CALL FOR ENTRIES

 Walking = Thinking: Printmakers Who Walk

Walking is a way to get from point A to point B, a straightforward interaction with both natural and constructed spaces, but it serves many other purposes: it is healthful, meditative, and therapeutic. Walking can diffuse or neutralize - hence the command “take a walk!” - but moreover it can be a generative practice, sparking the imagination and prompting a motivational high.

Creatives use walking in myriad ways. Chicago artist Stan Shellabarger does performance ‘walks’ that take up to twelve hours, using his feet as a repetitive mark making tools and leaving a path that is simultaneously an artwork and a record of endurance, repetition, patience, and determination. In Rebecca Solnit’s Wanderlust: A History of Walking, the author tackles many facets of putting one foot in front of the other: humankind’s evolution from four feet to two, spaces built for walking, walking for a purpose, the cultural baggage and social mores of walking… the list goes on. She writes about others who have written about walking, and philosophers who did their best work on foot.

Lest we assume that walking is only of interest to Gen Xers and nimble Boomers, consider how walking makes its way into music of today. Denzel Curry uses walking as a metaphor for maintaining courage and embracing self-care in the face of systemic racism and predatory capitalism. He may not actually walk, but his associating ambulation and mental, spiritual, or emotion movement continues a longstanding musical tradition of linking walking to other activities: Patsy Cline walked after midnight to search for a lost love; Dion claimed that a man could wander but ‘good girls’ don’t run around; Lou Reed explored gender, drugs, and sex on the wild side; and Johnny Cash used the prison term ‘walking the line’ to reference being faithful and moral.

Walking = Thinking: Printmakers Who Walk will bring together a diverse group of works that address, use, prompt, or require the process of walking. Original 2D work in all printmaking media and digital/traditional hybrid prints are eligible.

            Interested artists may submit the following to Sarah Smelser at ssmelse@ilstu.edu by July 1, 2025: 1-3 jpgs; titles, media, and framed size of works; artist’s contact information; and a short statement about the relationship between walking, thinking, and making (max 300 words). Artists will be notified by July 15. Accepted work must be framed with plexiglas, weigh less than 12 lbs., and measure no larger than 36” x 40” (or the total of 152” for all four lengths of the frame). Shipping to and from the exhibition venue, Pitch Black Printing Company in Reno, NV, is the responsibility of the artists, as is any insurance of the work. Accepted artists will receive a detailed schedule of responsibilities.