I went for the Professional Practices for this assignment. I attended an event here at Lane. The event was titled Print makers of the Northwest. I have no experience in printmaking. so I thought to myself this would be an interesting talk to hear and maybe learn something from. I believe we have all heard of printmaking but I was unaware of the process or perks of doing printmaking. The talk was lead by Susan Lowdermilk and Tallmadge Doyle, they are both very experienced in printmaking. Both artists have been doing this work for years. Susan and Tallmadge have taught many classes and workshops about the process of printmaking and how you can use printmaking for many things. Susan is an instructor here at Lane, she teaches a printmaking class that you can make pop-up books in. Tallmadge use to be an instructor here at Lane and at UO.  They each explained their favorite techniques on how they liked to make prints, and they discussed the many other ways prints can be created. Susan and Tallmadge I believe do most of their work on woodblock, where they use different tools to carve out their piece. They discussed how each print maker like many other art forms use a special technique that forms an individual image for themselves. It is quite a process, and they explained it as almost being mysterious being able to lift up the paper you printed on and seeing the final product. First, you have to gather the materials you need. Prints are kind of like stamps, I think of printmaking as similar to stamps. You make grooves or etch into a platform. Your platform could be a piece of plexiglass, piece of rubber, a copper plate, or a block of wood. After you think you are finished you fill the grooves with ink and then you lay a piece of paper over whatever platform you are using and the paper soaks in the ink from the grooves. It is all done by hand too, you can incorporate different art forms into one piece like drawing to etch out your platform, or painting for the color mixing. We were surrounded by prints, at the event. Every direction you looked there was a print hanging next to a print that was made using a totally different technique. Some prints were mixed media, that used watercolor and the process of printmaking. Others blended colors in a way I couldn’t understand, until Susan and Tallmadge explained. The prints that were being shown were part of the Non Profit organization One thing that really caught my attention about printmaking was the fact that you can create multiple originals. Multiple originals that are handmade, Its not very common in the many different types of art. Susan had told us that she probably had at least one print if not more of each of the prints she has ever created. To be able to keep an original copy of each of your works kind of intrigued me. I wish I could have been able to have a original of almost every piece of my own artwork.

By: Nieman Adams-Jackson