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New Directions In Printmaking

Printmakers worldwide will welcome the publication of a new multimedia DVD by Nik Semenoff entitled New Directions In Printmaking: the technical side - A personal journey into safer printmaking.

Nik’s treatise is the culmination of a life’s work of research into a wide range of techniques that both reveals his often idiosyncratic approach to problem-solving as well as including many of the innovations that have become widely accepted as standard print studio practice: often without due recognition of his outstanding contributions to modern printmaking.

For those familiar with Nik’s research and teaching methods the style and content of his writing will come as no surprise. For others I can only caution that this is not a dry academic text. If anything, it is an exhortation to dare to experiment and push your technical and artistic boundaries to the limit.

The DVD itself is a series of linked PDF format files and as such is primarily text-based. Nik writes in a very personal conversational style. What draws you in is his obvious passion for the subject matter: be it a discourse in the historical development of a particular technique or the trials and tribulations of his own experiments to produce either quicker or safer or simply downright different ways of creating that magical transfer of ink from plate to paper.

However, what truly sets this work apart from recent print publications is Nik’s decision to release a DVD packed with embedded images and video that illustrate his argument. Many of the images are taken from his personal print library and when it comes to print room technique then, in addition to step-by-step text guides, we have video of Nik demonstrating at first hand. As the late Ross Zirkle and Tamarind Master Printmaker points out in his Forward, ‘This book is like your own personal guided trip to Nik Semenoff’s home and laboratory’.

If I have one reservation about the content it is that it necessarily relies on materials and products readily available to Nik in Canada. This is, however, a minor quibble for, as we have found at the Green Door Open Access Printmaking Studio here in Derby, Nik’s notes are sufficiently detailed to enable the reader to discover comparable UK alternatives. Indeed, if this DVD gets the distribution it deserves, then it will not be long before comparative lists are available across the internet.

One section of the DVD to recommend it is his research into waterless lithography. Although, as Nik explains, the original development of dry lithography as a commercial process dates to the 1970s it is his own work that has largely enabled this process to become part of the studio-based printmaker’s repertoire of techniques. Through personal email contact with Nik, members at Green Door have been able to explore his techniques at a weekly Driography group and can vouch that the techniques now made available through this DVD release can be quickly put into practice by artists new to lithography.

Green Door highly recommends New Directions In Printmaking: The Technical Side which is published by Dragonfly Productions, Saskatoon, SK, Canada.

Dave Johnson

Green Door Open Access Printmaking Studio