Woodblock Printing (Moku Hanga style) Demo

This is a whirlwind summary of how Graham Scholes makes a 17 colour woodblock print, in the traditional Japanese moku hanga style. You can find other resources and instructions on his website covering everything from sharpening tools, tying a baren, cutting kentos, to brushes, paste, and materials.

Printsy Interview - Diana Moll

Blog: theqipapapers.blogspot.com
Etsy: www.qipapers.etsy.com

Brief Bio
I've been interested in art since I was small. this alarmed my parents, who really didn't know what to make of it since they were science oriented and so were my brothers. I looked at school as an opportunity to draw, not necessarily a place to learn math. A few times I got in trouble for drawing.


When I first went to college I thought I would be a pre-vet major since I spent much of my life with animals, but in less than a year I dropped out and went backpacking in Europe with a friend for 6 months. On my return I tried to get into the Art Department, you had to petition, and I didn't get in. Now I can see why, but then I was devastated.

I started doing an Independent Major in Illustration and took full year of letterpress printing and started getting hooked on printing. A Life Drawing class got me drawing a bit better and my petition for the Art Major was accepted. I spent lots of time in the Lithography studio inhaling fumes and making prints of toads and lizards. After graduation I did some graphic design and illustration along with various odd jobs. I bottled wine, was an assistant to a composer, DJ'd in a club, worked for years in record stores (when there were records LOL), that sort of thing. I wish Etsy had been around!


Graphics started getting more and computer oriented and I didn't like working on the computer so I went back to school and drew my way through a Masters of Traditional Chinese Medicine degree from Five Branches Institute. Along the way I got married and had a son, got divorced, got involved in Marital Arts (Tai Chi and Ba Gua). A few years ago the alternative medicine business started to get thin so I started teaching art at my son's school. I got hired at the now defunct Santa Cruz Waldorf High School and I started doing more art work because teaching can be very stimulating that way. So here I am, my son is off to college, I have two rabbits, an insomniac boyfriend, and lots of prints that want to be created........


How did you get started in printmaking?
I semi-concentrated in printmaking in college, mostly lithography and letter press. I loved it, but got really burnt out with the chemicals and it just wasn't the sort of thing you could do without a proper studio. That was decades ago. Last year the High School I worked for asked me if I'd teach a relief printing class this year. I hadn't printed in such a long time, then I saw Moku Hanga taught by April Vollmer being offered as a weekend course at the Community College and figured it would be interesting and good way to get back into it. I really liked her work, so I signed up. I fell in love with the Moku Hanga, no really, it was the same feeling.

Describe where you work.
I have a desk in the corner of the bedroom, there's no window, but I have a full spectrum light. Moku Hanga is very adaptable to small spaces!


What's your favourite printmaking process?
I like them all equally for different reasons. By the time I'm satiated with one it's time for the next and it feels like a fresh start. The variety of activities offered by Moku Hanga quite agrees with my need for change.

What's your creative process for any given print? (eg. sketch first? Pre-planned or free-form?)
The initial stimulus can be different. Like for 2 From Nottingham that was a commission and I did a sketch or two then looked at a lot of pictures of my subjects and revised my drawing a few times. For Toad's Eye View I wanted to do a print that used gold leaf and my new tool designed to make circles. In general things start as little sketches, then I'll see different aspects or things I want to try during the day while I'll doing other things.


What do you enjoy most about printmaking?
Seeing lots of fresh prints lined up is so exhilarating. Also printing the block that starts to pull everything together. It can be surprising which one this is, it's not always the key line, sometimes it's a color.

What's your least favorite part of the process?
Clean-up, I work in a small space and every time I start the next step I have to clean and straighten everything, just to have enough room to work.


How has your work changed and evolved since you started?
I've gotten more complex, trying to get some different sorts of textures. Of course I've actually only been doing this sort of printing for less than a year.....

How do you get past creative slumps?
Work in the garden, play with the rabbits. Get some rest, have acupuncture, get the energy back up and harmonized. It's all about Qi and balance.


How do you promote your work?
My Blog, donations, local crafts fair (well one so far and that was a disaster LOL).

Any other comments or advice for others who want to try making hand-pulled prints?
Go make some prints, spread some art. In this age of the digital it is so important to have some things made with hands.

Printsy Interview - Patricia Phare-Camp

Patricia (Patti) Phare-Camp

Website: imp-s.com
Etsy: pharecamp.etsy.com
Blog: phare-camp.blogspot.com
AbsoluteArts: absolutearts.com/pharecamp
Flickr: flickr.com/photos/pharecamp

Brief Bio
A second-generation artist, Patti Phare-Camp holds a B.A. in Fine Arts from California State University, Sacramento, and is an MFA candidate at the Academy of Art University in San Francisco. Patricia is an accomplished print maker whose work has been featured in 18 exhibitions and is featured in the print collection at the Spencer Museum of Art in Lawrenceville Kansas and the Solano Community College Library in Solano California.

How did you get started in printmaking?
It all started with a printmaking survey class at El Camino Community College in Gardenia California. I started out as a painting major and had to take a printmaking survey for my fine arts degree. The etching was fun, the litho was fun but the moment I touched knife to wood I forgot all about painting...although I've recently taken up painting again woodcut printmaking is my greatest love!

Describe where you work.
See this is the beauty of woodcut printmaking...there is nearly no place that you can't work! Before 9/11 I would carve plates where ever I went. The only place now that I can't take my knives is a commercial airplane.

My husband recently enclosed about 85% of our 18x20' back deck, the other 15% has shades that can be drawn to keep weather at bay. He did this so I could work out there. Its awesome, I'm protected by the elements yet it still feels like I'm outdoors. Hubby also hooked up cable tv and the internet so I can listen to cable radio while working or surf the web to find reference material. The only drawback is that in the winter it doesn't get warm enough to work with oil based inks. In that case I work in the kitchen. The counters are just the right height to mix and roll ink. It's also perfect for hand burnishing.


Lately I like to sit on the deck or on the living room couch to carve my plates while I listen to classic movies on the classic movie channels. I take my printmaking materials into public venues all the time. People love public demonstrations of woodcut printmaking and I love educating people about the arts and how much work is involved in the making of art.

What's your favorite printmaking process?
Woodcut!

What's your creative process for any given print? (eg. sketch first? Pre-planned or free-form?)
I've worked free-form, carving willy nilly into a chunk of wood, but usually I get a vision, sketch it then transfer the sketch to wood, carve and then print. Lately I've been using the computer to do a lot of design work.


My thesis project for my master's degree is a series of woodcuts. I'm recreating the Major Arcana of a tarot deck (the first 22 cards) in woodcut. I'm using an archetype from my Chicano culture, the skeleton, to represent the archetypes in the classic European decks. The process I'm using for this project starts with research into the meanings of the individual cards. I then study the images in various decks and research the psychological symbolism behind them. The I sit in front of the computer and research images of archetypal symbolism to use for collaging. After I've accumulated a plethora of digital images I cut and paste elements from them into a digital sketch of the card design. I then print out the design, trace and transfer to a piece of all Shina plywood; a Japanese poplar-like plywood manufactured specifically for woodcut printing. I carve the "Keyline" block; the line elements of the block print. I print several keylines to Mylar and transfer from the Mylar to more blocks. I carve those block into color fields, making a block for each color I will use. I then roll the blocks with water soluble relief inks and roll up my prints.

What do you enjoy most about printmaking?
The thing I love most about about fine art prints is that they are the most democratic of the visual arts. Because the artist can produce multiples of the same image; hand produced fine art can be sold at affordable prices to the masses. Unfortunately in this country the masses are culturally ignorant and have no idea of what a print is. They are duped by those who would mistakenly call giclees and offset posters fine art prints.


I enjoy the process of woodblock the most. Every step of it from the vision to the carving to the tearing of paper to the mixing of inks to the rolling to the burnishing and then the amazement of pulling that sheet of paper away from the last block to see yet one more successful work of art -- and gasp "did I do that?!?"

What's your least favorite part of the process?
CLEAN UP!

What are your inspirations (other artists, people, places, events, etc.)?
Barenforum.org is one the most influential forums for relief printers I have had the privilege of participation in. In this internet forum relief printers of all levels of expertise and from all corners of the earth communicate, guide, encourage and inspire each other in the making of art. It is the one place where beginners can communicate with and get advice from forerunners in traditional techniques and new media!

How has your work changed and evolved since you started?
I started out doing black line woodcuts. I progressed into working with multi-color blocks. I've tried my hand at the Japanese hanga technique. But truth is I still love the black and white high contrast print the best. And lately I've been getting back into using the cutmarks as an element in the compositions.


You know when we first start out in woodcut printing we strive toward cleaner and cleaner line work, forgetting about the drama that the cutmarks impart to the print. Then as we become mature printmakers we return to shear delighting in the accidental cut mark that imparts that one special spark to what would have been a so-so print without it...

How do you get past creative slumps?
I have a series of work I call my Zen series. I splattered India inks onto 18x24" sheets of paper then cut the paper up into 0.5x1" and 1x2" and 1.5x1.5" rectangles. I then put the pieces into jars, one for black and white pieces and one for multicolor pieces. If I'm feeling creatively void I simply draw a few pieces out of a jar, select the one with the strongest composition then do a blown up painting (over 30" in width) or a woodcut or both of that little bit...I call it a zen series because the image is created by the universe. Anyway this usually frees my mind to receive inspiration.


Also I participate at least once a year in a Barenforum.org print exchange. Several times a year members of Barenforum will exchange prints within a theme and paper size with each other. Committing to an exchange with others forces me to think of imagery in the theme and complete an edition of prints within a deadline.

How do you promote your work?
Unfortunately very poorly these days...I am so preoccupied lately with my master's thesis project that I have very little time to devote to self promotion. I do blog regarding my thesis project and other artmaking ventures and have found that it's gotten a bit of a following. Despite the blog's following I've seen very few sales from it. Occasionally I will do an ebay challenge but I've only seen a few sales with that and at ridiculously low return so I've given up on ebay.


Any other comments or advice for others who want to try making hand-pulled prints?
If you've never done printing sign up for a class at a local community college or community center. Or google or go to Barenforum.org to learn about techniques. It's easy and GASP - you don't even really have to know how to draw (though it helps) You can get by with very little monetary investment into the making of fine art prints; you can make monotypes and etchings from the abominable plastic blisterpacks that en wrap nearly every thing we buy... You can make white line relief prints from Styrofoam meat trays or silkscreens from stencils cut into cereal boxes... You can print on beautiful hand made paper or on old newspapers... and you can print with fancy expensive inks or with inexpensive acrylic paints straight from the tube... and you can use expensive fancy rubber brayers roll up your inks and ball baring barens to burnish your prints or you can roll ink with cheap foam edger rollers from home depot and burnish with a wooden spoon from the dollar store...

Printmaking does not have to be fussy and it is soooooo much addictive fun! It has application for so many other projects -- Once you've started printmaking it is virtually impossible to avoid branching out into the inevitable printmaking sidetracks: greeting cards, handmade books, patterning of textiles...

The important thing is to allow yourself to have a good time making.

Printsy Interview - Mark Mason

Name: Mark Mason

Website: markmasonanimation.co.uk
Blog: CuriouslyDrawn.blogspot.com
Etsy: MarkMason.etsy.com

Brief Bio
Born and raised in the The Ribble Valley, a beautiful, though wet, area of the Lancashire countryside in the North West of the United Kingdom. I'm a full time animator and illustrator, producing 2D drawn animation for children's TV series and TV commercials.

How did you get started in printmaking?
It all came about very curiously... I have owned a postcard of Hokusai's Great Wave since leaving school, I've always loved the image and it's hung on the wall of every place I've lived in. A few years ago, holidaying on a Greek Island with my wife, Sally, I started to read the collected letters of Vincent Van Gogh. I'd also always been drawn to Van Gogh, in part because we share the same birthday. It was in Van Gogh's letters that I really discovered Japanese woodblock prints, and as I read, everything clicked into place. All the art that I liked, which I thought were unconnected, my style of drawing and composition, my emotional responses to the world around me, all the separate pieces that made up me and my view of the world through art all dropped solidly into place. Japanese woodblock prints were the keystone to it all. I later discovered when I took my old postcard out of it's frame that the image was from one of the largest collections of woodblock prints outside London, and in an art gallery only 12 miles from where I live.
When I realised all that, how could I not want to attempt to modestly produce a few prints of my own?


Describe where you work.
I work from our home. I have a room, upstairs, in the corner of the house. Most visitors don't even realise the room exists. You can see the window from the outside, but when you're inside, the layout of the house seems to make the room disappear. One corner of the room is set for producing drawn animation, another corner for the increasingly used computer, and under the north facing window is where I do my illustration and woodblock printing.

What's your favourite printmaking process?
Traditional Japanese woodblock printmaking with water based pigments and hand printed with a Baren.


What's your creative process for any given print? (eg. sketch first? Pre-planned or free-form?)
I start with a very rough design and depending on how I feel, I'll either clean the design up or stick with the rough sketch.

More and more I'm using the computer to print out reversed copies of my design which I paste onto the woodblocks. I've tried cherry blocks, shina ply and magnolia blocks and so far, I like the magnolia best. It's softer than cherry and easier to cut. I've found that the American cherry which is available in the UK tends to chip very easily (maybe that's just me though). I'd like to try lime sometime. Working with a rough design is fun, making choices as you cut, but sometimes I do like to have all the questions answered on a cleaned up design if the image is complex.


What do you enjoy most about printmaking?
I personally like cutting the blocks, especially the key block. It's so direct, so 'hands on' and tactile. Like drawing or animating on paper, it's an absorbing experience that moves you up and out of the world.

What's your least favorite part of the process?
Surprisingly it's the printing. Water based printing is very tricky to master. You constantly have to monitor and regulate the amount of pigment on the block, the moisture levels of the paper and block and the pressure and application of the baren. 'Less is more' with the printing. You can always overprint the colour again if it's too light, but too much pigment and too much water will wreck a print.


What are your inspirations (other artists, people, places, events, etc.)?
This will have to be a shortlist of inspirations because I have so many...

Artists: Van Gogh, Toulouse-Lautrec, Hiroshige, Hokusai, Heinrich Kley, T.S.Sullivant, Toba Sojo, Kitao Kiesai and current woodblock printmaker David Bull.
People: My wife and son, my 19th and early 20th century ancestors.
Places: The Lancashire countryside, the Cumbrian Lake District, the Greek Islands, the Grand Canyon, Venice, Japan. I'm also inspired by the animals and birds where I live, the seasons, Japanese and Greek culture, pre 1950's animation and movies, kindness and humanity.

How has your work changed and evolved since you started?
My cutting and printing techniques have improved. With each new print I want to create the feeling that my prints are made of brush strokes rather than cut marks. Some people refer to woodblock printing as 'painting with a knife' which is what I'm working towards.

How do you get past creative slumps?
If it's work related, I just put my head down and push through it. Otherwise I go outside and look at nature. The sky, birds, flowers, trees. I'll take our dog down to the river and breath in the sights and sounds.


How do you promote your work?
My prints are mainly promoted through Etsy but also on my own website and my blog. When I've built up a body of work I'll also look to exhibit locally.

Any other comments or advice for others who want to try making hand-pulled prints?
Give it a go, and whatever you do, don't try it once and give up, stick with it. There's something quite special about a stack of hand pulled prints.

Printsy Interview - Alfred Stark

Name: Alfred Stark, dakokichidekalb (Japanese for "kite crazy")
Etsy: dakokichidekalb.etsy.com
Flickr: flickr.com/photos/dakokichidekalb

Bio:

I discovered printmaking when I discovered Japanese kites. About five years ago, I finally decided to finish that unrequited fourth grade box kite assignment. Not really knowing how to make a box kite anymore than I did some twenty four years ago, I decided to take a trip to the local library. There I discovered a very influential book titled The Art of the Japanese Kite, by Tal Streeter. In this book I saw the most beautiful, delicate and improbable looking paper kites ranging in size from a small postcard to being several stories high. I was intrigued by their varying size, form and imagery. The images were so graphic and bold. Anyhow, to make a long story much shorter I made a box kite, it flew, and I quickly began trying to figure out how to make and fly Japanese style kites. It wasn't long before I discovered that many of them were block printed. This led me to look up books on Japanese block printing. I found one titled Modern Japanese Woodblock Prints, by Helen Merritt. This book really opened up my eyes and I immediately fell in love with moku hanga. As an added bonus, Helen Merritt turned out to be a regular customer at the local hardware store where i work. Anyhow, I quickly began to buy books on Japanese kites and prints and to experiment making both.

Whats our favorite printmaking process?

I quickly discovered a book on Moku Hanga by Keiko Hiratsuka Moore. This book really laid our the process very well for me and helped my get started. I also take the time to pump Helen Merritt for information at the hardware store whenever I can. Through Mrs. Moore's book and Helen Merritt I was introduced to the work of Unichi Hiratsuka. He was a modern Japanese block print artist who pioneered the whole do it yourself moku hanga techinique throughout most of the twentieth century. His black and white imagery cuts to the core of his subject and is just about the coolest stuff I've ever seen. Anyhow, the strong, yet free flowing black and white style of Unichi really inspires me. Despite what I've heard, I think it's really hard to do black and white prints well. Its hard to simplify and maintain the essence of the subject while making the white of the paper come alive with the black. Right now printing in black and white is what I'm most interested in trying to figure out.

Process-wise I try to keep things simple. For a typical print I either draw from life or use a photo image I have taken myself. This image gets transferred to thin tengucho paper which is then glued down to a maple or cherry block. This image is carved out and printed by hand using a brush or brayer, a baren, water or oil based ink and Japanese paper.


What is your work about?

I try do do prints only from nature. I love to go out and find little images of the natural world which seem to resonate with my somehow. I try not to think about it too much. If I see a particular flower, weed or bird I like I'll do a print of it. Maybe after I do a whole bunch they will start to come together as some sort of narrative, but for now I'm happy just to explore how images from the immediate natural world might translate into black and white prints.

As far as the whole art thing goes, I guess I'm more interested in the process of making nature prints than in wondering if they are art or not. I've heard my kites derided as "craft". I don't care that much, my favorite art magazine is American Craft so I guess it makes sense.

What do you enjoy the most about printmaking?

The thing I like most about printmaking is being able to work and re-work an image many times at the same time or several months apart. It's so cool to be able to use an image which I have carved again and again in several different ways. I can sell a print but I never have to part with the basic piece. I like the idea of being an old man with a lifetime of woodblocks on a shelf somewhere.

What do you like least about printmaking?

I love to share my prints with others. The idea that I can make an image and have several of them all over the country is amazing. I tend not to number my prints as editions. I know this goes against the status quo of the print community, but I feel that if a thousand people want one of my prints then they should get one. If only ten want one then that's fine too. I'm not likely to flood the market with my current income anyhow. I make a few prints, and if I sell them all and I still like the image, I'll make a few more. The idea of a limited edition is a nice one, and seems appropriate for many situations, but for me it just seems silly. It's important to me that I be able to do what I want, as much as I want with any of my prints. I don't want anything "exclusive" about my work. The idea that I'm supposed to limit what I do is somebody else's rule from a completely different world than mine. The fact is I'm really limited as far as the number of prints I can make anyhow because I'm basically poor.

How do you get past creative slumps?

When I can't think of what to do next, I stop trying and go for walks. Having a digital camera helps. I just go out and start taking pictures of whatever. Flickr is a great website for handling creative slumps.

How do you promote your work?

Etsy is my primary means of promoting my work. I feel so lucky to have found a place to put my work where so many people from so many different backgrounds will see my work. I honestly feel like I wouldn't be doing block prints any longer if I hadn't discovered Etsy and Flickr. I mean, having the chance to share work with others is a huge incentive. I don't rely on the feedback so much, it's just nice to know someone saw something. If they like it that's cool, if they think it sucks that's fine too.

I have to say the best thing so far about Etsy is finding other artists out there who do block prints. There are some very, very good printmakers on Etsy who blow me away with their work. I've noticed that some of my favorites are right here on Printsy! Thanks to Etsy, my wife and I have a house full of original art work that we'd never have been able to afford otherwise.

Inspirations:
John Porcellino, king-cat.net
The poetry of Mary Olliver
Unichi Hiratsuka, modern master
Tal Streeter, The Art of the Japanese Kite
Onchi Koshiro
Thich Nhat Hahn
Henry David Thoreau
John James Audubon
Thanks, Al, for the great interview, and for introducing us to the art and craft of the Japanese kite!

Printsy Interview: Kylie Budge

Interviewed by: Chelsea Groves
Name: Mizu Designs

Websites
www.mizudesigns.blogspot.com
www.mizudesigns.com.au
www.flickr.com/photos/kyliebudge/

Brief Bio

I’ve been making woodblock prints since 1998 when I moved to Japan. I’d dabbled in screen printing in high school and also some lino block printing but was really struck by the beauty of woodblock prints in the Japanese moku hanga tradition. I badgered a Japanese printmaker in Kyoto to take me on as her student and she taught me the moku hanga tradition and took me to galleries and introduced me to many artists who I would never had met and seen if it had not been for her. I’ve been printmaking ever since.

What printmaking medium do you most often work in?

I usually make relief prints and most often in the Japanese woodblock printmaking tradition. I also enjoy making lino prints and have been making more of those recently. I’d like to do some more silk screen printing in the future but must say that I prefer the texture of relief printing.
There’s a 3D type element to it that you can’t really get with silk screen printing and I think that’s what I really like about it.

How did you get started in printmaking? I notice from your profile that you've studied printmaking in Japan. How did this come about and can you tell a bit about that experience?

Printmaking for me is very deeply connected to my seven lovely years living in Kyoto, Japan. Every art gallery and museum there is stuffed to the gills with ancient ukiyo-e prints that it’s hard not to notice printmaking when you’re there. I love looking at the intricate carving work of prints by people like Utamaro.

The ukiyo-e period of printmaking in Japan produced some astounding works. I soaked all of that up while I was there and really had so much inspiration around me that it’s not surprising that I was drawn to printmaking. Studying printmaking in a beautiful old city like Kyoto, that values traditional art forms, was a pleasure. The city is full of washi (paper) shops. It was easy to get my hands on rolls and rolls of beautiful hand made paper. I was spoilt for choice. And traditional carving tools and brushes as well as the baren (a flat, round disc covered in a bamboo leaf used for printing) are easy to come by as are lovely prepared pieces of shina ply for carving. Sumi, the traditional black ink, was also easily available. I was forever riding around the city on my bicycle picking up paper and other supplies for printmaking. It was so much fun to find new little paper shops tucked away in corners of the city and buy washi to take home to experiment with.

I was even lucky enough to visit a still functioning but very traditional printmaking studio in Kyoto where the master printmaker works in a tiny room sitting on the floor surrounded by his 4 apprentice printmakers. There is barely enough room for each of them to sit cross legged at their tables while they print but they all work extremely productively and harmoniously in that tiny space. I was amazed at their skill level. They were able to press the paper with their baren and print off a perfect image in a matter of seconds. Piles of completed prints (hundreds and hundreds) were stacked neatly beside each printer. Experiences like this made me even more
determined to design and produce prints.

Describe where you work.

Japanese style printmaking is small and portable which is a good thing if you don’t have much space. I work from home in a studio that’s part of my house. For the moment this suits me fine but sometimes I think it would be lovely to work in a more communal studio space with other artists.

What's your creative process for any given print? (eg. sketch first? Pre-planned or free-form?)

I usually start off with and an idea and then sketch it out a bit on paper to think about the layers and colours I might use to help me plan out my blocks. In Japan I was taught to do this very carefully and precisely but I’m a bit looser about it these days. Then I carve my blocks until I’m happy. This part can take a very long time. With printing I sometimes do a practice print to see if the colours are working together and if the blocks have been carved well enough, especially with a design involving the alignment of 5 or more blocks. In Japan I saw people printing designs with 20-30 blocks all aligned. I’m not sure I have the stamina or patience for that kind of work!

What do you enjoy most about printmaking?

I love seeing the finished print! That’s probably how most printmakers feel about things because the process of getting to that point can take a very long time and often it’s not until you actually print that you can really tell if an idea has come together well or not.

What's your least favorite part of the process?

Sometimes carving the blocks can take a very long time especially if it’s a particularly complex print. If it takes too long I can lose interest in the print and have to take a break to work on something else and come back to it later. Sometimes that’s ok, but other times I might have creatively moved on from the design and not want to finish carving at all!

What are your inspirations (other artists, people, places, events, etc.)?

I’m inspired by simple things like going for a walk down at the creek near my house, or going for a bike ride on a sunny day. I love going to exhibitions of artists who produce works on paper and wish there were more on offer. I like to see what people are making, what techniques they’re trying, the colours they’re using, that kind of thing. I love looking at what people are doing on flickr. It can be so inspiring and it’s a way to see a range of art from many different countries. Japan continues to inspire me even though I no longer live there. I also love incorporating tea and the
ritual of drinking it into my illustrations in one way or other. And indigenous Australian plant life is continually fascinating to me.

How has your work changed and evolved since you started?

When I first started printmaking in Japan I was very focused on technique and understanding it well and so I was very tight in the way I worked. I think I have learned to loosen up a little since then and am not so concerned about doing things ‘the right way’ any more if it gets in the way of exploring an idea or experimenting with process to discover a new image. I admire people who can work loosely and still make beautiful prints. I’d like to learn from them and be a bit braver.

How do you get past creative slumps?

Sometimes it’s good to take a break from printmaking because it’s not possible to feel creative all the time. I recently had a 3 week holiday in New York and it was amazing for recharging my energy and inspiring me in a creative sense because I spent a lot of time in galleries and museums. Sometimes all we need is to step away from the every day for a while, breathe a little, and the creative slumps can just melt away.

How do you promote your work?

I have an etsy shop where I sell my work and like to blog as well but apart from that I do very little promotion. I exhibited my work in Japan but haven’t done that in Australia since returning in 2005. I’ve just put together my very first website so I’m quite excited about that. My friends
do a lot of word of mouth promotion for me, which I think is really very sweet.

Any other comments or advice for others who want to try making hand-pulled prints?

My advice to someone starting out is don’t be afraid to give many different types of printmaking a try. It may take a while for you to discover a form that you like more or feel more comfortable working with. Or you might find you like them all! Also, if you want to work in the Japanese
woodblock printing tradition be prepared for the physicality of it – it can be quite hard work especially if you’re printing on a hot day. Personally I like that about it. It makes me feel like I’ve really worked at something to get to the end point.

Etsy Printmaker Interview : Fustian

Name
Marissa Buschow in the real world, fustian in the internet world.

Websites
fustian.etsy.com
flickr.com/photos/fustian
fustianed.blogspot.com

Brief Bio
I was born and raised in the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex in Texas. After a brief episode of floundering about without direction at Hampshire College in Massachusetts, I moved to Lawrence, Kansas, and got my B.F.A. in printmaking from the University of Kansas. And no, I have no idea why I picked Kansas (why do people always ask me that?). Unfortunately I'm not very good at art classes, so that experience was a rather frustrating one, especially as I became more and more interested in birds and biology. I left Kansas, annoyed with art and artists, and returned to Texas where I quickly discovered that, hey, art can be WAY more fun on your own! Especially when you make it about whatever you please! Who'd have thought? In any case, through some mysterious turn of events, I am now living in Auburn, Alabama, where I work for the university's biology department and mess with bluebirds all day. This fall I'll be banding birds while living in a tent in Idaho (no electricity! no internet!! aaaaarrgh!), and past that? No idea.

What printmaking medium do you most often work in?
Almost always I work in relief, especially woodblock. I don't have the facilities for any other kind of printmaking - though I have fantasies! The traditional Japanese style of woodblock printmaking, moku hanga, is certainly my favorite, if only because of its flexibility and portability.

How did you get started in printmaking?
It occurs to me that museums should probably use my example as a success story to get more funding: I wandered into the Amon Carter Museum in Fort Worth, Texas, where they had a room full of woodblock prints from artists in Provincetown in the early 20th century (not that I knew what I was looking at at the time). They were so ludicrously pretty that I got a hankerin' to try it myself. As soon as I could, I signed up for a woodblock printmaking class at Smith College and, well, discovered my passion.













Describe where you work
I'm rather poor these days, so I work on a coffee table or, if I need more space, a fold-up plastic table. I have to watch out, though, because my pet lovebird likes to chew up paper.

What's your creative process for any given print? (e.g. sketch first? Pre-planned or free-form?)
I'm one of "those" people: I work from photographs. Most of my prints are about specific species found in the wild, so I want to be as accurate as possible within the limits of the medium. Oftentimes I'll encounter an animal or a bird for the first time and simply become obsessed with it. In order to get it out of my system, I have to make art about it. Other times I use printmaking as a learning process; for example, my sparrow series is my way of cementing tricky identification problems (as any birder knows, sparrows are damn hard to tell apart!). Occasionally I'll work from an unplanned sketch, but those are few and far between.

What do you enjoy most about printmaking?
Getting lots of copies! Isn't that why everyone else does it?
In all seriousness, though, it's because the way I work translates easily to the medium: I'm a fan of intensive, planned pieces, in which 90% of the enjoyment is in the process, not the result. I love losing an afternoon to a block or having to spend hours how to fit all my colors and layers together. If only I got paid hourly!

What's your least favorite part of the process?
Registration. I loathe registration - because I'm awful at it.

What are your inspirations (other artists, people, places, events, etc.)?
In the art world, any and all relief printmakers, especially those that work a lot with nature (if we're dropping names here: Mary Brodbeck, Sherrie York, the people at Tugboat Printshop, a dozen more folks on etsy; dead people: Frances Gearhart, Utamaro, Hiroshige, any of those old school New Englanders). Also, I look a lot at scientific illustration, especially from 18th and 19th century naturalists (the notorious Audubon springs to mind).
In the non-art world, wildlife. There are innumerable beautiful animals out there that go largely unnoticed, whether because so many people stay indoors and in cities, or because they haven't been raised to notice such things. Without that whole "nature" thing, I have no idea what I'd do with myself.

How has your work changed and evolved since you started?
Honestly, I made a lot of crap in school. I blame it on my teachers. Since I don't like to think about that phase of my art-making, I will say that in my art since then I've become much more ambitious with color and I use a lot less negative space. I think it's because I'm getting better at the technicalities of moku hanga, so I'm not as timid as I once was.

How do you get past creative slumps?
I wait it out. Probably not a good thing to do, either. I'm not one of those people who make masterpieces during their bad times, so if my life is going through a rough period, the art's just gotta wait 'til things settle down.

How do you promote your work?
Hmm.... I don't? I'm really bad at that.

Any other comments or advice for others who want to try making hand-pulled prints?
My first printmaking teacher told the class, "Don't worry, your first print is going to be crap." I would have to agree with that - the first half dozen, even! There's so many technical tricks to learn in printmaking that it often frustrates those who want instant art, instant success. Patience! Practice!

Thank you to Marissa for allowing us to take a peek into her life as an artist. It was a pleasure for me to interview her.