Before Graham Nash started Nash Editions painters had few options for making limited editions of their original art. Screen printing, referred to as serigraphy by art professionals, was expensive and time-consuming. The fine art screen printing process prior to the ’90′s involved skilled artisans who painstakingly created “flats” (transparencies overlaid on the original art) having the brushstrokes for each subtle color reproduced to clear mylar film. A separate transparency for each color. We’re talking 30-50 colors of ink (each with it’s own piece of film representing that particular color (of ink) laid down prior to engaging the printers.

With the advent of the Iris proofing system the age of digital printmaking was born. Skilled photographers and experts in Adobe Photoshop could photograph or scan an artists’s painting, and using Photoshop, change the color of an entire selection or a single pixel. When the proofs met the artist’s approval the edition was printed.

A project that would have taken 3 months and over $30,000 would now take a few weeks and cost a fraction of price. I serigraphy each sheet of paper was printed one color at a time’ that’s why it took months! Registration is another matter all together. I screen printing quite a few prints get printed with a color mis-aligned one one or more colors. These boo-boos have to be destroyed; that;’s why an edition of 75 probably begins with over 100 sheets of paper!

Another feature of Iris printmaking, which in the hands of a skilled artisan like Jack Duganne, who was hired by Nash Editions because of his background in traditional screen printing, was the ability to print one or two or five without incurring the set-up time of a 300 sheet run. With the Iris printer we could make a print or two and come back later and print a few more. Notes were always kept on limited edition prints so exact information could kept for curating purposes, insuring accuracy and ethical respect.

Hello World!

This is my first trip down the blogger’s trail. Our studio, Thunderbird Editions was founded in 1994 with the help of Jon Cone, who introduced us to Iris digital printmaking. It was almost like falling down a deep rabbit hole. There have been many adventures, which I hope to chronicle here in our blog.

I’ve met many interesting characters and made a lot of great friends in the art world. Check back often and I’ll write about my career in art, photography, printmaking and all things digital. I’ve experienced the whole thing as analog and participated in it all becoming digital.

Join me and read about my life-long quest to learn about art, the people who make it, show it, and the collaborative system of ateliers and printmakers.