Wednesday 17 October 2007

ALCHEMY

Print Research Network

It is the nature of revolution to engender change - and a digital revolution is no different - but nothing is as sure in life as change and we should embrace it and utilise it in our involvement with creativity.

Just as previous revolutions in history have involved humanity in discord and loss there has also been gain and progress: so should we be viewing what is happening now to printmaking. When Sean Rorke suggests that “of course (printmaking) has a future” there are many, I know who would support that statement, and I am certainly one of them.

Unfortunately it has been within my first hand experience as a lifelong student of printmaking to witness and feel the “resultant disenfranchisement of print from the core curriculum … …under the guise of financial ‘efficiencies’” which Nicholas Devison talks about.

I first studied during the sixties at Edinburgh College of Art when printmaking was a moving force and Inverlieth printmaking department was in existence. Sadly, it has now gone. However, I have continued to study and explore new facets of printmaking and I am energized by the possibilities open to us, in combining traditional media with digital output [George Whale and Naren Barfield discuss this in their book Digital Printmaking].

Open Access Printmaking Studios can serve to spread this awareness to artists and keep the life force going during the difficult times ahead.

I welcome the opportunity that the PRN will open discussion and debate, not only among Art Academy Academics but with students, artists, and printmakers who wish to share ideas and knowledge. Let us form that network and seize the chance to disseminate!

Anna Johnson
Artist/Illustrator/Printmaker, Creative Director of Green Door Open Access Printmaking Studio CIC. C.I.C.382976, Derby, and MA student.

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