DIGITAL PRINTING ON KOZO

Last year I was invited to participate in an exhibition sponsored by the Women's Caucus for Art titled Elements 2000. It was held at seven locations around New York City this spring, including Silicon Gallery, a digital printmaking studio and gallery in Dumbo, Brooklyn.

Since my proposed work was digital, I worked with Silicon Gallery to produce the work for the exhibition. Adina Segal and Michal Smith, the proprietors, are interested in working with artists who want to experiment with new approaches to digital printing.

I have spent the last few years printing with traditional Japanese woodcut technique. The paper is an important aspect of this kind of waterbase printing. Moku Hanga is printed by hand with a baren on damp Washi, handmade Japanese Paper. It is strong when wet and retains its moisture for even printing and good registration. Washi for printing must be slightly sized so the color doesn't bleed, but stays where the woodblock presses the color into the paper.

It was my experience with Japanese paper for woodcut that made me decide to use Kozo Misumi (DHM 11) for this digital project. The requirements for digital printing are similar to those of waterbase woodcut. Digital printing is done on dry paper, but liquid color is applied to the paper in both approaches, so the paper must be slightly sized, or it will soak up color like a blotter.

Big Bang (Fire) and Big Bang (Ice) are digital collages I created on my computer. I transferred them to zip discs and took them and my washi to the gallery for printing. The Iris printer is a large format, high resolution digital printer that can use archival inks. It took some proofing to adjust the color because the Iris printer is so different from a desktop inkjet printer, and the Kozo Misumi (DHM 11) is so different from ink jet paper. In general, the color on the washi was softer and less saturated, with more subtle variations visable.

I wanted the most physical feeling possible for this digital work. Changes in humidity between Japan and New York made the paper buckle so it was necessary to flatten it before printing. Then Adina and Michal attached the paper to the drum of the printer with double sided tape so it could be printed all the way over the deckle. The pronounced deckle edge gave it an even more sculptural feeling. For the exhibitions the prints were float framed to show the whole sheet.

The final prints are rich in color and have a tactile, dimensional presence I wanted for images about the beginning of the universe.

Color details in this work can be seen on my website at www.aprilvollmer.com. Silicon Gallery Fine Art Prints Ltd. Can be reached at (718) 237-0606, website www.fineartprint.com.

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