When was the last time we had the satisfaction of discovering an important new voice? This is it.

We received an email the other day from Stephen A. Fredericks of the New York Society of Etchers, touting us on a young satirical artist called Louis Netter. I go dutifully along to the website and discover what I submit is an important new voice in contemporary American discourse, one of the most cogent.

Netter's not-to-be-missed images are pregnant with form, content, conviction, indignation... It was only when I recovered from being poleaxed by the power of the images that I realized that the medium for these rabidly contemporary social statements is neither video nor Internet. It's our best-loved medium, etching, the medium of Dürer, Rembrandt and Goya. You can see some of the work accompanying this interview with Louis Netter. I promise you won't be left indifferent.

Uruguayan artist and professor, Luis Camnitzer, is a thinker as well as a printmaker.

Luis Camnitzer, sustains in his essay, Printmaking, a Colony of the Arts, that printmakers have spent recent years drowning in technique, a trend which has permitted artists of other media to relegate them to a secondary status, and then "colonize" them.

We found his discourse fascinating and tremendously relevant. He raises printmaking issues which might not have occurred to most of us, or we have forgotten about, issues which demand "thinking out of the kitchen."

Camitzer's essay reminded us, among other things, of the writings of another of our favorite Uruguayans, the journalist and activist, Eduardo Galeano, who is also concerned about "colonization." Camnitzer is in excellent company. Have a look at his essay here.

Start with 296 linocuts...

When British linocut artist, Mark Andrew Webber decided to create an animation, he did what came naturally. He carefully planned his storyboard, sketched the 296 frames he needed for the full video, transferred the sketches onto linoleum, and sat down to carve 296 linocuts.

Isn't this a rather labor-intensive way to go about creating an animation? Frankly, yes, but Webber has never been one to take the easy way out. The results of this long and laborious process are certainly unique, so much so that he had to invent a name for the procedure. He calls it "linomation." Have a look here, and see if it doesn't inspire you to sit down and make a few hundred linocuts and animate them!

Maureen Booth suggests the Open-Studio option.

Maureen Booth, World Printmakers co-founder, relates some of her experiences with art galleries over a 40-year career, and proposes an alternate idea for artists who need to sell their work.

The secret, according to Maureen, is to bypass the galleries, thereby saving one's self not only their commission, but potentially tons of grief. Her formula is to mount her exhibits in her own studio. She calls them "Open Studios," and has been successful with them for many years. Now she's in the process of "systematizing" the open-studio scheme to make it more effective. Read the story here.

A spinoff of this effort is a new World Printmakers sister site called Cut the Gallery Out of the Picture. It's an artist-participation site where any artist can tell his or her own story and propose their own creative alternatives to the gallery route.

Note: Maureen still has a few openings available for her summer printmaking workshops. More information here.

Found Objects on the WWW

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