Children
are often asked this common question, “What do you want to be when you grow up?
Not many children will shout out “I want to be a printmaker.” In fact, most
people have no idea what printmaking is.
Printmaking, ancient in origin, has developed into mass reproduction of
the printed word and imagery. This reproduction has expanded to the point where
every product that is marketed to the public utilizes some form of print in its
production, advertising, packaging or even design. Print is so ubiquitous in western culture
that it slips by unnoticed. Obviously
when I talk about print in this context I am talking about commercial digitally
fueled and developed printmaking. In the
21st century “print” is a word that most people say at least once a
day. Print has become a routine tool
that most people use to accomplish mundane tasks.
I am a
printmaker. I suppose anyone with a printer
or rubber stamps could claim to be a printmaker, but I went to school for six
years to learn the very technical processes involved with fine art
printmaking. Individuals give me glazed
over eyes and flat expressions when I mention my classical training at a dinner
party. This reaction is similar to how I
imagine people behave when a friend of mine mentions his studies in neuropharmacology. The difference is, printmaking although
technical and difficult, is actually not hard to conceptualize.
In simple terms, a print can be
described as anything that is reproduced through the use of a matrix. A matrix can be a block of wood, sheet of
metal, or anything else you can think of really; the definition of print has
changed with the change in technology.
When you narrow the field down to fine art printmaking you start to
enter a realm of stringent guidelines and practices that have developed over
the course of centuries. This is my
expertise. My expertise is so outdated it
is almost laughable. How can something
so antiquated continue to exist in the modern world? I would argue that the original intent of the
print: to reproduce images for the masses, is no longer useful or valid in an
age of mass digital media. To survive in
the 21st century prints must be unique.
What is unique about
printmaking? My response: the mark. The marks that come from relief, intaglio,
and especially monotype cannot be duplicated through another means. Even if
these marks were reproduced digitally, there is something about an artifact
that takes up space and interacts with the viewer on a visceral level that
makes people continue to want a hand printed work of art. In the Words of Walter Benjamin “In even the most perfect reproduction,
one thing is lacking: the here and now of the work of art-its unique existence
in a particular place. It is this unique existence-and nothing else-that bears
the mark of the history to which the work has been subject.”
There is nothing quite like the velvety black
of oil based etching ink on an excellent rag paper, the smell, the richness,
almost like dark chocolate pudding to my visual palette. Most of what interests me in all art is the
mark, the hint of the artist’s hand at work.
I could go out and purchase a lovely photograph of a scene, but what
interests me the most is how an idea is interpreted and presented through
marks. I use the medium of print solely
for the marks, luscious and bold, unlike any other marks. Artists who wish to continue the use of print
in our current world need to understand and love those marks, because those
marks make the fine art print viable and meaningful in contemporary art.
Behind
the Building, Monotype, 8”x10”
Sliced
Landscape, Multiple plate monotype, 6”x12”
Suburban
Landscape, Monotype, 11”x13”
