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This
summer I celebrate my 30th anniversary as a serigraph printmaker.
Thirty years of being attached to
a squeegee and getting dirty with ink prompted me to be indulgent
and reflect about the early days of my journey.
In the
summer of 1979 I was as a college senior anxious to finish my degree
at Oneonta State College, NY. I chose to do some independent study
in serigraphy, commonly known as silkscreen printmaking. For four
hot July weeks I did nothing but work on prints. I had the printmaking
studio to myself and would work every weekday from 8 AM to 4 PM
(I considered this my "summer job" ).
I enjoyed being alone with my thoughts and becoming familiar in
what would turn out to be my area of focus for the next thirty years.
My
early works were inspired by screenprints I had seen that spring
by Alex Katz and Richard Estes. My printmaking teacher, Ms. Burmeister,
would check up on my progress and occasionally give me feedback.
I felt, however, that she was cutting me loose and giving me a chance
to explore my craft independently. At twenty years old I was discovering
what it meant to be a serious printmaker. At the end
of the summer I had a small body of work that I used to try to get
into Grad School. More importantly, I had my first experience with
the pleasures and pains of being a printmaker. I had worked hard
to produce a series of prints that reflected my vision. I had met
the challenges of the medium and had been bitten by the bug hard
enough to continue on for another thirty years.
-William
Mitchell, June 2009
Pictured
on the left,student work from the summer of 1979
From
top to bottom: Winter Shadows, 8C Vine
Street,
Cars at Hampton Beach,and Brett.
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