Tales from the print room....
After two weeks of quite political posts this weeks’
takes on a more reflective tone, looking at my brief stint of ‘running’ the
print room at Somerset College. (Those of a nervous disposition read no further!)
I exaggerate, there isn’t really much to tell nor indeed was it particularly
eventful, but the very fact that I was left responsible to look-after it for
two weeks is in itself pretty news worthy. It’s not in my nature to take things
lightly, perhaps once, when Starbursts were called Opal Fruits, ‘Fun House’ was
still on TV and when ‘walking the dog’ meant doing a trick with a yoyo; I was a
bit more carefree and a lot less ‘serious’ than I am now then the prospect of
being left alone in a print room would be pretty damn cool. It still is, but then, you probably wouldn’t
have wanted the younger-me to run such a place, it could only have ended in a
messy, squashed-fingered and chaotic sort of way. So, there I was, the ‘serious’
adult me, the prestigious print room key in my possession. How exactly did I
succumb to this opportunity you ask? I’ve been teaching upstairs in Fine Art,
only for a few days, and due to a staff sickness in the print room I was asked
to cover it. I’d studied at SCAT so I was familiar with the print room and
specialised in mono printing for my own practice so I was fairly confident I
could keep it running safely and tidily, covering the most basic of print
techniques. My own experiences of printmaking had been based from taking
lessons from a now retired (I think it’s safe to say) eccentric (and I use the
term widely), wild bearded but incredibly knowledgeable technician who was pretty
protective of his print room. Whilst I felt I learnt how to actually make
prints, I never really got to learn the practical things like mixing ink with
extender (perhaps obvious, but who knew if it was always done for us). So there’s
a few holes in my knowledge, nothing that I couldn’t handle and wasn’t willing
to learn quickly.
As I was saying, so I had the key (pardon the megalomania)
and dozens of new opportunities at my fingertips from drypoint, etching, lino,
wood, lithography, collagraph, monotype, aquatint, silk screen and more...It
was also half term, so it was relatively quiet in terms of students so between
bouts of cleaning/organising and finding where everything was stored I took the
opportunity to try a quick drypoint and mono type, examples of which can be
seen here. Although, I can appreciate the quality of printmaking and take great
pleasure in seeing other people’s prints, one of my favourite artists of all
time, Jim Dine is a printmaker, not to mention that as an avid bookworm I am
indebted to printmaking, for if it not for print then there’d be no books.
Books aside, whilst I have always felt drawn to prints by artists like Dine and
others, I’ve tried emulating certain qualities from their work (be it formal or
subject matter) in other ways than print taking more delight in trying to
replicate their processes/surfaces/affects in drawing or paint. I take more joy
in the amateur techniques, the amateur, the ’do it yourself’ kind-of mentality
that makes for a more immediate spontaneity, whilst you can still achieve this
in printmaking, I still think it’s more controlled.
I was hoping to maybe ignite my love of print, but soon
after soaking the paper ready for drypoint I already found myself remembering
why I disliked the process-led nature of print making, its preparation time
frustrates me and as an impatient artist I prefer immediacy of drawing,
painting and mono type. Although, even those processes in each of their own way
has elements of preparation to them (be in stretching a canvas, or organising
drawing materials, rolling out ink) so maybe it is the formal-ness of the print
room that I dislike, preferring the privacy and freedom of the studio. It does,
however also highlight something interesting about creativity and how it works.
For example, it feels a bit silly that we create rooms like print rooms,
studios etc that we make ourselves be ‘creative’ in but these sorts of spaces
facilitate and nurture creativity rather than instigate it in the first
instance (?). Personally, I feel less
creative when there is an expectation to be creative because I’m in the studio
or print room. Hence, one of the good things of using my room as a ‘studio’ as
it is multi-functional which some people could see as a distraction, but for me
become more of a stimulus and inspiration to make work. However, most of my own
creative thinking probably happens when I’m not ‘trying’ to be creative at all,
often I get most ideas when out walking or walking home to/from work, having a
shower, cleaning, reading, watching a film, in conversation over a drink,
travelling on the train, food shopping etc etc. Does anyone ever really have
all their creative ideas in a studio?
So, I’ve ascertained that printmaking (except for mono printing)
might not be for me and that if anything I’m probably more interested in the
room and its contents. The presses, inks, letter blocks, cutting tools and
print paraphernalia. Like when Alain de Botton was ‘writer in residence’ at
Heathrow Airport and made a book of observations, ‘A Week at the Airport’; I
could easily find myself enthused over describing the splatters of ink in the
sink, stained psychedelic rags used for cleaning, coppers, glass, Perspex,
wood, the sounds of the press as it rolls and squeezes, the crisp/sticky sound
of ink being rolled out, the creaking of the ‘used’ rags basket as it slowly
rots and splits open and clang and clashing of the drying wrack....The smells
alone could be a whole separate post, turps, oil paint, floor stripper and swarfega
as could a description into the state of the skin on my hands after only
spending 7 days in there! It made me realise how difficult and complex a place
it is to run.
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