Mezzotint Professor's Papers

The professor explains the living print, the history of printmaking, and keeps the academic community informed.

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(Lecture)

I suppose you think this will be an easy course because it's an art course. You might think we're going to look a slides every day, read some text books and take some tests. You are wrong. As I write this I think this will be an extraordinary course. I am not thinking it will be a difficult course.

It isn't necessary to challenge your ability to remember artists and their work, sequences and principles. What may be challenging is the dynamics of this topic--printmaking. How hard can it be? We're surrounded by printmaking everyday in almost every medium invented in the tradition of printing.

The truth is, if you get the essence of printmaking, when it really sinks in, really hits you, it’s almost something that makes you react physically. My plan is to suggest some ways to reach this understanding of prints. I call upon living prints to carry out my plan.

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I go for coffee before class, and this morning there was someone explaining how he spent two weeks--printing in the morning and cybernetics in the afternoon.

As far as I could tell, he had a silly proposition. But then, who knows. I've seen weirder things.

9607041044

I was surprised to see a faint image of the artist's lithograph, printed white-on-white. When I commented on it, she said the artist printed on the backs of his old prints. Those were indeed old works. He never cared much about the paper.

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Who is this artist, anyway? He has an odd view of things in the fine art world.

	Curator's Log	The curator is seldom seen but is always seeing to it that the living prints' records are correct and rules followed.
	Artist's Diary	The artist provides the vision and imagery of the living print, laboring after the compelling image.
	Printer's Notes	The printer performs many tasks to keep prints alive, crafting and designing solutions to problems the artist, curator and publisher propose.
	Publisher's Journal	The publisher produces the bases for living prints by supporting all the players and keeping communications clear and on course.

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©1999 Bill H. Ritchie, Jr.
©1999 Bill H. Ritchie, Jr. ritchie@seanet.com