Once upon a time….

Civilian was conceived after Val moved from Brooklyn to Frenchtown, New Jersey following the birth of her son, Jack in 1991. With an MFA in Printmaking, Val often found herself home alone as a mother of two. Without a Printshop, Val developed a unique handprinting process. Collagraphs were a favorite process. A hot glue gun on plexiglass created a great collagraph plate for pressing an image into fabric. The intaglio area is painted a brush, the raised relief, glue gun line is rolled with a foam roller, the plate is then pressed, fully inked, onto a soft fabric, muslin or canvas.

Her practice organically evolved into printing on T-Shirts when she was printing alone late one night and ran out of canvas. She rummaged through her house for old t-shirts. When trying to sell images on stretched canvas they were a harder sell. When she printed them on a T-shirt… SOLD! Because money struggles were always very present and because the very successful Handprinted Clothing company, Blue Fish, was at it’s hey-day, and it’s facility was, ironically, directly adjacent to her newly found home along the Delaware River, it was a no brainer to follow the money and print those plates onto T-shirts.

As Civilian evolved, she eventually rented a small shop in Frenchtown, NJ where she print her clothing and sold her work as well as other artists work. There have been many iterations of Civilian over the years. Civilian’s legacy is that of an active participant in the living arts and making art with her community. Around 2006, Civilian’s images were created through screenprinting and digital manipulation of hand generated imagery.

After 2008, when the economy crashed, so did Civilian. Val took to being a vendor at Local Farmer’s Markets, one of the best decisions she made. It connected her to the larger area, issues of sustainable practices, organic food and farming.

Today, Civilian’s best images live as digital versions created during a 20 year span. Civilian’s legacy includes a vast series of fundraisers, workshops, community events, collaborative projects and collective efforts.

Val opens her studio in Holland Township, New Jersey to artists, friends and followers on Wednesdays during the hours of 11-6/7pm Workshops, shopping and artist gatherings are known to happen on any given Wednesday.

All are welcome! Come visit. Stay a while!

fun fact:

The name CIVILIAN was adopted from her brother’s the disbanded rock band, THE CIVILIANS - a play on their last name : SIVILLI.