Annette Messitt

Annette Messitt – Artist Statement

Annette Messitt lives full time on Vashon Island. An avid en plein air watercolorist for nearly three decades, Annette was inspired by veteran on-island printmakers to try printmaking in 2017. She hasn’t looked back.

To create her prints, Annette carves linoleum and rubber blocks that are inked and transferred to paper by hand, etching press, or block press. Annette’s work has appeared in galleries on Vashon Island and Port Townsend. In 2021, her piece “Ready to Load” was featured alongside other works from around the world in a UK publication called Pressing Matters, which focuses on printmaking.

Annette is currently focused on reductive lino printing. This process involves a finite number of color overprints made from a single piece of linoleum, with more of the linoleum being cut away for each overprinted color. She has recently been inspired by vintage toys and crockery because it forces her to maximize the number of colors and layers in order to capture their charm and patina.

Her work also focuses on the beauty and folklore of Vashon Island. Annette’s combination lino and block-printed “Vashon Stamp Series” debuted at the Vashon Center for the Arts in 2022. It features local landmarks, such as the Bike in the Tree, the Jesus Barn, and the Portage Store, and the stories that surround them.

Annette is currently a member of Quartermaster Press, a Vashon Island printmaking collective. and a member of the new Vashon Island art cooperative, Swiftwater Gallery.