Ila is Educator Emerita in Visual Arts from Thompson Rivers University. She is a founding member of the Kamloops PrintMakers Society.

I primarily work in water-based screen printing, but also love etching. I have conducted workshops in aluminum foil litho (Kitchen Litho), Tetra Pak dry point, and lino cuts. I love the process of printmaking as much as, or maybe more than, realizing the image in print. There is something ultimately satisfying in exploring and using the range of marks available only through print media.

My work for the most part features images that are interesting and intriguing to me. I find that the methodical and slow process of problem solving and preparing an image for print makes room for the image to “speak” to me. I recently made over-life-sized images of elderly women. The process allowed me to more fully appreciate the beauty that results from aging and to see the patina of a well-lived life.

I am also intrigued with digital images that reveal information beyond what my eyes can register. For example, my Mother asked me to scan and print an aerial photo of the farm where she grew up. I scanned the image at high resolution and discovered information in the image that had not previously been visible. I recognized the people and found a ball lying in the grass. A door was ajar in the background. A narrative emerged. This compelled me to also think about the mark of the machine in the work and I have since become interested in scanning small objects to see hidden information and to record the mark of the scanner as it passes incrementally over the objects. In some ways the unintended glitches of the process humanizes the image and emerging details previously hidden, all of which adds to the mystery of the image. It is almost like excavating buried artifacts.