Mezzotint Publisher's Journal

The publisher produces the bases for living prints with support for all the players and keeps communications clear and on course.

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Her place is carpeted wall-to-wall so I guess she didn't hear me come in. Her doors were open and I heard her voice in the back. I even thought she had heard me get off the elevator and was saying, "Come on in." I didn't think to wonder who she was talking to-maybe she was on the phone. I waited in her outer room and was looking at a magazine.

Then, slowly, I began to realize she wasn't on the phone. All I could figure was she was talking to the prints! It was embarrassing, but it was funny, too. You'd think she was a little girl playing with her dolls. She'd say things like, "Oh, number three, I have always loved you," and "Oh, Six, where's your slipsheet? They took it? Those cheapskates!" I decided I'd better get out of there. No wonder she prefers to do her job by herself. It sounded like she has more fun alone.

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What madame curator told me about his trial proofs was a little unnerving, but then she has had that effect on me before and it turned out she was exaggerating. She tended to look at everything as if a hundred years had passed--not that there's anything wrong with that.

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Professor Salzer sat across from me and one of his students lounged against the counter. "Beeb," I started, "The premise is that if you have a fine art printing studio welded to an on-line publishing service, you have a mutually supportive system--both economically and in the best tradition of the studio school."

"If that's so, then why hasn't anybody done it already? If it makes economic sense, why hasn't anyone tried it?" the professor asked me.

I answered, "For the same reason that when IBM tried to sell business on using computers, it just didn't have any precedents. Business couldn't understand it."

"Well I have to say I don't understand why you want to drag a lot of old printing equipment into a high-tech multimedia center, either. The IBM analogy is silly, by the way, in my humble opinion. Have you used it with anyone besides me?" he said, smiling with condescension. I didn't have an answer.

I was going to bring up Brooks, what he wrote about the old days at IBM, but Salzer continued. "Look, I'm impressed by what you're saying and I promise I'll keep my eyes open." I felt my time was up. The student was shuffling some papers. It may have been my imagination, but I sensed he wanted me to leave so he could have the good professor's full attention.

"Thanks, Beeb. See you later." In the hallway I got a message from the printer. "Blue?" was all it said.

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The curator was in this morning and I watched her tearing a half-inch of paper from all around Number 3. When she turned it over I was surprisd to see a faint image of the artist's lithograph, printed white-on-white. When I commented on it to her, the curator didn't answer until she had finished tearing away a strip from the edge. She was very dexterous! Then she said, "Don't you know the artist is having you print on the backs of his old prints?" Until then it hadn't occurred to me, but, yes, those were indeed his old works. How old, I wonder.

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She asked me with her eyes would I let her rest, but I told her to get the video camera set up and get ready to coat some paper for cyanotypes. It would take an hour or more for the coated paper to dry, and by then the artist would be back wanting to try another round of prints. She's holding up real well. I wonder if she'll get to do the edition (if there is going to be one).

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It happened in a flash. She was silent for just a moment, then she looked at me and said, "What is going on here? This can must be twenty years old. Look! The oil separated from the pigment. I've never seen anything like it!" The lid of the ink can had come off suddenly when she was prying it open and plate oil had spilled onto the inking bench and was dripping down on to the floor in a dark amber puddle. "It 's older than that," I said. She knew the rest of the story, I think, and she said nothing more.

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It seemed forever that it took her to decide to print Number 9. Finally I told her I'd be happy with just one still video shot--maybe of her putting the ink out on the plate. That seemed to satisfy her, and she started preparing the plate once more, and the plaster print matrix, too. Then the artist came back. She handed the plate over to him. Another half hour went by while he reworked some parts.

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When I checked at the print studio she said he was there but he appeared to be thinking about the next step so I said not to disturb him. I wanted to tell him about the position of his prints and casts, but it could wait. I wanted to tell someone as I was somewhat excited and tantatalized by the similarity of my diagrams to his computer's chipsets--both physically and digitally. The way his Living Prints were stacked and interleaved with the strategic plan for new products up the pipeline--it all fit so beautifully.

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This morning I found an audiotape in my workout bag; it had his name on it. It was Stephen Covey's "Seven Habits of Highly Effective People". I figure he must have been listening to my wife and her dentist friend talking about Covey last night. It seems Covey was listed as one of America's most influential people. No wonder. Funny thing was we couldn't remember the habits and that's probably why he slipped that tape in my bag. So I listened while I was working out on the stairmaster. It's been a long time. I wish I had a Spanish copy.

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There must be a dozen artists and their printers who want me to look at their work. I've taken to saying, "I'd be interested in considering it," when they ask. Oh well--I could never read manuscripts all day, nor mother a lot of readers. Literary publishers must get a ton of mail and hours of phone calls.

Still, the artist who interests me is like my dog, who brings me little things she found in the yard. Yesterday she brought a baby cottontail! When I stopped in the studio today the artist was laminating all kinds of detritus from around his collected memorabilia and decorative paper pile.

He said his neighbor offered him some remnant feathers left from a master fly-tying class. Would I be interested? I'm curious now what the trade in feathers from exotic birds is, and how many birds are killed to satisfy that market. The birds better pray that the Chinese don't take up fly fishing!

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He's ready to pull the first trial proof and I guess he's not going to wait for the cyanotype or the blue woodcut he talked about. So suddenly I have to get a press lined up. MFG said I can rent her entire studio for a hundred dollars--a pretty good deal except it's not set up for intaglio and the lighting is bad.

When I called NM to ask for inks, she had found her table press and dragged it out of storage for me as she had promised; suddenly I have two presses! Don't know what I'll do with those. Anyway, went to see NM and get the press and inks; she gave me a tour of her new studio and gave me advance copies of her new catalog. It's amazing what she has done since--when did I meet her? 1972?

So last night there I was restoring an old tabletop etching press at ten o'clock at night. But it gave me a chance to talk to NS and tell her about the smart cards, game cards, etc., where this is all going. There's just a chance he'll want to print tomorrow, plus there's enough stuff around to make a plaster print if he decides to go ahead with that. I have to work fast to keep up, and MFG is going to be back the 8th.

This morning that assistant of his told me she thought there should be a reception on July 8 to welcome MFG back and have a preview party for No. 11, plus a silent auction to pay for all this. It's a pretty good idea, but I wonder who will do the invitations. She also said it would be a chance to show the cyberspace version of this program, and maybe find a real publisher--someone with real money.

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.

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