Uncut currency is money for Rochester artist

Jun. 28—ROCHESTER — For Scott Cheek, the higher the stakes, the better the reward.

Cheek specializes in reduction printing. The art is similar to block printing except that instead of having a block for each color, the artist uses one block. After laying the first color, the artist carves that block for each next color.

It's not a forgivable medium for mistakes.

Even that's not high stakes for him. For his best pieces, he prints on uncut sheets of U.S. currency.

Generally, uncut currency sheets are valued at about twice the showing bills add up to. A sheet of 20 $1 bills is worth about $40.

"Those usually sell pretty quick," he said. "Pretty much as soon as I post them (on Instagram) they're sold."

Does it take the ink well?

"Yes, but," he said. Some colors take longer to dry and it takes patience to complete a work. The currency also needs to be stretched like a fabric canvas.

So far, those prints have all turned out fine, Cheek said.

Cheek mused it must be part of his nature. He moved to Rochester late last year to work as an emergency radiologist for Mayo Clinic. In his spare time he rides a motorcycle.

"I enjoy doing a lot of things where if you mess up, it's pretty detrimental," he said.

The extra stakes in creating his art helps him focus, he said.

A friend introduced Cheek to reduction printing while Cheek was working as a radiology intern at Gundersen Lutheran Hospital. At the time, Cheek was still exploring what art medium fit him best.

An offhand comment from a professor at Western Technical College inspired him to pursue art. The professor dismissed someone's art saying the person was only considered an artist because they called themselves an artist.

Cheek took it to heart. If he created art, he told himself, he could call himself an artist.

Cheek started with realism pencil drawings. It felt too safe, he said. He switched to pen and ink drawings.

"I loved the idea of the work being somewhat permanent," he said.

Then he began to dabble in printing.

"I saw the value in being able to produce the same image multiple times," he said.

Reduction printing offered a thrill of creating prints in real time. It requires the artist to continue to alter a block and imagine the steps needed to produce his choice outcome.

"It's always nerve wracking until you print that last color," he said.

Creating something that takes focus and has little margin for error is cathartic, Cheek said.

"When I'm highly stressed, I really don't show it," he said. "But I need that decompression time."

His one reduction print mistake so far has been on white paper and not a sheet of currency, he said.

"It was still salvageable," he said, showing the finished work.

The error?

"One thing you have to remember when you're printing, you have to write your words backwards," he said with a smile and a shake of his head.

Being new to Rochester, Cheek is still trying to find his market. He is working to get pieces in local galleries and Treedome store and studio downtown.

"I think half of selling art is getting it to the right place," he said.

In September, one of his pieces will be at the Rochester Art Center as part of a show called "Rochester Looking at Climate Change." The show, organized by artist Layne Noser, will feature more than 20 artists whose work addresses and responds to the climate crisis. The show opens Sept. 9.

Cheek will have a piece called "Peace Tree" in the show.