Dear Reader, Get Out Your Map and Just Run
My Printmaking Residency in Austin, TX.
Starved for a change of environment, I applied to The Flatbed Center for Contemporary Printmaking in Austin, TX for a month-long residency. Happily, my proposal to translate my painting sensibility to printmaking was accepted.
In printmaking, there is a definitive transfer of image using pressure. It’s the visual equivalent of a declarative sentence. The process toys with your intentions, however. Even with precise preparation you never know exactly what the results will be. In my painting, chance also plays a role. My plan when I paint is to not have a plan. I often begin with a structure in mind and then dismantle it as I go.
For my first trip to the Flatbed Center in person I drove 20 minutes from East Austin past the Oracle campus not far from the airport. Located in an industrial area, it is adjacent to railroad tracks and a freeway service road. Inside the large poured concrete building, a clean light floods down from the high ceilings. There are two expansive work areas with multiple presses, a large exhibition gallery, a lounge and several rooms of print archives. The walls are covered with original museum quality, contemporary fine art prints of every type: woodblock prints, lithographs, monoprints, etchings and prints combining multiple techniques. I had 24/7 access for the five weeks of December.
When I paint, I use a variety of techniques. Some are similar to printmaking where I press patterned textures and shapes onto the canvas. These are layered and juxtaposed with more amorphous forms made by staining and pouring liquid paint. The underlying structure of my paintings is created by cropped panels of canvas sewn together in different configurations.They remain unstretched retaining their irregular borders and disrupted surfaces.
At Flatbed I wanted to feel loose and open to options, but I needed to learn more about the technical aspects of printmaking.
Week 1
During my first week, I realized I might be in over my head. I started with an orientation to the work areas and presses with founder Katherine Brimberry.
I had come prepared with water-based inks, tools, rollers, plates, stencils and a selection of papers. I jumped in and made a drypoint plate.
Instead of using a configuration imported from my paintings, I based the image on the angled geometries of a large cell phone tower I photographed just as we crossed into Texas. I spent a few days playing with variable inkings and overlaid misaligned printings in different colors. I tried adding chine colle elements in ways similar to those I use to construct my paintings.
I recognized the feelings of being lost and overwhelmed. I tried to stay focused, to embrace the unknown and be patient. I reminded myself that I could dig deep and hold on to what I wanted to say. Plus, I didn’t know shit about printmaking.
I listened to Taylor Swift’s Midnights (3 am Edition) album on repeat throughout the month. The music and lyrics to “Dear Reader” became an ear worm.
Dear reader
If it feels like a trap, you’re already in one.
Dear reader
Get out your map, pick somewhere and just run
Week 2
Over the weekend I made studies incorporating acrylic paint spills and simple circular arcs. I was unsure of which printmaking technique would achieve similar results. I emailed Katherine and asked for time to answer my technical questions.
On Monday Katherine asked Joshua Orsburn, Flatbed’s master printer, to meet with me. I showed him a look book of my recent paintings, examples of works on paper, and talked about my goals for printmaking. Josh reset my direction, suggesting I use oil-based inks instead of water-based inks. He prepared a dedicated large plexi plate and press I could use for monotypes. He showed me the basic concept of making a subtractive print: first roll ink on the plate and then selectively remove areas of ink to create your image.
There is an obsessive quality to printmaking. Once you start it becomes all consuming. At night, instead of sleeping, you endlessly try out different sequences and possibilities in your mind. You commit to a plan, then minutes later shed the idea for a new variation. It feels like a form of accelerated productivity similar to the high rate of cell division after an egg is fertilized.
After Josh’s basic tutorials in mixing color and and inking the plate I started experimenting on my own using stencils. I settled on a nest of smaller overlapping circular shapes protected by a larger single complete circle. I had recently watched peach seeds sprout for our garden and felt a connection to the bounty hidden in a seed ready to grow.
With monoprinting, you can make multiple impressions from a single inking. Each successive print, called a “ghost print” is lighter. I could print one or two different colors a day, layering colors and varying the the intensity of the impression. Josh cautioned me to avoid murky, overworked effects that can happen with this technique.
Dear reader
Burn all the files, desert all your past lives
And if you don’t recognize yourself
That means you did it right
Week 3
Over the weekend, I laid out all the prints in progress for assessment. I could identify several that felt resolved. I also measured and cut more 13 inch square pieces from my new roll of arches paper for my next batch of prints.
After one of my nights spent brainstorming, the next morning I cut up a print and sewed the panels together as I do with my paintings. After printing over this reconstructed print, I saw the possibilities for creating the suggestion of a geometric configuration in a different way. I could compose stencil panels to create blocks of color shifting the mood of a print. I also wanted to incorporate the loose threads for texture.
There is a ritualism to printmaking: filling the large basin with water, soaking the paper, placing the blankets on the press bed, setting the pressure of the press, marking the paper placement on the press, mixing the ink, testing the color and texture, rolling out the ink, inking the plates, blotting the paper, running the press, drying the prints, flattening the prints, and meticulously cleaning all the work surfaces and tools. These steps are locked in, repeated each day. You have to submit to the strict protocols of the craft to avoid expensive mistakes such as damage to the presses or artwork in progress and as a courtesy to others making prints.
It occurred to me that the cell phone tower drypoint plate could be an interesting layer to add to the stencil images. There is a different way of inking drypoint plates by hand that might generate new possibilities. I ordered the material for a larger plate. During the week the plate arrived, I made the drypoint image and put it to use.
Dear reader
Bend when you can, snap when you have to
Week 4
This was a quiet holiday week at Flatbed. As I worked I could feel I was nearly done with my cycle of prints. I had 15 finished prints out of a total of 30 attempts.
There is a seesaw dynamic in printmaking. The ideas you were so sure about often don’t meet your expectations. There is a let down when you see the results. However, surprisingly, the next morning, several of those will look great. Maybe even better than you hoped. Likewise, out of the blue, a print you had no particular expectations for will be dazzling.
Dear reader
You don’t have to answer, just ‘cause they asked you
Week 5
When I first got to Flatbed, I noticed that several projects were happening on multiple presses. This was typical throughout the month: a guest artist is collaborating on an edition under Josh’s direction, community press members are working on their own projects, assistants and interns are helping produce custom editions. During the day everyone stops to say hello and check out what you are working on. At noon, there is a pause for lunch. We eat together at a round table in the lounge sharing stories.
I had come to Flatbed from outside the local printmaking community. In some ways I felt I had to prove myself. Initially, I noted the levels of status: master printer, assistant, intern, invited guest, key holder, community member. Soon I realized that what counted was having humility and mutual respect, being generous and trusting. Everyone is making a valuable contribution to the Flatbed community.
I feel like I found my voice. During my residency, with guidance from Katherine and Josh, I began to hone specific parallels with my painting interests as I explored monoprint techniques. Using stencils, I set my compositional parameters. The overlapping circular elements and rectangular panels reflect my interest in portraying shifts of mood and emotion primarily through pure color.
The oil-based inks allowed me to focus on the powerful effects of layered color. I tracked the possibilities of mixing colors in advance, extending color and smoothing texture with magnesium carbonate. I also varied ink effects through the use of solvent splatters, thread, and an occasional additional drypoint plate layer. I began to appreciate the importance of balancing both the white of the paper with the depth of darker mixed and layered hues. I learned through trial and error to recognize the moment when a print took on a presence of its own and became resolved.
Dear reader
The greatest of luxuries is your secrets
The last step of the printmaking process is to flatten your finished prints between layers of newsprint under heavy sheets of drywall. I broke a blood vessel in one eye lifting the drywall. I had gotten my first tattoo that week and together with my red stained eye, it felt like a manifestation on my body of the inking and pressing I had been doing all month.
I met with Katherine to review my final prints. We talked about future ideas. She suggested increasing the scale of my prints and possibly incorporating fabric in the process. We looked through examples in Flatbed’s archive for next steps.
On the drive home to New York, the American landscape spun by outside the car window. I speculated about merging ideas from printmaking back into my painting. I cycled through ideas about linocuts based on southern pine forests and rolling paint on canvas….Seeds to plant, roots to sprout.
Looking back, it’s clear that engaging with a new medium is more than a superficial technical exercise. It operates on a gut level. There are specialized components to master such as reading the pressure gauge on the press or seeing how to skim off the layer of dried ink in the container before taking the color you need. However, to make something your own, ironically you have to let go. You have to step outside yourself. Ask for help while simultaneously channeling what is core to your being. Dear reader, you have to know what you want to say in order to translate it.
Loved reading this Anne! What a journey come “full-circle” ⭕️😉printmaking really helps us re-articulate all our ways of working in all other media, and unfolds new avenues. So true that what you pull off the press can change in his you see if the next day.
Fascinating. Looking forward to seeing your new work.