Creativity without the Press

I have just spent a rather fantastical two days at Ochre Print Studio in Guildford. I was teaching the unusual method of plaster cast printmaking, which led to some beautiful hybrid prints created without the need of a press.

The studio is based in Surrey Choices Lockwood Centre, a day centre with various activities and support for adults with learning disabilities. The members of Surrey Choices get to partake at Ochre once a week in the PrintAble workshops, making printmaking accessible to all.

I have worked alongside adults and children with additional needs, both physical and mental, and it is always a pleasure to teach new skills and expression to groups who are incredibly open minded and open hearted. What strikes me about teaching printmaking, particularly to this sector of the community, is the response to the collaboration with the presses to produce works. There is something truly unique about printing and the reveal of the print, the unknown effect, the wondrous new effects and of course the turning of the press.

Presses firmly under covers for this workshop.

I wrote about the wonder of the printing press in a previous blog post after teaching very little ones at Dunannie school. Why they capture our imagination I am not truly sure, but they do, and it is wonderful to watch. I truly love presses, I really do. Perhaps its the engineering streak in my family that makes me drawn to these pieces of equipment. I can not help it, but when I see a press I have to peek underneath the check the bottom roller size, to twiddle the handle, to check the cogs out and to generally snoop. And to smell them. Fascinating really.

In fact it seemed to be a rather press filled two days, despite the fact I was teaching a technique that required no press turning. I had a very interesting discussion with an intern about purchasing a press (well, I found it interesting, sorry Tom if I rambled)! I had a very surreal conversation with a student about a fully working miniature intaglio 3D printed press, created through the Open Press Project, and finally had a good technical discussion about the merits of various forms of presses. And there was me not even using one, in fact I do not even have my presses set up (through being in-between studios). Giles, the wonderful Rochat, is currently in far too many pieces under our stairs, the pop-up press is ready for action but tucked away in the outhouse, the Maurice wooden press resting in the loft, the nipping press under Giles, the table top press in bits in the corner of a room lacking a table. I do occasionally look longingly at them ready for the day when they pop into action, the wheels turning, the gears greased. But one must be patient. For ironically not having a press, the main tool of the trade for a printmaker, has enable my imagination to conjure up various new and adventurous methods of utilising the print technique without the need of a press. Hand-printing is always a great option, but developing the print methods so that they can be made in part or integrated within installation/sculpture is a great challenge. In many ways, one can sometimes become lazy in mind and body if presented with all the tools and all the easy routes to produce work. It is far more fun and inventive if one has to meet a challenge. And thus, surely in many ways more creative.

A few of the plaster cast prints created at Ochre.

If on somedays I begin to feel sorry for myself regarding a lack of studio, and I hear Giles's lament, I will always return to reading the Cheap Art Manifesto from the Bread and Puppet Theatre company. Truly amazing and inspiring, and not one for manifestos, this is very special, or at least I think. Art is for Kitchens. Art is like Good Bread. Art is the Inside of the World. Working with the students at Ochre and seeing the various creative workshops the members of Surrey Choices were taking part in around the building, it really is clear that Art is the Inside of the World. And you do not need to be weighted down by the projection of the ideal – the equipment, the studio, the hours, The Artist. Creativity can occur in any situation with anything, in fact the more difficult, the more creative the outcome. So I feel a giant plaster cast looming. How I do not know. But what fun it shall be.