thoughts on printmaking
December 6, 2025
when I deleted all my old posts here, I was hoping this could be a place to post more just general art thoughts, and maybe be less self-focused, but I don't know where else to talk about this. I guess it is art related.
I've been trying for a long time to find where I belong, but I never know how to go about it. after some events that left me feeling cast aside I decided to try to put myself out there more in any way I could. I decided to post a print I made recently to a printmaking group I am in on facebook. I guess my first mistake is being on facebook.
I've been having a lot of trouble getting my prints to come out. I don't have many good presses. my current press is one that is over 50 years old. it's press bed is a piece of wood, which I've never seen before, and I think this wood is a replacement. the springs to adjust the pressure look a little rusted, and I can't get fantastic pressure out of it, so I need to pile paper around my plates, along with the blankets. but it wotks better than the previsu two presses I've had.
so trying to print with this press is always a struggle, and sometimes it takes a few tries before a print comes out satifactory. I don't remember it being this hard when I was first learning, so I think I am just working with in less than ideal conditions. but I thought I was making it work. despite all the misprints that came out, I thought I had made one that looked good. I still saw some flaws, but I tried to convince myself that we are all our own biggest critics. sometimes I defend my work before people even comment, and I've been told to stop doing that. so I posted this print, hoping that people would focus on the good in it, and not the bad. I did mention it was made with a tetra pak, so at least the members knew I was using LO-FI DIY methods for creating my matrix.
I don't really care if I don't get a ton of comments or whatever. I usually don't get comments. I don't take it personally, I don't always comment either. but I did get a comment, and what the person said kind of shattered any hopes I had that no one would be picking my pieces apart. they asked if I hand printed my print, which I could have taken as just curiousty, since a lot of printers who print on tetra paks do hand print. but the second part, they asked if I had dampened my paper. I do dampen my paper. that's like rookie shit. so many people post prints that didn't come out well in that group, and when thy ask for advice the first thing they get is they need to dampen their paper before printing. so that comment was basically the polite way of them telling me my print looked like shit.
these questions just don't read as curiousity to me. and I know it doesn't seem like much, but I felt so anxious posting my print when I knew it wasn't the best it could be, but was the best I could do. so then to have someone ask me if I am doing the most simple basic step of printmaking really hurt. and it hurts even worse, because I have been trained to do this. I have taken classes. I know how to do this! but because I don't have access to the same standard of materals as I opnce had when I was in college, I guess it looks like I am hand printing my prints with undampened paper. I have been trying really hard for so long to make printmaking work, and I have been trying to convince myself that I am overcoming the obsticles in my life to make good or at least interesting work. but when everyone else is getting all these comments on how great their prints look, and I get a comment that amounts to are you sure you know what you're doing. all the worst stood out more than the good, just like I feared going in. I feel like I can't keep pretending that I am welcomed in the printmkaing world.
this isn't like a thing where I expect people to come and tell me how good my prints actually are. if people felt that way, I just wish they said it more and sooner. but the negative comments are the ones that came through first, so any compliments I get now will just feel hallow. and honestly, the doubt wa always there. I had to convince myself that it was better than it was. I had to convince myself it was worth showing off, and that people would want to see it. it was a deliberate effort on my part, to convince myself that I did the best I could, and that I made something other's might enjoy. and it was hard to get myself to believe that, because I actually do know something about printmaking. despite how my prints look. I actually know exactly how it looks. I know where the fall short. so I had to convince myself that no one actually cared they weren't perfect either. that good enough is still good enough.
this is more about holding myself accountable to leave behind what I need to leave behind. I don't want to give up making art, but I think I need to give up on printmaking being my thing. I haven't gotten any indication that it is worthwhile, and it has been a struggle to make anything, and when all that struggle leads to getting shot down when you were just trying to put what you made out there, it feels really disheartening. I am not sure where to go from here, but I've been doing printmaking as my main thing for so long, but I think I need a reavaluation of my art direction. so I am going to start trying to look for other paths I can take my art, if I am not doing printmaking. I just don't know where to look or where to start, when starting all over.
hello world
May 15, 2025
re-vamping this page. I would like to get more use out of this at some point.