Some recent thoughts on printmaking

From Art on Paper this month “Is printmaking dead?” – obviously the answer is no, that really doesn’t change the fact that traditional printmaking publishers have expanded the role of the multiple. In short printmaking is not just etchings and lithographs anymore – think digital editions, books, graphic novels, surfboards, etc. Art on Paper discusses this idea with 4 or 5 publishers – old and new.

On the flip side I discovered a blog last night called “Fresh Paint” http://freshpaint.blogspot.com and discovered that people are using pasta machines as etching presses – the cost savings is only like 5000 dollars. So big kudos to a great idea I’m about to rip off – I mean use. (see above)

Photos (and concept?) of the pasta maker/etching press I believe is from Cynthia King. My apologies if I’m wrong. See her full article here.

At the same time I’m seeing a resurgence on a studio technique called monoprints. Granted I do these as well, but so do a ton of other folks, they are fast, cheap and out of control (as they say). I use monoprints to develop themes on ideas and move through them at a rapid pace. You can leave the piece alone or paint on top – take a look at my paintings page for an idea of what I’m doing with monoprints.