Gallery

The gallery is divided into several sections, most of which are self-explanatory. Almost all sections contain both digital and traditional art, except for the Printmaking section which only contains real printmaking. "Other Stuff" contains sculptures and other crafts as well as more abstract artwork that does not easily fall into any of the other sections.

 

What is printmaking?

Printmaking is an age-old, traditional way of physically printing images. (It already existed in the 5th Century in China.) What separates printmaking from most other forms of art is that the image has been printed from another image. That made no sense, did it?

To simplify (and steal from Wikipedia) "Except in the case of monotyping, the process is capable of producing multiples of the same piece, which is called a print. Each piece is not a copy but an original since it is not a reproduction of another work of art and is technically known as an impression."

This allows for multiple variations on the same piece. Each one is unique because each one has been manually colored with inks and then printed either with the aid of a printing press, or some other method of applying pressure such as rubbing the paper against the printing block with a spoon!

Most printmaking takes on more sophisticated methods than potato-stamps, such as etching, woodcutting, lithography, or screenprinting (also known as serigraphy).

If you wish to know more about these methods or printmaking in general, I suggest you head on over to wikipedia and acquaint yourself with the definitions. Check out cabriprints.com for superb examples of contemporary printmaking. In addition, MoMA (the Museum of Modern Art) offers a little dip into woodcutting, lithography, serigraphy, and etching through the presentation of examples in all four areas. Also worth a peek if you find the subject interesting is the website of monoprints.com and World Printmakers. The most comprehensive and simultaneously easy to read source on printmaking that I have been able to find so far is the Encyclopedia of Printmaking Techniques by Judy Martin.

I personally have dabbled mostly in copperetching, linocutting, monotypes, collography, and serigraphy. I enjoy the varying freedom, textures, and expressiveness of each method.