Introduction

The Journal and the Logo

Stone Printing

Will Petersen: Biography

Will Petersen, the Printmaker: Chronology

The Japanese Encounter

Will Petersen and the Beat Generation

The Last Works

Will Petersen's Stone Prints

Petersen's Contemporaries' Stone Prints

Opening's Highlights
 
 
 

 
Plucked Chicken Press: 
Will Petersen, the Printmaker
  • 1951 At age 23 begins exhibiting prints nationally at the Boston Printmakers Annual   Exhibition, Annual National Print Exhibition at the Portland Museum of Art and others.
  • 1953-54 During military service in Japan, studies calligraphy and discovers stone and sand gardens.
  • 1955 With Mel Strawn co-founds the Bay Printmakers Society in California (now the California Society of Printmakers in Emeryville).
  • 1956 In storefront studio in Oakland, California, creates serigraphs and lithographs. Prints poems of Jack Kerouac.
  • 1961 Back in Japan, acquires a lithography press and stones and resumes printing lithographs. Exhibits regularly with Kyoto Printmakers.
  • 1965 Teaches printmaking at The Ohio State University.
  • 1969 Resident lithographer at the Lakeside Studio, Lakeside, Michigan. Prints for the first time Richard Hunt's lithographs.
  • 1970 Accepts printmaking position at West Virginia University, Morgantown.
  • 1977 Sets up independent studio in Morgantown, West Virginia.
  • 1978 Establishes Plucked Chicken Press in Morgantown, West Virginia. Resident lithographer at Lakeside Studio in Michigan.
  • 1980 Plucked Chicken Press moves to Chicago. Publishes lithographs by Don Crouch and Art Kleinman.
  • 1982 Publishes Blossom, a lithograph/collage by Tom Nakashima.
  • 1983 Series I of Plucked Chicken Press is published with work by Archer, Duckworth, Godfrey, Heagstedt, Himmelfarb, Hoff, Hunt, Martyl, Miller, Nakashima and Petersen.
  • 1984 Plucked Chicken Press moves to Evanston. Series II of Plucked Chicken Press is published  with works by Croydon, Ho, Archer, Torn, Osver, Middaugh, Roseberry, Petersen, Spiess-Ferris and Hoppock.
  • 1985 Series III of Plucked Chicken Press is published with works by Driesbach, Hunt, Trupp, Gregor, Pattison, Conger, Evans, Weygandt, Archer, Ho and Petersen. Prints Suite I, Northern Illinois University Collectors Series, with lithographs by Renie Adams, David Bower, David Driesbach, Carl Hayano and Ben Mahmoud, all faculty members of the art department at Northern Illinois University.
  • 1986 Publishes Richard HuntÕs Over Wisdom Bridge.
  • 1987 Series IV of Plucked Chicken Press is published with works by Bustos, Archer, Martyl, Petersen, Smith, Gordon, Gadomski and Godfrey.
  • 1990 Series V of Plucked Chicken Press is published with four floral lithographs by Winifred Godfrey. Full Court Press publishes Temple Dance, a lithograph by Petersen.
  • 1991 Petersen begins publishing The Wanderer.
  • 1992 Prints Cloudswept Solo.
  • 1993 Publishes Darkly Splendid.
  • 1994 Creates the lithograph The Last One.