Digital BW, The Print

--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@y..., ncm <ncm@m...> 
wrote:
> I used the PiezographyBW inks and driver on fine art paper 
(Torchon, in 
> this case) for my exhibition prints and called them "Carbon 
Pigment 
> Prints". When people asked for more info I explained the 
process in 
> detail.


I think this touches more on my concern (read: fear). Nina's 
description above somehow would almost make you think that 
there's no computer involved. I think that's the big devaluing 
component of this in many people's eye -- "Oh, it was done with 
a computer, huh...?" 

I'm not apologetic in any way that I work on a computer, but I'd 
think there's a general belief system "out there", that unless it's 
done "by hand", then it doesn't have value. Maybe I should take 
my G4 and my 7000 and rent an old musty warehouse with big 
metal-pane windows, and have romantic light constantly 
streaming in, and classical music playing, and have little men 
with handlebar moustaches and aprons running around with ink 
on their hands; maybe I'd feel better about the whole printmaking 
mystique.

I just feel like if/when someone asks me how the prints were 
made, my body will immediately begin to shrivel up, and I won't 
stand straight, and I'll look down at the floor, and start to pace 
around, and I'll mumble "...Well, they're inkjet prints done on a 
computer printer....", and then immediately it'll turn into one of 
those old E.F.Hutton commercials, where the whole room stops 
and everyone turns around and gives me this terrible look, and 
they roll their eyes and shake their head in pity. That's when I'm 
shown the door; the back door.

I know I shouldn't feel this way, because I've received many 
comments on my prints; I think most people are struck by the 
non-glossy watercolor paper. I secretly wish I could come up 
with some vague, haughty description, and I like Nina's above, 
that completely obscures the computer's role.

-Mark Tucker
Raised Southern Baptist (not even Catholic...)