With declarations that print is dead circulating for decades, one Jasper artist is doing her best to buck the trend.

Jasper artist Libby Weir launched her latest art exhibit on June 20 at Cafe Mondo with a show made entirely of printmaking pieces.

“It’s a totally different thing for me,” Weir said.

The art form is a return of sorts for Weir, who studied printmaking at art school at the University of Alberta, but has focused on painting since then. She’s been putting the collection together since 2007.

“I always liked the process of printmaking and I wanted to get back to that,” Weir said, mentioning that she can explore the idea of ‘layers of history’ through prinmaking.

“It’s like layers of time and space. You can keep working it,” Weir said.

Weir found a printing press on Saltspring Island and relearned something she started 20 years ago.

While abstract forms covering landscape shots are difficult enough to pull off, printmaking involves creating art backwards and upside down, and hoping they translate in the process. Copper plates are scratched up and dipped in an acid bath to create texture.

Acids on copper prints creates the desired designs, and Weir used several different methods (such as shellac) to achieve the varied textures indicative of some of her other works. Cardboard and wood prints are used in the show.

Her subject matter is the natural world. Many pieces draw inspiration from a drive along the Icefield Parkway in 2008 in -35C temperatures, where azure blues contrast with brilliant yellow and red hues. Other pieces draw inspiration from Jasper’s trees.

One Douglas fir used in the show is slightly infamous, as it crushed a car during a major wind storm.

Weir said she has a connection to trees in Jasper, something she missed during her time in Manitoba.

“A lot of the trees on Miette boulevard, I planted,” Weir said.

The show will continue for an undetermined period of time at Cafe Mondo.