Artist Statement
The expansive and canny world of printmaking offers many diverse techniques from which an artist can choose: lithography, intaglio techniques, relief printing for example, and many more. The intaglio method, more commonly known as etching, is my current medium of choice – at least for the time being. The content and focus of my recent work address two areas of natural phenomena.
The first is fire; the second being weather conditions; namely, storms at sea. Fire can be, and often is, the result of human folly, whereas storms, by comparison, are the result of fickle and unpredictable weather conditions, often violent and out of our control. Fire and storms are two dangerous elements that are inescapable properties embalmed in our historical past – yet concern us in many ways today. Nature’s way is contrary and unpredictable, especially for mariners who employ the sea for their trade and livelihood. And so, I shall let my work speak for itself, with its own particular essence and creative voice.
However, we must be cautious, and become enlightened to the fact that printmaking is not a form of reproduction. Printmaking has nothing to do with the printing of posters or post cards for that matter, or photocopies of paintings or drawings, for example. Printmaking is an autonomous medium in which original art work is generated within the mediums referred to above, such as etchings or relief prints as in linoleum cuts or wood engravings. And I will stress the point that printmaking has nothing to do with, or related to, commercial rep roductions. Reproduction is a disposable commodity and has nothing to do with original art, and that includes giclee ink jet photocopies that are being marketed today. Giclee is not original art, but simply the latest form for making office photo copies, nothing more. For example, a giclee photocopy of a twenty dollar bill has no value and worth nothing. Photocopies are not art. Printmaking is the original thing.
However, there is another element in the equation that runs parallel to my work: technique. I am an advocate of green techniques, and an innovator in the field of non-toxic technology and related chemistry. All works on display are the result of my original research, so far, and can be found in my future book, Adventures in Printmaking – A Mariner’s Voyage in Search of Safer Non-Toxic Techniques.