about my prints

We’re talking about screen printing (serigraphy) here, though not always in its purest perfection.

Most of my prints are based on hand-made positives or graphically edited artwork – at least partly, because GIMP digital imaging is a bitch and patience has its limits. What starts out in the controlled environment of my computer, develops a life of its own in the pool, demanding alternative techniques and ending up very differently from what was intended. The inaccuracies might not comply with personal ambitions, but one can always pretend that they were part of the artistic intention. The multiple stages of printing, producing different colour shades, refuse reproduction – so each print is unique – a monotype.

Ideally, screen printing has a chameleon-like quality and graciously enables both – spontaneous art and complex techniques. The technique part involves coating the screen with a light-sensitive emulsion, covering it with an opaque motif (positive) and then exposing the screen to UV light. The UV light hardens the emulsion, except for the areas of the motif. After you wash away the remaining soft emulsion you end up with a screen that has a stencil on it (the motif). The actual print is created by using a kind of slider that pushes the ink through the fine-mesh screen, applying it to the areas not covered by the emulsion. The Museum für Druckkunst Leipzig has produced a fantastic four-minute video on this subject, which I warmly recommend.