If printmaking were abolished...

Gerard proposed a little mental exercise for us in Print Seminar. He asked, "If printmaking were abolished--if it were outlawed tomorrow--what would you take from the medium as you make other things?"

The question reminded me that Gerard had recently given me the personal challenge of making something that is not at all printed. Because printmaking is so process driven, and because, as young grad students, we all tend to make everything start to finish, when I am working on one project, I am thinking about the next. Given that I am usually printing and watching the effects of the prints, I have ideas that are print-based. But I liked the challenge and I had wanted to make a mold and create multiple three dimensional versions of my circumcised kosher dills. So, one thing I think will always pop into my mind is multiples. Multiples are closely related to prints because they rely on the idea that there is power in the mass. While I think there is something exciting in multiples, and while I imagine I would experiment with molds and making multiples if printmaking were abolished, I don't think I would spend my time trying to transform other mediums into printmaking.

The reason why? Printmaking, in particular when you think about which printmaking technique you want to/have to use, is a group of processes that give you certain effects when utilized to their fullest potential. You want continuous tone? Lithography. You want to print on the wall? Silkscreen, etc.

What I would take from printmaking is the desire to learn a process and apply the strengths of that process to my work. Perhaps that means I would spend my time in the craft world, learning sewing techniques, glass blowing and flame work, or how to cast something out of clay. And all the while, learning these techniques, I would be thinking about how I could apply them to my greater artistic point of view. What can I say with glass that is not said quite as well in any other medium?

I think above all, printmaking, with its emphasis on technique, has made me someone who desires to master a process and then apply it to her artmaking. Then again, maybe that is who I am to begin with and it is the reason I fell so in love with printmaking. Whatever the answer, one thing is true for me as an artist--I enjoy knowing a process, I enjoying learning and doing. As an artist, I am both a point of view and a maker.