The Siamese Print Shop

Above picture was a trial print to see whether I could produce some graphic prints here. Why not? But it was very difficult to explain my goal to the print shop staff. They are very typical Asian what comes to work. They would require a 100% sample of what is needed. I am used to more lenient way of working where the printer has his opinion (as an expert) how the work should be done.
Many people seem to undervalue the importance of printmaking – mostly probably because they don’t have a clue how difficult it is. There are so many choices to be made and it all starts from cutting down the options. The choice of technique, methods used, colors to be mixed and all kinds of things varing from the choice of paper to the hangover of the artist may greatly affect the results. Normally, one can see quite easily what is a good print, but determining why is another, more difficult question.
I, myself, am part of the old European tradition that I actually can print my own images if I wish to do so. So many artists nowadays use someone else to come up with their graphic work. No wrong with that but it also makes them believe – wrongly – that printing is just shifting images to another media. This is a common mistake since so many don’t have a clue what is the printing process itself. We are used to using photoshop and digital printer. Okay, that’s fine what comes to our daily needs but I am talking about a bit more sophisticated thing here. European printmaking is well alive and has a very long history. Granted, normally the artists start to use the older machinery since they are cheaper but they do not necessarily lack of quality. The most expensive part of printing is the color – the pigment in color to be clear. Many new machines use very little color to save money. Simple as that and as a result we get more anorectic and bloodless images. Many modern (or should I say postmodern?) printmakers don’t even know what is a quality print. The schools are concentrating on commercial demands and forgetting that narrow margin of true quality.
Happily, though, I have seen very good quality stuff at local Asian expos. They really seem to have that customer niche that demands quality as well. I believe that it is actually easier to get your prints made here up to that maximum wanted. As long as you have that 100% example, of course...