Carli Mano finds connection, passion through art and printmaking

When Carli Mano arrived at Utah State University, she wasn’t sure what she wanted to study. Four years later, they’re graduating with a degree in visual arts and a passion for printmaking that helped them find both community and purpose. 

“I took the intro printmaking class when I was just a general arts major,” Mano said. “I had really, really enjoyed it, and I felt like it was a really good community there, so I wanted to keep going.” 

Mano quickly became enamored with the process of transferring artwork from a matrix like wood, metal or screen onto another surface like fabric or paper. 

 “How I like to explain it is it’s kind of like old school stuff, like things that not a lot of people are doing anymore,” Mano said. “My focus has mostly been in relief printing, so I do wood and linoleum carvings.” 

 She continued to take higher-level courses before being encouraged by her professor to apply for a Bachelor of Fine Arts with an emphasis in printmaking. 

 “Bachelor of Fine Arts is the more professional degree that lets you do, like, graduate programs,” Mano said. “I do, at some point, think I want to go to graduate school.” 

 One of the professors who had an impact on Mano was Holland Larsen, the printmaking studio manager and instructor for the USU College of Arts & Sciences. Larsen taught Mano in a few different printmaking classes and described their skills and passion as “something to be reckoned with.” 

 “Carli has this amazing quiet confidence that I rarely see in students,” Larsen said in an interview with The Utah Statesman. “She’s proficient in all of the different techniques that we do in printmaking, but her specialty that her thesis work was on was multiple reductive relief printmaking.” 

 Mano’s thesis capstone was a series of reductive relief woodcuts that tell the story of her family and took four semesters to complete. 

 “My whole project was about telling a piece of the Japaneses American story, referencing stories that I grew up hearing of my family and also referencing old photographs,” Mano said. “The story I’m telling is revolving around the era of World War II, which was a really hard time in Japanese American history.” 

 Mano said her great-grandparents were forced to leave their home in California after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, when Executive Order 9066 forced the removal of “all persons deemed a threat to national security.” Many of those people were Japanese Americans. 

 “They left everything behind, sold everything they had for like cents on the dollar … my great‑grandparents and two little kids in a truck driving out to Utah, and they lived in a chicken coop. That’s all they had,” Mano said. “My grandpa talks about how his dad says they were never able to get ahead again.” 

 Larsen said the way Mano blended personal, historical and familial research into their own style and color palette made a significant impression on her as an educator. 

 “It’s not very often that I’ve had a student that can make work that is so serious and emotional,” Larsen said. “But then gets done with her work and starts making very light-hearted work that’s more like who she is in the day-to-day.” 

 Mano described herself as reserved and anxious in high school but was able to find community and come into her element in the USU Art & Design Department.  

 “One thing that I always like to say is that I feel like I found my people,” Mano said. “The art school has been the most welcoming place ever. I feel like I’ve made more friends than I ever have in the rest of my life, and I think some of these friends I’ll probably keep for a really long time, even after school.” 

 Larsen was a witness to Mano’s growth, saying they excelled as a natural leader with an inviting and silly personality.  

 “I think people say this all the time, but she’s a really great leader in, again, the kind of quiet, calm way,” Larsen said. “The other BFA students that are not younger than her but not graduating yet definitely, I think, look up to her and are in awe of the work that she does because of her work ethic.” 

 Throughout their time at USU, Mano also worked at the Nora Eccles Harrison Museum of Art as a museum attendant and visitor services supervisor. Being surrounded by art and a supportive team has inspired her to pursue work in both the printmaking and museum fields after graduation.  

 As they look ahead to life after college, Mano said their time at USU has been defined by discovery and connection, built one carefully carved layer at a time.  

 “I would say the best thing that I’ve had is, one, the community and two, exploration,” Mano said. “College is a big time to explore what you want to learn and who you want to be, and I think that USU has really given me a good chance to do that.”