Collage and Collagraphy
Recently an artist wrote about finding some old prints that she had made before she abandoned printmaking for painting. She commented on how she felt restricted by printmaking, by creating editions and keeping the paper clean. I was amazed as in my world printmaking can be as free and experimental as any other media. I would go as far as to say its more liberating. Why? It’s all about the difference between the direct and indirect. With painting a mark or brushstroke is direct, which can be scary and intimidating, we can hesitate. A printed mark is indirect, it is created by the artist through making or manipulating the plate and then transferred to paper. You only have to see the rise of popularity of Gel printing and all the joy that brings to know it is far from restrictive, its opening doors for many people who felt they were not creators. As with all things its very much about what we allow ourselves to do. If we allow ourselves to explore and experiment we will reap the rewards of that, if we close doors to exploring and experimenting, refuse to give ourselves permission then we will feel restricted. But its not the media or process that is restricting us, it is our mindset, our approach.
Traditionally when a printmaker completes an edition the plates are destroyed, preventing any further prints and thereby limiting the edition. I wonder how many artists actually do this, I know don’t. Of course that means that after over thirty five years of printmaking I have a lot of plates….. and I mean a lot!
I like keeping my plates, they are a record of a time, a journey, an experience. I rarely make editions. If I do I only print and sign off a few at a time as creating more than a few means I am filling drawers with identical prints. I prefer to play and to experiment. If I get nice, neat prints at the end of a day that I can frame and sell that’s a bonus, it is certainly not the driving force.
For the last few years I have been exploring ideas around the theme of abandonment. Elevating the found to fine art, reusing, recycling and repurposing. During my final Masters project I was printmaking from found boxes, exploring the idea of the box as a metaphor for place. This was during lockdown when I was confined to my apartment, a box within a stack of boxes.
More recently I brought back from Spain a series of large paintings I had made and exhibited there before lockdown. Shipping them back to the UK would have been difficult and expensive with post Brexit customs and regulations. I didn’t want to leave them behind so I ceremoniously ripped them from their stretchers, rolled them into cheap suitcases and brought them back to the UK. Clearly I was not planning on re-stretching them, instead they became huge pieces of collage fodder. Reinvented as a new series of paintings. It felt cathartic and purposeful, something good risen from the ashes of politics and the pandemic.
That series lead me into more collage; using old papers and creating new ones. I have been creating large collages on canvas for most of the last year. I enjoy making connections between my work on canvas and my prints. It almost feels as if they have conversations in my studio when I am not there. There were certainly compositional and textural aspects of my collages that I wanted to explore in print. So it was time to return to the press and experiment. When considering whether to create new plates I realised it would be a natural progression to revisit the many boxes of plates I have made. To cut them up, reuse and repurpose them.
I have been doing just that for the last few months and it’s been a fabulous journey. Each paper is put through the press two or three times, often with chine colle. I am using a limited palette and bringing order to the chaos with veiling layers of white and black. An approach I have found helps with the final stages of my large collages on canvas.
The links between collagraphy and collage are evident. The term collagraphy comes from the french coller to stick. In collagraphy pastes, gels and papers are attached to a plate which when dry is inked, and then printed on a press with paper. Collage can also be defined as a composite or collection created by assembling objects together. The process of laying these small pieces of plates together on my press, of building layers of print on paper feels very much like collaging.
As with my collage papers I know when and where each plate was made. By placing new against old I am revisiting my history, and when I stand back I feel I am not looking at a piece I have made this month, this year or even this decade. At this point in my life that is where the meaning lies.
But to go back to the beginning:-
Am I planning these? No, I am using a limited palette and working within an imaginary frame, but other than that there is no preconceived plan. Whilst inking and printing I am in the same flow state as you would expect when painting. There are compositional decisions being made regarding arrangement, colour and contrast but its not preventing the experimentation.
Am I creating editions? No, that would be almost impossible and why would I want to? These are all unique pieces.
What will I do with them? The successful ones will be sold. Two have already been accepted for an exhibition in Cromer. Those that don’t make the grade are mounted onto small panels. I am planning an exhibition for 2025 and intend to have a wall of small panels.
In conclusion if you have been put off printmaking because you have been told its restrictive then please think again!