I graduated from two fantastic printmaking programs. I love to print, especially when it comes to shooting and printing with silkscreens to produce ultra-smooth objects and images.
I'm an artist who teaches silkscreen printmaking in a very small studio at a university that is a 30-minute drive from my house. Over the last two years I have moved away from printmaking as my main medium out of necessity more than anything else. The fact that I have two little kids at home complicates the use of printmaking techniques around the house, in my small studio, etc. It is next to impossible to carve out the large chunks of time needed to produce editions, as my wife needs a lot of help with the kids and printmaking projects aren't easy to just step away from. I've found that I do not love the medium so much as to warrant the cash and time investment required to build a home studio in my rental house we'll likely move away from in a few months.
So I have switched to other means (vinyl plotting, comics, video, sound) to make my work, and these techniques suit my current concerns far better than printmaking can. I get a lot more (and more interesting) work done now that I have largely abandoned printmaking.
Why, besides enjoying the process, did I insist on only making prints for so long? And what would be the reason to return to using print techniques for my work? Would it simply be moving to a place where a print lab is more accessible and my kids are older? Or is it something more?
What draws us to print? Why do we use printmaking as opposed to other methods, and why is there such an emphasis on the difficulty or complexity of a process as it relates to its value? I personally can't think of a reason to print at the moment, and that doesn't bother me.
So tell me why you print, why are you a true believer?
Check out James's blog and website.
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