Question:
How did you get into Internet publishing and why did you choose printmaking as
your subject?
Answer: I've always
been a freelance journalist, though I have strayed into other things over the
years. A couple of years ago I had just sold my telephone-wine-sales business
and was looking for something new to do. I was fascinated with Internet and was
casting about for a suitable subject around which to build a Web business. Maureen,
my wife, partner, printmaker and muse, suggested I do something on the subject
of printmaking. So, here we are today. If
you're American, how is it that World Printmakers is produced in Spain?
Do you think a southern European location offers a good vantage point from which
to observe printmaking worldwide?
I grew up in Michigan, but I left the States when I got out of the Army,
hitchhiked around Europe a bit, then discovered Spain. It was like coming home,
and I've been here ever since. I met Maureen (who's from Manchester, U.K.) here,
made a home and today we've got Spanish friends, kids, grandchildren, dogs, cats,
the works. We actually adopted Spanish nationality back in the eighties, so we've
got Spanish passports, too. As
for the vantage point, I may be the wrong person to ask that question. I think
a "southern European location" is good for everything! The world is
big, it's only the Internet which permits us even to try to get a grip on it.
World Printmakers' greatest strength is its network of collaborators
and three quarters of them come from the World Wide Web. I also like the European
location for establishing a truly worldwide orientation. I don't think a truly
universal World Printmakers could have arisen or prospered in New
York or California. I think the traditionally endogenous (from the Greek "endogama,"
"bellybutton") American point of view obviates that possibility. 
How
does World Printmakers find the artists who participate in the site?
The truth is that nowadays, with very few exceptions, they find us. In the
beginning we sent out some e-mailings to artists we found on the Web, but now
that we're well known, printmakers write asking how to participate. Actually the
submission procedure is published on the site (http://www.worldprintmakers.com/english/imaprin.htm)
but everybody seems to write and ask, nevertheless.
What countries are they from?
At
last count they were from thirty-some countries. The largest representation of
artists is the Americans becaue they were the first to understand and use the
Internet. But we also have Brits, Scots and Irish, Germans, Canadians, Spanish,
Australians, Chinese, Turks, Japanese...
You
also sell prints on the site. What countries are your print-buying clients from?
What kind of people are they?
World Printmakers currently receives visits from more than
130 countries. Again, our most important print-buying client country is the U.S.A.
for the same reason. But we also receive orders from all over Europe and the Americas,
as well as Australia, Hong Kong and Japan. As for types of people, it's a mix
of the general population, though we do receive a surprising number of orders
from artists themselves. What's
the most rewarding thing about publishing a printmaking website?
I think it's the contact with the artists. I get the satisfaction one gets
from building an art collection, but with the added incentive of getting to know
the artists and actually working with them. That's a tremendous privilege. 
What
is the down side?
The "down side," as you put it, is largely past. It was the long
period before World Printmakers attained critical mass in terms
of visits, activity, credibility and sales. There was a time, round the end of
the first year, when I was feeling the way Columbus must have felt the day before
he sighted land at San Salvador. What
do you consider to be the role of Internet for printmakers and other artists?
Potent question this, and I should preface my answer by admitting that I'm
biased. I'm an Internet tent-revival preacher, have been from the early days.
I know in my heart that the Internet will set you free, brothers and sisters.
I think a Web presence for visual artists is essential. At the very least it's
a catalog of an artist's work which can be accessed from anywhere in the world
at any time of day. Think for a minute of the implications of just that one feature.
It's ubiquitous and instantaneous, as well as ridiculously cheap. People
used to think that the Internet was about computers. It's not that at all, any
more than automobiles are about pistons. (When's the last time you saw your car's
pistons?) Just as automobiles are about travel, Internet is about communication
and, coincidentally, that's what the visual arts are all about. Artists and Internet
are condemned inexhorably to understand one another. What
changes do you forsee for the role of Internet in the next three or four years?
The essence of Internet is, of course, change, and rapid change at that.
So it's not easy to make predictions. I do think that the Web will re-inforce
its credibility as a marketplace; a lot more goods will be sold online. A tremendous
amount of art has always been sold sight unseen even before the Internet appeared
on the scene. Dealers relied on solid guarantees of provenance and reliable business
relationships to put their money down. The same thing will happen overwhelmingly
on the Web, I think. 
How
necessary is it for an artist's career for him or her to be present on the Web?
This question is easy to answer: An artist who's not on the Web doesn't exist.
It's as simple as that.
What's the most important lesson you've learned about Internet publishing in
your World Printmakers experience?
I've learned that a Website is very much an ongoing affair, like horticulture.
When you stop fertilizing, pruning, cultivating, treating and irrigating your
trees they wither and die. It's the other side of that coin which is beautiful,
almost miraculous: when you care for them lovingly they appreciate it immensely
and grow lush and decorate and enrich your life. This goes for a website, just
as it does for an apple tree. How
do you feel about digital art. Is it proper printmaking?
I think the best answer to this question is a citation from Ralph Lombreglia
which our friend, Raymond St. Arnaud
quotes at the bottom of all his e-mails: "The proper artistic response to
digital technology is to embrace it as a new window on everything that's eternally
human, and to use it with passion, wisdom, fearlessness and joy." I can't
think of a better way of expressing it. Of course printmaking is going to have
to create a space for digital work, just as it created a space 500 years ago for
intaglio work. World Printmakers dispenses equal treatment to both
traditional and digital prints, and I think they both enrich the site enormously.
I find it interesting that some of the most wonderful work we're seeing of late
is that which mixes traditional and digital techniques. What
do you consider to be the main issues in printmaking today?
I think the main issue is authenticity, and I'm adamant on the subject. Try
doing a search on Google for "fine art prints," and out of the first
50 results there probably aren't three who are offering a genuine fine-art print!
This is outrageous and intolerable. That unscrupulous and half-scrupulous dealers
should so freely apply the term "fine-art print" or even "print"
to their posters and reprographic reproductions is a terrible offense to true
printmakers, both traditional and digital. As if the art-buying public weren't
confused enough already, they have to confuse them even more! It's plain fraud
and should be dealt with as such. 
What
recommendations do you have for people who are interested in starting a collection
of contemporary fine-art prints?
I think the only way to get to know and love prints is to look at as many
of them as one can. It's like any other learning process: get
a book on it. Start frequenting art museums and galleries. Consult
people who are already involved. Internet, of course, simplifies this
process greatly; there's a lot of information on fine-art prints instantly
available there. The upshot of this process will be your first print purchases.
Don't be in a hurry. Once you form a relationship with a reliable dealer,
whether on the street or online, and you find that he informs you properly
and treats you right, stick with him. If he's honest and knows his business
he's your best guarantee. I'd like to think that honest reliable print
dealer is World Printmakers, and you are invited to our
site at: http://www.worldprintmakers.com,
but in all fairness, there are others out there.
How
important do you think art is in our day-to-day lives.
Answer: It's a question of what one thinks is important, isn't it. I don't
think money or posessions or power are very important, but I think art
is essential to a meaningful life. I actually wrote an article on what
I thought was important and called it "The
Lap of Luxury." It was unabashedly self indulgent to publish
it on a fine-art-print site, as it's probably grossly out of place here,
but one of the very basic luxuries is self indulgence, isn't it?
Why
prints as opposed to painting or sculpture?
Lots of reasons. Prints are less expensive and therefore more democratic.
Prints are magical, subject to what German
printmaker, René Böll calls "the alchemy" of printmaking,
which never ceases to bewitch and surprise even printmakers themselves. Then too,
Maureen, my muse and helpmate is a printmaker. Do
you have other projects in the offing?
I always have "other projects in the offing." My dream for the
last 10 years has been to promote a televillage here in southern Spain with homes
and offices designed for distance working. I see it as combination campus/laboratory
for business and technology projects in a rich-life setting. Contrary to popular
belief, Thomas Edison's most important invention wasn't the electric light bulb,
it was the industrial pure-research laboratory! I have always been fascinated
to see what would happen if one got together a group of brilliant kids in a propitious
setting. We shall see. Is
there anything you'd like to add to these comments?
Yes,
one: ¡Viva el grabado! Interview
© Loren Sedgebear
August, 2002 Download
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