So what is Printmaking?

Good question: this is asked by many people, including lots of artists.

Printmaking is a Fine Art that involves the transfer of an image from a matrix (carved piece of wood, etched metal plate, stencil, etc.) to a support (usually paper, but often fabric or another surface). Like painting, printmaking is a general term for many mediums. Just as Painting can mean watercolor, oil, acrylic, or more mediums, Printmaking includes the techniques of etching, woodcut, screen printing, lithography, monotype, stencil, collagraph, and others.

All of my prints are “hand-pulled”. This means that each print is a hand made original piece of art. Rather than being reproduced by mechanical means, every print is individually inked and printed with my hands. Because it is made by a human, each print in a series will be slightly different from every other print, bringing it a uniqueness and individuality that demonstrates it to be a work of Fine Art.

Above: Prints entitled “Braided Rivers” drying on a line in my studio. These are etchings made on zinc plates, with a relief plate printed on the paper before the etching is printed. The metal bars in the foreground are the star wheel that turns my press.