Trying Times
It's been a trying couple of months around here. We were profoundly shaken by the bombing of the Madrid commuter trains by Islamic militants. The people of Spain, the vast majority of whom were against their country's participation in the occpation of Iraq, deserved better, I think.

Inevitably, the same old question arises: "What to do?" For my part, I'll be dedicating some of my time to collaborating with the Granada-based Legado Andalusí (Legacy of Al-Andalus), a foundation dedicated to cross-cultural understanding between the Muslim and Occidental worlds. Andalusia is the logical home for an initiative like this, as the people of southern Spain share 800 years of history with the Moslems, who arrived here in the year 711 and didn't leave till they were expelled by the armies of Ferdinand and Isabella in 1492.

It's an Annual Event
We also had our annual computer crisis last month. That was also great for moral. Though we lost our email address books, we managed to recover most of them, with the exception of our newsletter mailing lists, which somehow evaporated into thin air. (So, if you don't receive this newsletter by email, that's why...) On the other hand, the Spanish say "No hay mal que por bien no venga..." "Nothing bad ever happens which doesn't bring something good..." When the dust had more or less settled I found myself with a new computer and a new insight: Happiness is a gigabyte of RAM.

A few months ago Martha Jane Bradford who, besides being a fine digital printmaker, is the editor of the Boston Printmakers Newsletter, suggested that she do an interview with me for their spring issue. It has just been published, and the board members of BP have very graciously granted us permission to publish it on World Printmakers.

Martha is a patient and skillful interrogator and she persuaded me to talk perhaps a bit too much (my specialty, according to my helpmate). Again, we're giving you the entire, uncensored version so as you can make up your own minds. It even includes a section which Martha edited out of her newsletter for modesty's sake, as I discuss one of her own prints, but we include it in our unexpurgated version. So, have a look and see what you think.

We've prevailed upon our restorer friend, Pedro Barbáchano, once again, asking him to go a bit deeper into the subject of print conservation, this time on the subject of framing for conservation. According to Pedro, the best prescription is preventive medicine: If your artwork is important for you, whether for monetary or sentimental reasons, frame it so that it is safeguarded against all eventualities. But be aware from the beginning that it's going to cost you some extra money.

Pedro's article is actually written for professional framers, so it goes into a lot of detail, perhaps too much for some of our readers, but we have given you the unabridged version, on the off chance that some of you may be interested in all of the finer details. I confess that I am fascinated by the fact that there may be little animals tunneling through the back sides of the prints which are hanging on our walls, whose tunnels, though so tiny that they are invisible from the front, may be destroying the paper from behind. Or that such a simple measure as placing some spacers between a picture frame and the wall can protect the artwork from dampness, thereby extending its life. (We would appreciate a bit of feedback on this article. Do you consider it overkill or useful documentation for World Printmakers readers?)

We have all had cherished teachers. (My favorite was a seventh-grade English teacher, Mrs. Horn, a cross between a ramrod-straight martinet and a kindly silver-haired grandmother who was a stickler for presenting things in "outline form" and is, I suspect, largely responsible for the design and content of this website.)

The master lithographer, Bohuslav Horak, was Cheryl Mount Dubrok's beloved mentor at the University of Houston, and when he died recently she was moved to do something to perpetuate his memory. She wrote us, and we are pleased to publish this month Cheryl's personal homage to a memorable teacher and printmaker.

See you next month. In the meantime, count your blessings and ¡Viva el grabado!

Mike & Maureen Booth
Editors & Publishers
World Printmakers
The Worldwide Showcase for
Contemporary Fine-Art Printmakers
URL: http://www.worldprintmakers.com
Email: contact@worldprintmakers.com

P.S. Spring is in the air and the annual flurry of wedding invitations is upon us. Why not order a half dozen prints from World Printmakers now and solve all your wedding gift problems at once?!