Memory Lane

First relief print, 2002

I have been working on getting my Etsy shop open again after years of sitting idle (www.nappingcatpress.etsy.com) and I found an old box full of artefacts from my first years of printmaking. What a fun and frustrating time -- fun, because every day was. Like exploring Mars. Frustrating because, being self taught, I had no idea what I was doing right, or wrong; troubleshooting an issue and wondering if the solution was just a simple fix, but instead working dozens of ideas that jus led to more problems. Ironically, it was this tenacity and outlier thinking that has made me exceptional at my day job.

But if I could start over, I'd do it the exact same way, just with more tenacity. I have a pretty thick portfolio from 20 years of printmaking, but it really should be 10X as thick.

The print shown is the very first relief print I ever did. After dreaming about block printing, I got books from the library. One suggested carving and printing with potatoes. This was the result, and I was hooked.