Latest Works

My works vary from medium to medium, and are not necessarily contained within the printmaking genre. I thoroughly enjoy drawing, and any medium that will allow my style to permeate will always be important. As a quick overview of what my work below entails, i'll do my best to describe how each process works.

Each printmaking medium is defined by the matrix that is used. A matrix is a simple term for a piece of wood, metal, plastic or stone that an image can be repeated. Some methods, intaglio for instance, are printed with ink that sits beneath the surface plane of the matrix. Other methods, such as lithography or relief are printed with the ink laying on top of the surface.

Lithography

Lithographs are a printmaking medium that rely on the antipathy of grease and water. Lithographs can be printed from aluminum plates with a special coating, or porous limestone slabs. The image itself is created by drawing on the plate or stone with a grease pencil or various greasy media. A grease pencil contains a certain potency of grease, and an amount of ink. Images can be created by drawing, painting, spraying, and scratching into the plate. Areas untouched by grease will remain white, while heavier applications will print black (or whatever color you choose). Lithograph processing and printing are amazingly complex series of processes that involve cleansing, washing, and etching with acid, and it would take me at least 3 hours to write down exactly how and why, so we'll just leave the 'how' to 'magic'.

Etching

Etchings utilize metals as a matrix and acid to corrode the surface, which allows ink to be squeegeed within. Plates are prepared for image making by covering areas that you wish to remain white, and then scratching through to reveal metal underneath. This exposed metal will corrode when bit. 'Biting' a plate (dipping the plate into acid) creates valleys and grooves that become deeper with longer times submerged in the acid. Printing the metal plate utilizes wet paper, run through a press, which can sink deep down into the wells and soak up as much ink as possible.

Relief

Relief prints are created by using wood or linoleum blocks. Arguably the simplest and most force-intensive print medium, relief prints are most often created by carving away areas that you wish to remain white (or without color). Multiple blocks are sometimes used for different colors, or you can use one block, and cut it in a sequential way, called reduction, in which you would print your lightest color first, then cut more away from the same block, and print a darker color on top in the areas that have block in tact. (These images are partially relief (bottom) and part lithography (top), with text written with letterpress*)

The first set of images is from a book that i created in the spring semester of Junior Year, where i incorporated images from a book that had written in kindergarten, and re-imagined as a 20-year old (read the last page for a better explanation).

Letterpress

Letterpress is printed in a similar way as relief. Letterpress involves small blocks of wood or metal that have been fabricated with premade letters at a certain height. Individual letter forms are placed into a press and locked into place, ink is rolled across the surface, and then pressed into paper.