Printers are often looking for inventive ways to push the printmaking medium. Searching for revolutionary techniques to use with artists in the studio is part of the role (and the fun) of being a master printer. Over time, the digital revolution has made its way into the printmaking studio, changing the way the intaglio plate is made, but not the way it is printed: by hand. Today, it is commonplace to use a flat bed digital printer to put a photographic image onto a copper plate, which is much faster and easier than photogravure, an ancient technique that requires a dark room and a lot of expertise.
FLATBED DIGITAL PRINTING IN THE PRINT STUDIO:
1. Flatbed digital printer prints Chuck Close’s: Kate Moss photographic image onto a lithography plate.
2. A flatbed digital print of Kate Moss on copper plate.
3. Etched image of Close’s Kate Moss in the process of being inked.
Photographs courtesy of Magnolia Press, Oakland CA
In 1997, Deborah Oropallo came to make prints in our studio. The digital revolution was revving up, but not typically used in the etching studio. At that time, Deborah was making large layered paintings by using a silkscreen to squeegee an image over and over onto a large prepared canvas. In effect, she was creating these richly layered repetitive images using a printmaking technique. So when Deborah came to the press, we prepared several silkscreens in advance to use in the studio to make her etchings. When completed, Deborah’s images are, in effect, prints within prints.
For her paintings, Deborah would use a “positive screen,” squeegeeing the image with paint right on to her canvas. Intaglio requires using a “negative reverse screen” so that asphaltum can be squeegeed onto the copper plate, protecting the non-image area from the bite of the acid. If text is involved, the text must be reversed so that once the plate is printed, the words read correctly.
Deborah Oropallo: Recoil, 1999
Coupon, 1997 is an example of the silkscreen technique involving text. It was the first time I had used the silkscreen method with an artist. What makes this print so lush is the combination of Deborah’s crisscross composition of coupon tickets, infused with numerous thin layers of delicate spit-bites and aquatints. This small but rich print was made with nine plates.
Deborah Oropallo: TRACE, 1999
When Deborah returned two years later, we used the silkscreen technique again to create four stunning large color prints: Recoil, Trace, Post Rank, and Post Central.
Deborah Oropallo: Post Rank, 1999
I asked Deborah to talk a little about her images. She explained that she has always been inspired by looking at the things she sees everyday: items found in her studio and her house. The ivy from Trace graces her backyard, the rope from Recoil lies coiled in her studio. Banisters found in Post Rank and Post Central line her stairway. The layering and use of these domestic scenes removes them from everyday life as they take on a new meaning—the same way the rich layering of a simple coupon found cast away in back of a desk drawer suddenly feels like a glimmer of hope and a token of luck.
Deborah Oropallo: Coupon, 1997