Introduction
(excerpted from "About World Printmakers: Who Are We? What Are We Up To?" and "FAQ: What Can World Printmakers Do for You?" on the World Printmakers web site)

Launched in June 2000, www.worldprintmakers.com, a website dedicated to traditional and digital printmakers and their work, continues to be maintained by journalist Mike Booth and his printmaker wife Maureen. Though Booth is from the U.S.A. and his wife from the U.K., they have lived and worked for many years in Granada, Spain. Their intention with World Printmakers is to provide a dedicated space where printmakers from all countries can exhibit their work and offer it for sale to the global audience; to provide efficient, honest and trustworthy services to print collectors; and to consolidate World Printmakers as the website of reference for print artists, print collectors, art lovers, educators and institutions from all over the world.

In addition to World Printmakers burgeoning gallery of artists from more than 30 countries who subscribe to the various levels of service provided by the site (everything from linked personal websites to galleries of images available either for sale through World Printmakers for a commission or by the artist directly with no commission), the site includes forums, technical essays, equipment for sale, gallery reports, lists of upcoming print competitions, interviews with artists, a monthly newsletter, and, for the collector, background on printmaking history and techniques and the conservation of works on paper, as well as explanations of fundamental printmaking concepts like "limited editions" and "print numbering".

Although World Printmakers began as an Internet magazine, sales soon took off, and Booth is currently in the process of putting together the staff and the investment necessary to turn it into a proper dot-com company. Visits to the site average more than 50,000 page views monthly. For European artists, this means an opportunity to be seen in America, and for Americans, to be discovered in Europe, not to mention Asia and Australia. Their sales secret, according to Booth, is an ongoing campaign of mailings to businesses and institutions offering contemporary fine-art prints as corporate gifts. "This is now called 'B2B' (business to business)," says Booth, "but in fact it's based on mainly old-fashioned direct-mail techniques."

World Printmakers is especially interested in providing printmaking schools worldwide with a resource center. Teachers have permission to print, download, project, quote, extract or otherwise utilize all the material on World Printmakers for legitimate teaching purposes. World Printmakers is also prepared to publish relevant research papers on printmaking subjects. And if your department hosts student, faculty, or other exhibits, they would be happy to consider publishing a virtual version on the site.

Questions and Answers
Section 1: Prints and the Internet

Q1: What effect does having a presence (either a personal or a collective site) on the Web have on a printmaker creatively? in terms of sales? in terms of career-building?
A1: A printmaker's Internet presence is an extension of his or her real-world activity into the virtual world. Seen in that light, a Web presence is merely an exhibit, a business card, an advertisement, a shop window, a soap box, a brochure, a coffee klatch, a class reunion, a magazine, a resource center, an ego trip, a hobby, a research project, a two-way street, a turbo charger, a wellspring of serendipity, a labor of love .… It also has the advantage of being present 24 hours a day, every day, across the entire world. Did I say "merely?"

Q3: What effect has the Internet had on printmaking aesthetics?
A3: The first thing that comes to mind is the rise of digital imagery. The computer monitor, and by extension the Internet, is the natural habitat of digital images. Traditional-media prints usually suffer a deterioration in quality when they're photographed or scanned and then published on the web. But digital work really shines on a monitor. Conceivably this advantage in how the work displays via the Internet is part of the reason that digital imagery is on the rise. On the other hand, let's face it, a computer screen is just a television with an attitude. Isn't it possible that the whole Internet/digital imagery phenomenon is benefiting from the tremendous predisposition created over the past 50 years by television? I read somewhere recently that, while traditionally commercial art has fed on fine art, with the advent of digital imagery it seems that digital fine art is nurturing itself on commercial digital art, due to the long head start that the latter had on the former.

Q4: How has World Printmakers presence on the web affected the printmaking scene?
A4: Just as one cannot discover the meaning of life without living it for a few years, I think I could not have discovered the meaning of World Printmakers without dedicating a few years to building it. It's only just recently I'm starting to get a clear idea of what it's about. At the risk of sounding messianic, with World Printmakers I think we have opened a door to a far, far better place for printmakers and other artists.

Just yesterday we received a plump envelope in the mail from an old friend of ours, an excellent artist and tireless art-activist. In it were invitations/programs for a series of exhibits and other events his group has scheduled over the next few months. You know, elongated papers lovingly designed and illustrated, with the relevant information, all carefully folded and stuffed into the envelope. My immediate reaction took me by surprise - the whole exercise stuck me as quaint, like the Amish trundling round Pennsylvania in their horse carts and bonnets.

In order to get his message out to a thousand people, our friend had gone through Print Shop Hell. Remember that? It was the slow, clunky, laborious, expensive way communications were carried out in previous centuries: design up the mailing pieces, drive the dummy to the print shop, try to find a parking place, try to explain to the printer what you want, drive home, wait a week, drive back, park, look at the proofs, drive home, wait a week, drive back, park, pick up finished work, pray that it's right, pay quite a bit of money for the service, load the boxes in the car. Remember to buy 1,000 envelopes at the print shop where it's cheaper. Pass by post office, try to park, buy stamps, go home, stuff 1,000 envelopes, address them, lick flaps, lick stamps (Ugh! Ugh!). Drive back to post office, try to find parking place, lug box to building, push 1,000 envelopes into mail slot. Wait two weeks...

World Printmakers is showing 21st-century printmakers that there is a better way to do things, the digital way. If this achievement sounds unremarkable today, think back just four or five years. What happened when you asked an artist if he or she had a website. They would look at you as if you were from another planet. "What for?" was, invariably, their answer. Today the situation has changed radically for the better. Artists are learning they no longer have to revisit Print Shop Hell in order to reach a thousand people. By using the Internet they can access fifty times more people in a tenth of the time at a tenth of the cost. That's progress, and World Printmakers has contributed to it by providing a group website that's more economical, hassle-free, informative, and better promoted than most printmakers could accomplish on their own.

Q5: What does the print scene look like from your internet vantage point? What's in, what's out stylistically, technically? What's going on in traditional media? New media? What's the balance? How has this changed since you began?
A5: Stylistically: Basically everything has already been done. One could make a case for the fact that art history ended with Grünewald at the beginning of the 16th century. (Don't laugh till you've made the pilgrimage to Colmar to see his Isenheimer Altarpiece.) So nowadays we see a lot of artists groping around for "fresh and original" styles. I personally doubt that anything very fresh and original can be achieved by groping. I believe, in fact, that originality in artists is genetic. Think back a bit on those who were truly original and perhaps you'll agree with me that they had their neurons creatively re-arranged by nature. I'm thinking of Van Gogh, Ensor, Gauguin, Schiele, Giacometti, Picasso, Miró, Lucien Freud... I suppose the ratio of truly original creators hasn't changed in centuries - what, one in a million?

Since today's aspiring artists have such exceedingly tough acts to follow, we get a lot of contrived, freeze-dried freshness, novelty for novelty's sake, "styles" bereft of style. Since anything goes, the permutations and combinations are infinite and infinitely tiresome, barring, of course, the aforementioned miracle which sometimes happens when an artist is alone in a room with a plate or a computer.

As far as "schools" or "tendencies" in the conventional sense, I don't detect them. I essentially see anarchy/banality with occasional glimpses of personal genius capable of giving us hope for the future.

Technically: In traditional printmaking the changes seem to be in terms of non-toxic techniques. Health and environmental considerations are considered increasingly important. Between the traditional and the "new" media there seems to be an intermediate stage: artists who combine the old with the new in creative ways.

The most fundamental changes are coming from the digital sector. Having started just a few years ago as the ugly duckling of printmaking, digital imagery is picking up momentum at a relentlessly accelerating pace. As late as last year I expressed some doubt in an article about the commercial viability of digital prints, whether art buyers would actually want to hang them on their walls. That issue now seems to be resolving itself clearly in favor of digital, as Dot Krause's recent commission for the Boston Federal Reserve Bank has shown
(visit www.worldprintmakers.com/english/simpson/bank.htm).

World Printmakers also has another important digital operation cooking currently: several editions totaling 4,500 inkjet prints to decorate a big hotel. So, the market is pronouncing in favor, and the future of digital prints seems assured, along with the future of digital everything else. We're entering a wholly digital age, and computer art of all sorts slots seamlessly into the prevailing environment.

The net result is a tilt from traditional towards digital, a tilt which will become more accentuated as time passes. And when I say "time" I'm referring to Internet time, which passes a whole lot faster!

Interestingly enough, not all of the new digital work breaks radically with the past. I'm thinking, for example, of that "Para Gate" print of yours. It occurred to me the other day what strikes me as so familiar about it and why I like it so much. It's a digital variation on classical chiaroscuro technique: tonal monochrome paintings whose visual delight was based on subtle contrasts of light and dark. So, more than a radical technological departure, Para Gate is a joyous mix of old and new, if you see what I mean.

"Para Gate," digital drawing by Martha Jane Bradford

Q6: What does the internet art market look like? What's selling? What media? What styles? To whom? What changes have you noticed since you began?
What sells is highly professional work done in a wide variety of styles. We sell more etchings, as I think we're perceived to some extent as an etching site, but we also sell everything from woodcuts to digital prints. Even mezzotints have a small but loyal following. I would give anything to have a couple more good mezzotint artists on World Printmakers. Figurative or semi-abstract work sells more; minimalist or geometrical abstract work sells less. What we haven't managed to sell as yet are prints featuring a series of randomly placed small unrelated elements.

To whom? To all kinds of people and businesses. Our clients tend to have a medium-to-high cultural level, they're avid and demanding. Besides buying prints, they want to know more about printmaking history and culture. If they have a concern in common, it seems to be the question of the proper conservation of their works of art on paper. They come from all walks of life. There are more women than men, and many of them come from the educational community worldwide. A surprising number of them are artists themselves. Corporate clients tend to be sophisticated and busy. A company's decision to buy original graphic art, either for gifts or decoration, seems to depend almost entirely on the personality of the management. A high percentage of them, again, are women. A lot of operations originate with a query from the CEO's secretary. In our experience, she tends to cut a lot of ice. Once a company buys prints, they tend to come back for more. There are a lot of people out there waiting to discover the joyous addiction to contemporary fine-art prints.

In addition to the rise of digital printmaking described above, the main changes in the internet art market have been in volume of sales. We find that it is directly related to international events. War is bad for art sales. Does that mean that art is an antidote for war?. One would hope so.

Q7: Traffic: How many hits does your site get per month? How do you monitor traffic? What kinds of people visit the site? What kinds of printmakers become members?
A7: World Printmakers currently gets just over 50,000 hits monthly. We use the services of Hitboxcentral.com to monitor traffic. According to our stats service, World Printmakers receives visits from people from 130 different countries. This is a source of satisfaction for me, because I was determined from the outset that the site be truly international. What kind of people are they? Judging from our correspondence I'd say there is a slight majority of women, and something of a concentration from the academic communities worldwide, both students and professors. We also get quite a few visitors from print-related industries. Having said that, we also gets lots of visits from other people from all walks of life: doctors, lawyers, business people, and, of course, artists.

If I had to put my finger on a quality our artist-members have in common, I'd say it's an openness to new ideas and optimism about the ever-expanding possibilities of Internet. Beyond that, they are people who are active, in there creating, trying things, making mistakes, trying again, people with projects, ambitions... The Spanish have a nice word for this cocktail of hopes and aspirations, they call it "ilusión." I bumped into my old friend, Manolo Bello, the other day, whom I hadn't seen in a long time. I have known Manolo, who's in his mid-40's, successively as a photographer, furniture designer, painter... "Long time no see, kid, what you up to?" "I'm getting into 3D cinema," he says. "I got a new computer with some video editing software, and I got a friend who's up to date on 3D, so we're putting together a short film. You know me, Miguel, I live from my ilusión..."

Questions and Answers: Section 2: Digital Prints

Q8: Printmaking practices: Is the idea of a limited edition still a viable concept in a digital age? Are digital prints always multiples or are people doing digital monoprints? Is digital printmaking being combined with woodblock, lithography, or other print techniques?
A8: I think the limited edition is a secondary issue when it comes to editioning prints, whether traditional or digital. The important thing to me is whether or not they are originals, i.e. created as prints, as opposed to copies of originals created in other media such as oils or watercolors. For a long time now, ever since etchers started electroplating their plates and thereby permitting virtually unlimited editions, the limited edition has been more of a marketing technique than a condition imposed by technical considerations.

I have come round to the opinion that whether or not to limit an edition is entirely optional. An artist is free to do whatever he or she likes on that issue. If one thinks that the market value is enhanced by limiting the edition, then go ahead and restrict it. If one prefers the supposedly more-democratic, less-expensive option of the unlimited edition, that's OK, too. What I do find morally and esthetically repugnant is a "limited edition" of 1,500, signed and numbered by the artist, especially if the "print" is a reprographic copy of a watercolor.

In the final analysis, the only requisite I consider essential is the full disclosure of all information related to the creation and editioning of the print. Then the consumer can make a reasonable choice based on the facts. Oh, and let's not forget the honesty factor, the corner stone of any limited edition concept. If an artist decides to market a print as a limited edition, I don't think it's too much to ask that he or she respect the edition!

I never saw a digital monoprint, but it is perfectly possible, though it seems to me to go a bit against the grain of this quintessential serial art.

Digital techniques seem to lend themselves nicely to mixing with traditional media. I'm thinking of the work of artists like April Vollmer and Serkan Adin who, if I understand correctly, create their images in the computer, then transfer them to wood blocks. It's lovely work. I'm sure other artists are finding other interesting ways of combining digital and traditional techniques. I'd love to see more of that sort of thing on World Printmakers, too.

Q9: Giclees (of work done in other media, such as paintings): are they prints or reproductions in your eyes? in the eyes of artists? collectors? Describe the type and extent of print fraud currently. Has giclee compromised the market for prints in general? digital art? original fine-art inkjet prints?
A9: First of all, let's discard that dreadful, fabricated word, "giclee." It just adds to the confusion. God knows, we're confused enough already. You mean inkjet reproductions? Yes, they're reproductions. I think everybody in the printmaking community sees them as simple copies. Presumably the only artists who take them in any way seriously are those who want to sell copies of their work and get rich quick by calling them "prints." I doubt that the majority of these artists have ever seen an etching press or a computer; what they do see is an opportunity to multiply their money, and they're off and running.

The prevailing print scams, both on and offline, are "soft fraud," which preys upon the ignorance of buyers - and it's massive. Anyone can run a simple test himself. Just type "print" or "limited-edition fine-art print" in Google, then review the first fifty sites which come up. One would be lucky if three of them sold real fine-art prints. The rest purvey copies, "giclees" and posters, all of which have their legitimate place in the market, but not as "fine-art prints." This cynically-orchestrated "confusion" in the terminology is degrading and ultimately killing the market for contemporary fine-art prints.

I don't think inkjet prints have compromised the print market at all. Rather the contrary, they have revitalized it with something new, fascinating, and worthwhile. As I see it, the divide is not between traditional and digital artists; it's between real printmakers using their own tools to make authentic serial art and con men trying to sell reproductions and posters as prints. Our job is to help buyers to distinguish one from the other. It's a losing battle.

Q10: Media in the future: What do you foresee the balance between traditional and digital print media will be? Comment on the future potential of any of the following: inkjet prints, laser prints, digital mixed media, LCD screens, electronic paper, holograms, plasma screens.
A10: I see the future tilting towards digital, not because of any intrinsic "superiority" of the digital medium, rather for plain, practical reasons. There are more computers than etching presses, and more kids who know how to work computers. Is this to say that traditional printmaking will disappear? Not at all. I think there will always be a dedicated fraternity of etchers, screen printers, lithographers, woodcut artists, etc. And there will always be a market for their work among connoisseurs. But I wonder if that market will be growing or shrinking in the next few years.

As for digital output devices, I think it's a secondary point. Right now it's inkjet. If someone invents something better, then digital printmakers will move to that. The device itself is an unimportant issue as far as I'm concerned. I think digital mixed media is here to stay. It facilitates and potentiates the work of innovative printmakers. More power to them. As for art on screens, I actually invented that a couple of years ago. Then I discovered that, as with so many of my inventions, someone else had invented it first. I read somewhere recently that they're already commercializing big, flat screens which you can hang on the wall to display digital images. I suspect that when the price of these screens comes down enough we'll see a lot of them hanging over fireplaces. Why not?

Q11: What response would you make to the statement that digital work is not "real"? that you can't see the hand?
A11: The fact is, in a digital print, you can see the hand. It may not be a brushstroke or an intaglio groove, but if you have ever worked (struggled!) with a computer drawing program, you can experience the same sort of "How did she do that?!" admiration when looking at a digital print that you get when looking at a great etching. There are people who are still incapable of perceiving this experience, and they will be the ones to voice the "can't see the hand" objection, along with a lot of other spurious reasons for rejecting innovation in printmaking. These "art Luddites" are on their way out, and millions of eager, open-minded, computer-hip, young people are taking their place in art schools... and the art market. Turn, turn, turn...

Q12: Do you see any effect of internationalization of contemporary art owing to the Web?
A12: I can see clear signs of internationalization, if on a very small scale, in our own operation. Here we sit in Spain selling prints made by printmakers in Poland and China to collectors in Holland and the U.S.A., this thanks to the Web. So the short answer is yes.

The longer answer has to do with the future of Internet, which I think will be all enveloping. If I may be permitted an A-bomb metaphor, we have seen the Web's blinding flash, but we have not yet felt its terrible shock wave. I am not a futurologist, but my guess is that the World Wide Web will globalize everything to an extent that we cannot imagine today. The implication for contemporary artists? Get your digital ducks in a row, the Internet Armageddon is nigh.

Our thanks to Martha Jane Bradford
and the Boston Printmakers for their
generosity in permitting us to reprint
this interview. See their website at:
http://www.bostonprintmakers.org