"For me, contemporary printmaking sets up a dialogue between concept and markmaking..."

Reflections about and reactions to human relationships, life experiences, and our interaction with nature fuel the ideas which extend into my images. As a contemporary artist, I often use recognizable, traditional images abstractly or metaphorically to convey the idea in my overall image. Combining digital processes with traditional printmaking techniques provides the opportunity to incorporate my drawings, paintings, photographs, and hand-built source material with the myriad processes inherent in printmaking. My primary printmaking focus involves lithography, intaglio, and serigraphy. In my mixed media drawings, I often mix drawing/painting techniques and mixed-media collage with my hand-pulled prints. My larger works incorporate partial and total prints with hand-drawn/painted images, assembled textures, shapes, and figures.

For me, contemporary printmaking sets up a dialogue between concept and markmaking-drawing my idea is the initial step and the constant in my printmaking process; the way I draw the image to activate the matrix involves unlimited choices and energizes my hand-pulled printed image. The interplay of evolving digital/photographic technologies and techniques with age-old printmaking processes allows me to incorporate printing on and with alternative materials and tools.


- Barbara Payne Ward