She’s making art more accessible!
Kansas City native Leslie Diuguid moved to New York City in 2013 to pursue a career in art, BK Reader reports. She got her start working at art galleries and printmaking shops, learning the ropes and networking with everyone she could.
In 2017, her father Lewis Diuguid published his book “Our Fathers: Making Black Men,” a book that retells the past narrative of the Diuguid family and is an effort to inspire other Black communities. Inspired by the book, the budding artist decided to step out on faith and name her business after her grandfather’s company profiled in the book, Du-Good Chemical. With generations of history reclaimed, Du-Good Press, the first Black woman-owned print shop in New York City was born.
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Focusing on her familial tenets of building community in business, Diuguid settled in Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn.
The print studio at 19 Patchen Avenue was once a former dry cleaners. But it is now transformed into a hub for emerging artists and seasoned veterans. For Diuguid, Brooklyn was the obvious choice for Du-Good.
“I was dead set on staying in Bed Stuy because of the method my grandfather used to just grow a community out of nothing. Like, there’s stuff here and that’s what I wanted to kind of weave myself into,” said Diuguid.
At the shop she focuses on printmaking, a technique that involves taking one medium of artwork and rebuilding it onto paper or fabric by transferring ink through a stenciled screen. Each print is signed by the artists and becomes an identical set of each edition. Diuguid also offers screenprinting edition pieces for clothing and tote bags, teaching others how to recreate pieces themselves. In her free time, Diuguid teaches screen printing at The Cooper Union School of Art and has previously held workshops at The Museum of Arts and Design.
“I think it’s really helpful for people to see that things can still be made by hand. And so I would describe [printmaking] as a painting that’s broken down into layers so that it can be recreated as something that’s in multiples,” Diuguid explained.
The Du-Good Press shop is covered with artwork by Diuguid on every wall. She also has her art displayed at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and editions of her prints were on view in the lobby at Print Center in New York. For Diuguid, the goal is to make art more accessible, creating a space for everyone, regardless of where they are in their career.
“Some of the prints that I [create] have like deeper meanings for their stories behind them, and it reminds me of the artist and whatever journey they went through to come up with the original,” said Diuguid.
Du-Good Press is currently open by appointment only and you can purchase prints online at www.du-goodpress.com.
Photo by Brianna Robles / BK Reader