Stran has great practice with this demo and teaching, having returned each year to lead this demonstration for KCAI’s junior ceramics class.

“Sometimes I’ll go to a show, or I’ll go to an event, and they kind of pop up and they’re like, ‘Are you the monoprint girl?’ And I’m like, ‘I was your monoprint girl. How are you doing?’” she says warmly.

Visitors attending Alumni Weekend will create a special piece designed by Stran that nods to KCAI’s unofficial mascot: the frog. Open to all majors and experience levels, the workshop highlights an intensely interdisciplinary practice that blends ceramics, illustration, painting, and printmaking, with a case to be made for influences extending even further.

Monoprinting is a printmaking process that transfers underglaze onto unfired clay. The artist begins by painting onto paper, building the image in reverse and working in layers, with each new layer covering the one before it. Once the image is complete, the underglaze is rehydrated so the composition lifts as a single transfer. Underglaze is also applied to the clay surface. When the paper is laid onto the clay and smoothed down, the underglaze releases from the paper and bonds to itself on the clay body. The sheet is then peeled away, leaving the image behind.

In her own practice, Stran has built a robust collection of vintage matchbooks, intergenerational souvenirs that inspire the graphics on her oversized ceramic replicas. Through monoprinting, she turns this tactile strategy into something full of personality, class, vibes, and a kind of uncanny charm that feels a little like watching “Honey, I Blew Up the Kid” on VHS.