These might be the three dirty words of the contemporary art world, emitting a pong of outdated notions, such as craftmanship, community and collaboration. The one who seeks to combine craft with art, may be without imagination, feeling the need to collaborate with the zeal of an art evangelist saving the community!
Yet, we could be moving through a time of revision, questioning what consumerism as a hegenomy did bring us, countered by the ideas of craft based skills, collaboration and community as part of an artist’s identity.
Slow down then, and become rich in possesing skills. Invest in relatioships such as learning as an apprentice or grow in vision from collaboration or nurturing a sense of community. This is the year, to become unfashionable. I start with mixing my own inks, and by making notes for complex ways of printing as I test my patience and attention to details. Then, it’s all in the image. It ’s all in the relationships that make life possible.

Zidane Press releases its latest book ‘ Philosophy in Art’, by Richard Osborne - author of the internationally bestselling ‘Philosophy for beginners’. I contributed with the piece’ Kant, Breton and Revolution in a line’ discussing printmaking as a form of cultural humanism.
The book is a collection of twenty artists discussing key ideas that underpin their practices. The book explores the relationship between philosophical ideas and creative work, and off course- I highly recommend it.

To order, contact:
zidanepress@gmail.com

Etching became one of the most popular forms of printmaking techniques with the printmaking revival in the mid 19th century when weekend- artists began to crowd the highly skilled engravers in the printmaking field.

John Phillips speaks in his dissertation that since etching being a comparatively easy technique to learn, it was soon embraced by amateurs. Etching can be a quick bag of tricks - where textural and tonal images are easily produced. The amateur may not embrace the process of building a skill set of craftsmanship as a basis for their work. The process of becoming an apprentice to a master printer- and learning complex printing techniques by working side by side with the master, to learn skills by practice and application, seems to have vanished in today’s art education.

Therefore, I decided to become that apprentice, to acquire printmaking skills by learning from master printers and through being in collaborative printing studios as one part of the research on what defines an honourable practice. One emerging thought , is that craftsmanship is a fundamental part of an honourable practice.

The peony ( 1.2 metres by 1. meters, 3 plates woodcut ) is part of that apprenticeship process. I have now worked with Monumental master printer Stefan Beccari for two years in learning large scale printmaking - and oversize woodcut techniques. It is only by being there- fully present - I understand what to do- applying and discussing the work while conquering the five ton press, unwieldy large sheets of paper and rolling the ink for hours.

Does the decision to seek out craftmanship in printmaking make me dull? A luddite? An uptight artist and happy enthusiast sseking refuge in the craft? Or does treating printmaking partially as a craft to learn - make me more of an artist- separating me from the sensationalist artists - where the concept and text and the obtuse work witha sloppy presentation and clumsy drawing - may make them the hyped up amateurs?