World Printmakers
Newsletter, No. 8 November, 2001

New Artist, New Offer
World Printmakers' newest artist, Sabra Field, brings a small revolution along with her. Sabra, who has been selling her screen prints successfully from her own website for years, wanted to be present on World Printmakers but she wanted to deal with clients herself. Could we link to her site? This request has arisen several times over the past year or so and we've always said no. One of World Printmakers reasons for being is to sell prints ourselves. But Sabra's request prompted us to rethink. If artists insist upon requesting this type of service, our obligation is to provide it for them. That's how the new World Printmakers "Artist Direct Participation" came about. It's a fresh new flavor available from World Printmakers and it's explained on the site at: http://www.worldprintmakers.com/english/imaprin.htm.

Here's How To
We're very pleased with the response to our "call for work" in printmaking how-to's. The first two, which we publish this month, could not be more different one from the other, but both of them have surprised and delighted us. Barry Smylie, who is one of the few Canadian artists to live above a Chinese supermarket, presents us with a very personal celebration of stone lithography and the fellowship of artists.

And Maciej Deja takes us inside his mezzotint techniques, most of which he (re)invented himself during the years when Poland was a closed shop. It is a privilege to be admitted to this-I think you will agree with me-most arcane of printmaking techniques. Even the names associated with it have a mysterious ring. The Spanish call it "la manera negra," "the black way" or, even more sinister, "el método ingles," "the English method." (You doubt that the English are sinister? Are you married to one?)

Just as newsworthy this month as those who have arrived are those who have left the site. Coinciding with subscription renewal time, 20 or so artists have decided not to continue on World Printmakers. We're sincerely sorry to see them go, and we're going to miss them. Nevertheless, this little exodus has its up side for those artists who remain, who now find themselves a little bit more visible and more easily accessible on the site.

More New Stuff
There's more new stuff gestating here at World Printmakers. (I know what you're thinking. New stuff is great, but where do we find the time and resources to make it happen? Anybody who has ever raised a litter of Great Danes knows what I'm talking about!) Our informal survey of World Printmakers artists on the subject of licensing the publication rights to their images, received a positive response, so we're going ahead on that. We'll keep you posted. (Note: This is strictly voluntary, only for those artists who want to participate.)

While we were shopping around for international mailing lists (needless to say the lists we need do not exist; we're going to have to put them together ourselves…) with which to launch this new "prints-as-illustrations" initiative, it occurred to me that we might put this splendid mailing list to other uses. We might use it, for example, to promote our World Printmakers artists. We have already taken a timid step in this direction with our "World Printmakers Exhibt (and do other things)" page on the site (http://www.worldprintmakers.com/english/exhibits.htm) where we post free notices for our artists who are exhibiting, running courses, etc.

But this new promotion service will be much more ambitious, with proactive punch and worldwide reach. We want to include not only the media in these mailings, but also museums, galleries, universities, etc. We'll have this service up and running as soon as possible. We'll let you know.

The Digital-Fineart Discussion Group
I don't know how many of you are familiar with Harald Johnson's Digital-Fineart email group (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/digital-fineart). It's a lively discussion forum where digital artists get together to discuss mainly techniques, printers, papers and inks, but also other, more esoteric matters like how many angels can dance on the head of an inkjet printer. I try to have a quick lookin most every day, and it occurred to me to invite Harald and his digital crew to "put their prints where their mouths is" as it were, and put together a group show for World Printmakers. Harald, who is a gentle, constant and equanimous moderator, and a digital artist in his own right, has picked up the gauntlet, so we'll soon be seeing what these digital artists are "outputting" of late.

World Printmakers Is It's Own Archive
Before I go I'd like to remind you that the articles which we publish on World Printmakers are never lost. When they leave the homepage to make room for fresh content they still remain resident on our server and can be accessed either through the index categories at the top of the homepage or by using our search-this-site feature. To find our recent Mel Strawn article, for example, just look into the "Articles / Interviews" section. And, since Mel's retrospective is also an exhibit, you'll also find him listed under "Exhibits." Or, if you want to cut straight to the chase, enter "Mel Strawn" on the search page and you'll get a list of search results showing every place Mel appears on the site.

Nor can I sign off without mentioning the fact that visits to the World Printmakers site continue on the increase. Page views for the month of October were up over 23,000 and November thus far looks even better. Many thanks to all of you for helping us get this far. I confess I'm fascinated to see where we'll go from here. We'll soon find out.

Meanwhile, count your blessings and keep on printing!

See you next month.

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