On Oct. 25, Parish Episcopal School hosted its third annual steamroller-printing event. A variety of private schools from the Dallas–Fort Worth area participated, including the Hockaday School, the Ursuline Academy of Dallas and Cistercian Preparatory School. Greenhill visual art teacher Thomas Martinez was featured as a guest artist. 

The event involved artist spending three weeks carving a design into a three-by-three-foot sheet of linoleum. This year’s theme was “Press Play: Celebrating DFW Musicians.”

After all the designs were completed, the sheets were inked and pressed by a steamroller onto a sheet of paper. This process imprinted the designs onto the paper in a way that Martinez described as pressing a rubber stamp.

Martinez said designing his print was difficult but fulfilling.  

“It was tough. I had never worked on a three-by-three-foot piece alone,” Martinez said.   

He cited struggles of planning, drawing and carving the design in a three-week timeframe as one of the hardest parts of the event.  

“It was a lot of hard work that I was not really thinking about when I accepted the thing, but it was very satisfying to do,” Martinez said. 

His design included a record player, with the state of Texas in the middle to indicate where the music came from. He also included many famous blues and R&B artists in his design, such as Blind Lemon Jefferson, T-Bone Walker and Billy Preston, all of whom have ties to Dallas. 

However, Martinez did not complete his design alone. Eighth grader Connor Wilson, Martinez’s family and several Parish students helped with the printing process. 

“It was a lot of just trial and error,” Wilson said. “We had to just sort of go back each time we would put more ink on the thing that would put the design on the paper. It was more and more each time until we finally got a decent print.” 

Wilson said he had a lot of fun during the process and that the imperfections and retrials actually made the experience better.  

“That trial and error, that doing it multiple times, is what makes it more fun,” Wilson said. “Just if I had done it only once, I would have seen it as bland. But doing it multiple times, it gives me more perspective on it.” 

When all the print designs were compiled together and pressed at the steamroller event, Martinez said he was shocked at the quality of all the prints.  

“I was blown away by the level of talent as most of these were teenage students ranging from age 13 all the way up to 18,” Martinez said. “So, to see all of the different ideas from each school and each group, was very nice to see how creative each department was with the theme.” 

Martinez said he was especially happy that the event gave artists from all the participating schools a chance to be recognized.  

“It gives them a way to celebrate their art making,” Martinez said. “When we’re doing visual arts, you don’t get the roar of the crowd when you come off the stage.” 

He also says the sense of belonging and the shared community that the event brought was enjoyable.  

“It was nice to have everyone there with a piece of artwork, and we were all getting celebrated,” Martinez said. 

Martinez will continue his work as he plans to start a printmaking class for the 2026-27 school year. His ideas for the class include working with smaller linoleum sheets as well as using prints to make T-shirts. 

“There were some really talented students there, and I feel like they had that advantage of taking a printmaking course before, whether it’s a semester or a year before,” Martinez said. “I want to develop a course that prepares students so that when we go there, we have some of the strongest pieces to showcase.” 

Both Martinez and Wilson said that they are looking forward to next year’s event and are hoping that more Greenhill students participate. 

“I would love to come again and probably bring some friends,” Wilson said.