World Printmakers Newsletter, No. 6 August, 2001

What's New at World Printmakers?

July is oven-hot here in Granada, too hot to go outside, so we hunker down in the shade of the air conditioner and work on the site. That is to say, the only thing cool round here is World Printmakers! So, what's new?

Mel Strawn is new. I discovered Mel on one of the printmaking email groups, had a look at his work and was knocked out by the breadth and depth of it, by it's utterly childlike celebration of color, by it's natural evolution from oil on canvas to digital (he calls it his "Transitions"), by his tolerant and intelligent views on the analog/digital issue. Have a look at the Mel Strawn retrospective and see if you don't agree with me.

What's happening in Chicago? David Jones is making his own small cultural revolution in the city center at Anchor Graphics. That's what's happening in Chicago. Read all about it in the second of World Printmakers' Print-Workshops-Round-the-World series.

What do you know about etching presses? You know they have legs, rollers, a bed and a wheel that goes round and round, right? What to know the rest? John Maitland Graves lays it all out for you in his definitive etching-press article: "Everything You Always Wanted to Know about Etching Presses."

First Year Wrapup
Forgive me if you've already received the following summary of World Printmakers' first year of activity, but I'd hate you to miss it. I'm proud of what we've achieved in our first year and I'd like to share it with you. I don't know if you remember our mission statement: "… to provide a specialist space where printmakers from all countries can show their work to its best advantage and offer it for sale to a worldwide audience. To provide efficient, honest and trustworthy services to print collectors. And to become, with time, the 'site of record' in the printmaking world." I'm proud to say we're on our way.

Does this mean that we're all going to get rich quick on Internet? No, it doesn't mean that. The quick-money days on Internet are past. As we see it the rewards to be reaped in the virtual world are just like those of the real world: the fruit of hard work, constancy, honesty and excellence. That's our formula for success. It's based on long-term dedication, first and foremost to the needs and aspirations of printmakers, both traditional and digital, from around the world.

Meeting the Needs of Printmakers
Printmakers, like all working artists, need information and encouragement. They need to exchange recipes and points of view. They need to see what their colleagues are doing in other parts of the world. They need exhibit space and sales. They need to find sponsorship for their enterprises and partners for their projects. They need defending in the face of fraudulent and disloyal competition in a cutthroat art market. World Printmakers is actively addressing all of these issues.

For art collectors, of both the experienced and the emerging variety, World Printmakers offers an ongoing didactic and cultural program. "What is a fine-art print, anyway?" "Is it an original?" "What is an edition? "How is it numbered?" "Why is it numbered?" "What is meant by 'hand pulled'?" "Can a digital image be a fine-art print?" "Is a giclee copy of an original watercolor a fine-art print?"

As you can see, it can get complicated. Printmakers themselves are not all in agreement on many of these questions, and everybody, artists and collectors alike, needs information and discussion in order to form considered opinions. That's what World Printmakers is trying to do. By fomenting this discourse we hope to help create more knowledgeable art buyers with a deeper appreciation of prints and printmakers, and with the necessary discernment to reject imitations, trickery, misrepresentation and other manifestations of the fine-art of print fraud.

R-E-S-P-E-C-T

Here at World Printmakers we feel that fine-art printmaking deserves some respect, both for its distinguished 500-year history, and for its passionate present. We are convinced that printmaking is to art what the string quartet is to music: the quintessence. And it's there to be enjoyed by those people who know how to appreciate it. We aren't talking about widgets, after all, we're talking about art. We think there's an important difference, and we're betting on the proposition that there are a lot of other people round the world who recognize this difference and feel this same respect.

Since its inception in June of last year World Printmakers has:
1. Created a site which provides a "home" for printmaking people and issues worldwide.
2. Furnished it with authoritative information related to printmaking history and techniques, print conservation and authentification.
3. Achieved top listings in the principal search engines.
4. Published the work of 108 artists from 25 countries.
5. Created an online gallery for commercialising their prints.
6. Launched a "full disclosure" campaign to protect and promote the rights of legitimate fine-art printmakers.
7. Led the print-fraud debate worldwide in forums both on and offline, forums like Art on Paper and Art Matters magazines, like the "digital-fineart" and "printmakers" web discussion groups.
8. Hosted the virtual exhibit of a major U.S.-university print show, "The Homeostatic Portfolio," curated by professor Bradlee Shanks of the University of South Florida.
9. Created a free zone for Young Printmakers.
10. Opened its pages to the digital printmaking community with introductory articles and presentations of digital artists.
11. Initiated discussion on the subject of specialist papers and materials.
12. Created the World Printmakers Forums to promote the interchange of ideas among printmakers and print lovers.
13. And there's more to come: a full e-commerce solution to facilitate print purchases, agreements with major paper and materials suppliers by which we will all benefit, new streamlining of site design, a big juried competition …

The message seems to be spreading. The following represents the progression of visitors to the World Printmakers site (page views) over its first year of existence:

June 2000 - 96 page views
July 2000 - 814
August 2000 - 1,260
September 2000 - 7,753
October 2000 - 9,403
November 2000 - 8,817
December 2000 - 7,281
January 2001 - 12,527
February 2001 - 10,860
March 2001 - 13,556
April 2001 - 20,071
May 2001 - 18,788
June 2001 - 35,800 page views

So much for the first year, we're determined to approach the coming year with the same enthusiasm and dedication on everybody's behalf, artists, collectors and advertisers. World Printmakers, it seems, is taking off, and we'd like to thank you for coming along with us on the trip. See you next month!

Mike Booth
Coordinator
World Printmakers
miguel@worldprintmakers.com http://www.worldprintmakers.com