Due to the lack of leadership, Palmetto Press has recently been inactive.
  They hope to bounce back into action, starting with their T-shirt designing event.
 The Lion’s Roar / Emily Stephan

 

One rainy evening, around a dozen campus printmakers created their own T-shirt designs with a great deal of enthusiasm and music.

Palmetto Press, the printmaking club on campus, hosted their second standalone T-shirt making night Thursday, April 16 from 5 to 9 p.m. The event was once associated with Art Night but has since become its own independent affair as of the fall 2014 semester.

Attendees mingled as the Palmetto Press club sold uniquely designed T-shirts for $10, selling their printmaking services at half price if the customer brought a shirt of their own to get the full Palmetto treatment.

The club has not been especially active as of late, mainly due to a lack of leadership since the departure of the previous Palmetto Press president, Amber Darville. Lauren Leduff, a junior fine arts major with a dual concentration in printmaking and sculpture, will likely be taking on the office of club president next semester.

“[The T-shirt event] is pretty much the first event we’ve done this year,” said Leduff. “After [Darville left], we have not gotten back on our feet as a club. We have not been very active lately, so we’ve been working toward fixing that. We’re going to have more than one T-shirt printing night and my goal is to have more active involvement in the school throughout this semester. I’d like to get the word out about the club a bit more.”

Aside from T-shirt making events, the club has attended printmaking conferences across the country, representing the printmakers on the Southeastern campus.

“[The club] has been taking a lot of trips,” said Ernest Milsted, printmaking instructor and the Palmetto Press faculty advisor. “We’ve been to Chicago, we’ve been to Philadelphia, we’ve been to St. Louis and then New Orleans. We went to all those places to attend the SGC international printmaking conferences. That’s the professional printmaking organization. We went there to look at demos and see other print artists; we went to represent Southeastern.”

Overall, Palmetto Press hopes to make themselves more of a presence on campus, sharing their passion for printmaking. The T-shirt event in particular allows one to channel creativity and individuality through this art form, according to members of the club.

“[Palmetto Press] isn’t a huge group, but we’re passionate about what we do,” said Evan Thomas, senior visual arts major and Palmetto Press member. “It’s kind of nice, having a handmade T-shirt. It gives the item a bit more personality and character when you make it yourself.”

For more information on the Palmetto Press club, visit their Facebook page.