I Heart Art

Every time I go to the Torpedo Factory, I am infused with the creativity of those who work and display their creations there. I want to do something splendid like the beautiful prints I saw today.

The Temple Micah Lunch Bunch outing today was to the studio of Isabel Field, a printmaker of many years. We got to see first-hand just why good prints cost so much, as she went through the many steps necessary to create a multi-color work of art and often one that is reproducible in quantities of 20, 30, or even 50. She talked about how painters originally showed a disdain for printmakers, putting them on a lower rung of the art ladder. But today printmakers are recognized as being on par with the finest artists in the world.

It’s the interplay of color and shading and shape and texture that makes the prints we saw so interesting. Some artists even choose to vary the color in the reproductions of the same print.

I found it just a little sad that the wooden block for the print must be destroyed after the requisite number of prints has been made so that it cannot be further used. It is slashed in a way that is supposed to render it unusable. The artist talked about once buying a Chagall print for $50 only to discover later that it had been illegally reproduced from a slashed block.

Seeing all the possibilities this art medium holds made me want to take a class in printmaking. The Torpedo Factory offers excellent instruction for all levels and ages of students through its Art League School. My friend Celia and I had been hoping to take a class there and it may well now be printmaking. Who knows? Maybe there’s a Grandma Moses in all of us just waiting to emerge!