Excerpt from "The Thalweg" a Southwest art publication scheduled to be published in spring 2026

​I stumbled into printmaking by accident. Early in college, my advisor suggested I take a printmaking class. Her confidence convinced me it was the right choice, and the rest is history. Prints are images created by transferring ink from a matrix—whether a screen, woodblock, copper plate, or stone—onto a surface, most often paper or fabric. It is a process both precise and mysterious: no matter how much you plan, no matter how certain you think you are, there is always a “hold your breath” moment when the print is revealed.

At the same time, I was drawn to rivers, spending days guiding trips on the San Juan and in the Grand Canyon. I loved the rhythms of the water, the solitude, and the slow reveal of landscape over hours and days of travel. At the time, printmaking and rivers were just beginning to coalesce, but I had no idea how much more intertwined they would become. This combination of curiosity and experience eventually carried me from Flagstaff, Arizona, to Providence, Rhode Island, where I pursued an MFA in printmaking.

Graduate school was transformative: I immersed myself in studio practice, experimented with techniques, and refined my visual voice. In the midst of this intensive and productive, an idea begin to form—a project that might merge these two passions: a boat that could also function as a print. To test the concept, I called my friend Brad Dimock at Fretwater Boatworks. “Sure! Let’s give it a try,” he said. Neither of us knew exactly how it would turn out, but I was determined to attempt it. After being accepted to an artist residency directly after graduation- Brad and I built the hull of a Mackenzie Drift boat, which I took to the Santa Fe Art Institute for carving.

Because MacKenzie Drift boats weren’t designed for high-volume flows, I focused on the San Juan River—the landscape that had shaped so much of my life, and a landscape that was and still is, under threat from those who wish to see protections removed and a focus placed on extractive practices. Over two months, I carved the San Juan Mountains, where the river begins; the Navajo Dam, where it is held back; the green fields of Shiprock; and the canyons of Cedar Mesa, all draining into the San Juan. Each carved line reflected countless hours of observation and river experience. By the end, I had two fifteen-foot-long relief-carved woodblocks, which I printed, packed, and transported back to Flagstaff for assembly.

Six months later, with many hands, the flat woodblocks became a fully realized wooden boat. Sitting in it for the first time, breathing in the linseed oil, I felt the weight of the river, the wood, and the carvings come together. In December, the Katie Lee had her maiden voyage on the San Juan River, gliding through icy waters and basking in the winter sun—a vessel born of both printmaking and river experience, has floating rivers ever since.
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Six years later, I revisited the project with nine students from Colorado College. Living at the Design Build Bluff campus in Bluff, UT for a three-and-a-half-week block, they designed, carved, printed, and constructed two boats in the same style. Fretwater Boatworks shared their boatbuilding expertise, while the imagery the students carved reflected their responses to the desert riverscape and surroundings.

The course culminated in a multi-day expedition on the San Juan River, outfitted by Tse Kooh Outfitters. Students floated the river in the boats they had imagined into being, translating carved wood into movement on water. The journey braided together creative practice, environmental engagement, and the physical labor of river travel—just as the boats themselves embodied multiple threads at once: artistry, craftsmanship, and a deep connection to place.
In the end, the project is less about boats or prints alone and more about the intersection of place, movement, and wonder—how an image, a vessel, or a river can carry stories, memory, and the pulse of a landscape.

​The journey will happen again this spring, 2026 with 11 new students from Colorado College. Follow along on instagram @kaitchison to see how it unfolds.