mixed media elements of collage, screen printing, and drawing.

The birth of Ali and Calixto’s daughter Cecile Altagracia Robles-Blum who recently turned one has been another source of inspiration. Ali has started a new body of paintings in honor of Cecile of mythological women on wood with resin. Images include mermaids, sirens, and dryads. This new body of work can be seen at her open studio.