Artwork above is Second Born by Wangechi Mutu, 2013
24 Kt gold, collagraph, relief, digital printing, collage, and hand coloring
Here's a an Art21 14 minute video about this artist.
I have some great interviews lined up this year, but for now let’s finish our talk about printmaking.
SCREEN PRINTING also known as SILKSCREEN
There are a few ways to do this, the most common is to burn your image onto a silkscreen by coating the screen with a photo-sensitive emulsion, putting your opaque design on top & burning it with a light exposure unit. Wherever your opaque design hits the emulsion, it does not harden & can be washed out with water, so the ink can get through. Where you had no image, the light hits the emulsion, so it hardens & now no ink can get through. Process video
![Andy Warhol screen print image of Marilyn Monroe's face repeate. On the left is in color, on the right is in black & white & fading.](https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0856/5237/3779/files/MarilynDiptych1962.jpg?v=1709164436)
![Screenprint for The Breeders band. Image of a heart wrapped in rope with 4 arrows.](https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0856/5237/3779/files/TheBreedes_BirdMachine2023.png?v=1709164593)
![Screenprint of a hand with 3 fingers held up. On each finger are written the workds "Agitate" "Educate" "Organize"](https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0856/5237/3779/files/MacPhee_screensprint.jpg?v=1709164744)
RISOGRAPHY
Risography uses a high-capacity copy machine, “the RISO”. We had a couple at the school I taught at because they can produce a lot of copies really quickly & efficiently. You create your design digitally in black & white in layers, & create “masters” on the RISO. This creates a stencil for each layer of your design. The copiers usually have a drum filled with black ink, but you can take out this drum & replace it with another drum filled with a different color. You print one layer of your design, but can then switch out the drum & reinsert the paper, put in a different “master”, to print another color on top. It’s sometimes called “digital screenprinting” & is a newer technique. Here’s an explainer.
Orange Cat in a Bowl by Bromstad Printing Co
Hands Off Trans Kids by Josh MacPhee
COLLAGRAPH
Gluing a collage of materials onto a substrate (something hard that is the main block that you print, often thin wood or cardboard), rolling ink onto it, & printing. You can use the intaglio or relief method or a combo of both. Here’s an explanation of the collagraph using the intaglio method. I’ve personally only done the relief method, it’s a fun method you can totally do at home!
Child's Room by Akiko Tanigushi, 2000
Collagraph + relief + chine-collé
Porous #16 by Eunice Kim
Collagraph + chine-collé
CHINE-COLLÉ
Gluing a finer paper (like tissue paper) onto your printing paper during the printing process as another way to add color to your prints. Can be used with relief, collagraph, etching, lithograph, any process that uses a hard substrate I imagine. This is a linocut printmaker trying it for the first time with great results.
LITHOGRAPHY
This is a process I know nothing about so am going to copy & paste from the internet. This is the dictionary definition that came up on Google, “the process of printing from a flat surface treated so as to repel the ink except where it is required for printing.” This seems kinda vague. I know that people usually draw on limestone. Here’s a very comprehensive video. I love all the steps in printmaking, but this is intimidating!
![Black & white lithograph of an older woman's (Kathe Kollwitz') face.](https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0856/5237/3779/files/KatheKollwitz_litho1934.jpg?v=1709249457)
![A black & white lithograph of 3 black women. The two women on the end are carrying water in containers. The woman in the center is looking directly at the viewer & has a tall hat on her head & her right arm is on her hip.](https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0856/5237/3779/files/MabelPugh_lithograph.png?v=1709249552)
![Rauschenberg lithograph. Image is in black & white except for a blue splotch on the left & some red in the top middle.](https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0856/5237/3779/files/Rauschenberg_lithograph1971.jpg?v=1709249800)
INTAGLIO
![3/4 view of a woman (Kathe Kollwitz) with her hand on the side of her head. Black & white.](https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0856/5237/3779/files/Kollwitz_etching1921.jpg?v=1709250230)
![Aquatint of a woman with her back to us with a towel around her lower half. She is rinsing her face at a bathroom sink. A pitcher is on the floor.](https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0856/5237/3779/files/MaryCassas_WomanBathing.jpg?v=1709250378)
![Abstract](https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0856/5237/3779/files/Benjie_Torrado_Cabrera_WhenWater_MeetsEarth2014.png?v=1709250535)
Engraving
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Have an arty month!