Considering the Environment of Print and Paper
Presentation
Overview
Overview
Description
Traditional and contemporary printmaking methods rely on substrates and matrices produced from thenatural environment, including planks of wood, quarried limestone, and precious metals like copper.Similarly, papermaking and book arts incorporate raw materials such as plant fibers of cotton, mulberry,and flax, as well as natural dyes from plants and minerals. Yet artists have an array of synthetic andmanufactured options from which to choose: blocks can be made from acrylic, plates from polymers,papers from polypropylene, and pigments from petrochemicals. Therefore, an artist's decision to usematerials rooted in the natural environment provides a conceptual backdrop for their work. The materialtransformation that takes place in the physical process of making a print, artist's book, or handmadepaper provides a fundamental connection to the content and meaning of the artwork.This panel discussion brings together book artists, papermakers, and printmakers who exploresubstrates, matrices, and materials as conceptual components of their work. For example, how does theuse of natural dyes, pigments, or fibers in papermaking allow artists to reference specific moments in ourcultural and historic landscape? How does the physicality of a print installation form a new landscapereconfigured by humans? In what ways do materials and processes enable print, paper, and book artiststo observe, create, and share ideas about the environment?
