Screen prints are achieved by using a squeegee to draw ink acrossa screen which has open and blocked areas. The ink that lands on the paper has been pushed through the open areas of the screen. 

Relief prints are created by carving into a piece of wood or linoleum, then using a roller or brayer to roll ink onto the flat surface. The carved areas will not print. This is a selection of linocuts and woodblock prints, created using a variety of methods.

In the intaglio printing process, the ink is pressed into the recesses of the plate, then wiped off of the surface. Paper (soaked in water and blotted) is placed on top of the inked plate and run through a press at reasonably high pressure.

One of the older forms of intaglio, the mezzotint process takes patience. A copper plate is pitted fully (using a mezzotint "rocker") so that it prints entirely black, then the plate is burnished to flatten the copper in areas desired to be light, or white. With mezzotint, the artist can achieve dark and white areas, with a full gradient of shades between.

Other forms of intaglio include etching (which uses a chemical bath to etch the exposed surfaces of the metal plate), drypoint (physical scratching of the plate surface), engraving, sugar lift, "spit" bite,  or a combination of these techniques. The printing method is essentially the same for all of these.

This is a collection of prints created from a variety of methods. Photopolymer plates are coated with light-sensitive emulsion and exposed to light, which leaves an impression on the surface of the plate. These are printed just like other intaglio plates.

Monoprints can be created using a number of different methods, by painting directly on a plexiglass sheet and run through a press, or using selective inking and or wiping methods to obtain the desired effect.

White Sands image concept:

It was during 2023 that Karl Whitaker suggested to a small group of printmakers that we embark on a print exhibition focusing on the history of New Mexico.

In 2021, national attention in the scientific community descended on White Sands when fossilized human trackways were radiocarbon dated to be made between 21,000 – 23,000 years ago. This discovery has challenged the long-established theory that the Clovis people were the first to set foot in the Americas.  A few years later, in 2023, the film “Oppenheimer” brought popular national attention to the history of the detonation of the first atomic bomb, also in White Sands, NM.

These events enabled us to think about White Sands in a cross-section of sorts, both through place and time. We can see in one image the footprints, fossils and beings of ancient times alongside modern-age creations, beings and natural phenomena, as envisioned by three colleague artists.

By conceptualizing our past, we can understand the brevity of our own existence while holding hope that modern human society will learn from the past with a focus on the future.