For May, it’s double the creative energy with the dynamic duo team from New Impressions Print Studio, Andrew Stearns and Stacy Friedman. This community print shop is a nestled in the heart of East Somerville, providing a supportive artistic environment, specialized equipment, and classes for artists working in the medium of printmaking. Fellow artist, Kerrie Kemperman interviews Andrew and Stacy on what motivated them to create this unique art space.
What are your goals for the New Impressions print studio and how do you envision its role in the community?
From the beginning, our goal was to create an accessible, shared printmaking studio that would foster an inclusive creative community where people of all backgrounds, identities, abilities, and skill levels have equal access to the resources they need to learn and create prints. We want to be a resource for Somerville and the Greater Boston Area. It’s a lofty goal!
This month, we are celebrating the studio’s second birthday and have been reflecting on where we’ve been and where we want to go. In the broadest sense, we’re doing what we set out to accomplish, but we’re only a fraction of what we want to become.
In the year ahead, we want to do more collaborations with organizations by finding ways that prints can share and spread ideas. We want to continue finding other ways to bring people into the studio, but also get out to share what we do.
Describe your work/life balance — how do you balance your creative projects with the pressures of running the print studio and life?
Ha! What is balance? It has been difficult to strike a balance. All of our creative energy has been focused on starting the business and making it all work. We’re looking to find more ways to create our own work. We recently were invited to create an exhibition about the studio and our work at Wellesley College this fall. It will be the perfect incentive to make some fresh work to hang with the show.
Tell us a little bit about some of your own creative projects, whether current, or a project you plan to return to, or something still percolating. What themes or subjects tend to come up in your work?
Getting the studio up and running has been the main focus over the past few years, but we are both itching to get back to making our own work. Seeing all of the work being made in the studio has been really inspiring.
Both of our work deals with themes of memory, history, and the passage of time, but we approach it very differently. Various techniques within printmaking lend themselves well to these themes. Stacy’s work explores these ideas through family history. She uses family photos and immigration documents as sources and combines different print processes to create layered and abstracted histories. Andrew’s work explores continuously shifting narratives of time and space. He has a particular interest in how history is recorded, remembered, or how it simply fades.
Tell us a bit about your backgrounds. What drew you to printmaking? What brought you to Somerville?
We met while we were both studying printmaking and art history at Massachusetts College of Art and Design. In addition to the amazing variety of techniques and mark making within print, we were both drawn to the inherent collaborative nature of printmaking. There’s something motivating about being surrounded by other people creating at the same time.
When we began looking for spaces, we had a pretty rigid checklist. We wanted to be close to an MBTA T stop, we needed a first floor space or something with a freight elevator, and we needed enough space (at the right price). We were lucky to find a space that checked all those boxes and it happened to be in Somerville! We were ecstatic to build our business in Somerville because of the reputation it has always had of being a creative hub with many artists living and working in the area.
(Andrew) As I gear up to make new work, I have been revisiting some “old friends.” I’ve always been drawn to the work of theGerman Expressionists, specifically George Groz and Otto Dix. I love the harsh and gritty quality of their mark-making, the world they were depicting, and I am still fascinated by work made during that tumultuous time period. Another artist I’ve spent a lot of time looking at is Warrington Colescott. There are many qualities I admire in his work. Especially the satire in his visual narratives, mountains of historical references and the printmaking techniques he utilized. I put a high value on a good sense of humor.
(Stacy) One summer, I assisted Joel Janowitz with a viscosity monotype workshop he was teaching at Mix-it Print Studio. He encouraged me to create work alongside the class. Working with stencils in monotype really clicked and excited me. It inspired the first real body of work I created after graduating. I am really drawn to Ruth Weisberg’s work, the conversation between past and present, and the integration of personal experience with heritage. Another piece that I keep thinking about is a short film by JR called Unframed, Ellis Island. He captures how a place can hold memories. While I don’t create moving images, the sources he blends have similar ties. The spoken word throughout the film paired with the photos and textures of the abandoned building is so impactful.
Talk a bit about some of the tools and materials of your craft, your favorite tools or materials or process & why.
The studio has facilities for a number of printmaking techniques. We can carve wood or linoleum for relief prints, expose screens for silkscreen, etch copper plates for intaglio, and draw on lithography stones. And, of course, we have the presses. One of the main reasons we created the studio was to provide the tools, materials, equipment, and space necessary for these processes – all the things you likely won’t (or can’t) have in your home.
(Stacy) It’s hard to pick a favorite process, but the ones I gravitate to the most are etching, monotype, and lithography. There is nothing quite like drawing on the smooth surface of a litho stone, and I love the reticulation and texture of tusche (the liquid drawing material). I also love working the surface of a copper plate and seeing how different etching techniques can produce such different marks. I find monotype the most freeing and like to use stencils to determine which areas are printed vs preserved through layering.
(Andrew) Like Stacy, I also can’t pick a favorite. Each technique lends itself to a specific type of project. In general, I love the process and order of it all. In a way, it’s kind of like cooking. Especially when you’re learning, it’s helpful to have a recipe to follow along. But then once you learn the steps, you can experiment.
Who are some of the influences who have inspired your work (or your business), and how?
For the business, we take a lot of inspiration from the studios that came before us here in the Boston Area and across the country. There are a lot of people and places to name, but to pick three: Carolyn Muskat, owner and Master Printer at Muskat Studios (Somerville) has played a huge role since we were students, encouraging and supporting our dream. Studio Two Three in Richmond, VA is a community printmaking studio. We admire their energy and how active they have been in their city supporting other community organizations. It’s been amazing to watch how they have grown. This spring we were reintroduced to the Robert Blackburn Printmaking Workshop (New York, NY) through the Press & Pull exhibition at the MassArt Art Museum. It is the longest-running community print shop in the country. Their openness and vision of providing access to professional-quality printmaking facilities is something we strive to create here. A common thread among all of these people and places is their generosity.
What’s one of your favorite places in Somerville or a favorite local event?
I know you said one, but it’s a tie! Carnaval & ArtBeat are our favorite events in Somerville. It’s awesome to bring parts of the studio out into the community. The energy is always great.
Every journey has its challenges, and opening the studio took longer than anticipated. Who or what got you through?
We had experienced significant delays on the road to opening the studio. It took two years from when we signed our lease to when we were able to open the doors to the public. On our darkest days, Lindsey Allen and all the folks at East Somerville Main Streets helped us keep our eyes on the prize. They helped us navigate the inspection process, [they] advocated for us, and most importantly, introduced us to our neighborhood and fellow small businesses. Even though we couldn’t have people in the studio yet, they encouraged us to participate in events and begin sharing our love of print.
Social Media links and upcoming events:
Instagram: @newimprintstudio
newimpressionsprintstudio.com
New Impressions Print Studio’s 2nd Birthday Party, June 13th, details TBD
More Artists of the Month from 2026
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About the Artist of the Month
This program is inspired by the Nave Gallery’s “Featured Artist” program, which ran from 2005 to 2009.
SAC’s Artist of the Month program is a way for us to celebrate the enormous wealth of talent in our city, by shining a spotlight on a different creative Somervillian each month.
This program has been put together by a whole raft of people: Coordinators Jenn Harrington (2013-2014) and Kellie Veiga (2013), Gilmore Tammy (2017) and Somerville Arts Council board members Matt Kaliner, Tim Devin, Valeria Amato, and Michael J. Epstein, Bill House (2019-2020), Charan Devereaux (2019-2025), Tori Weston (2019-2025) and Andrea Read (2022-2025). Current coordinators, are Kerrie Kemperman (2019-), Seth Garcia (2025-), and Ben Cuba (2026-).
Know of a great Somerville based artist who should be recognized, please nominate the artist for consideration. We seek artists who contribute to the community through their strong work and community collaborations. Artist should either reside in the City or contribute to the City’s vibrant art scene.