Beyond Millennials

  In the space of ten hours, he met an artist his age of 72 on Skype, a near-retired engineer 10 years his junior, two Millennials and a boy, 9. The engineer made a printing press kit which—that afternoon—the nine-year old assembled. Here is all our future.

Skyping coincidence

An odd sound came from my sleeping computer. I realized it was an incoming Skype call. It was Lou, one of the people I met through her purchase of a Legacy Mini Halfwood press. It took me too long to respond, so I called her back and we talked about her move. She’s looking for a change of residence—and she needs to unload a quarter-ton Takach etching press, too. We talked about the future and my vision of a factor school that publishes an online printmaking magazine.

At lunch I met with another one of my friends, a near-retirement engineer whose nicname is Slic Ric. He has a CNC Router which he uses to build models of the press like the one in the Rembrandtshuis Museum in Amsterdam—a miniature of the one Rembrandt used. We are working to make these models affordable so kids can have the experience of assembling and using a printmaking press.

In the afternoon, yet another visitor, Ethan, came to report that he has been accepted to be the “Busker Etcher” at the Pike Street Market in Seattle. It will be the first time in history that a printmaker and artist-in-action will be at the market.

While Ethan and I were talking, his friend, Sebastian, who was on his way to the Lego show down the street with his son, dropped in. The boy immediately took note of the press, and I invited him to try it out. I asked him if he ever made a print.

“Yes, today, in school,” he replied, and then explained the process of how the class learned about making a collagraph and printing it by hand. I gave him a screwdriver and invited him to take apart the WeeWoodie Rembrandt Press that was sitting there.

While Ethan, Sebastian and I watched, took snapshots and chatted, the kid had taken the press into its 20 parts by removing all the eighteen screws. He said, “Dad, we have to get to the Lego thing before they close,” and off they went.

Days in the life of a senior

This is the kind of day I have worked for, I can say, for fifty years as, this morning, I thought about one of the reasons I continue to work as a designer, artist and teacher—with a goal to make an online printmaking magazine which comes out of a virtual factory school.

My day brought me into contact with people who represent a spectrum of ages, professions, gender, nationalities, skills and professions and it is all because of printmaking. The printing trade has—since its beginnings as handprints on stone from prehistoric times—brought people together with only one commonality: the print.

The First Nation elder is looking for a new living and working setting. The engineer anticipates a new line of work to put his knowledge to work in the educational field. The musician/etcher wants a new, profitable outlet for his art in a public venue. He and his comrade are referred to Millennials because they were born after 1980. My Aleutian woman friend and I are pre-boomers enjoying some income from Social Security—funded by our younger friends.

The boy is only a few years into schooling, yet I see him, and his schoolmates, plus the Millennials, paying into the Social Security system for years to come. If we live to be a hundred, they will be helping to put bread on our tables. What do we do to deserve it? I wonder. What are we doing now, to deserve it, my artist, craftswoman and First Nation friend?

Printmaking is worthwhile

We live in the age of digital reproduction, and to many visual artists this means making digital prints. I don’t see it that way. Digital reproduction means that artists can make a much more important contribution to society by using new technologies to teach, research, practice and give services to society. The need for creative artists reaches far, far beyond producing decorations, and far beyond meeting our personal needs for expression.

Our “expression” must, in my opinion, come from our keen observation of humanity and the Earth’s human life sustainability. Observing the economics and social interaction of our times, we cannot ignore the need of our services to education through our creativity in art, craft and design.

My plan for an online printmaking magazine will be my finest—and perhaps final—expression of that which has benefitted me and my family for the past fifty years. That it will be the tip of the iceberg that is a virtually real factory school is my most fervent wish.