Series Three Episodes

In s3e40, Platemark host Ann Shafer talks with Luther Davis, master printer and director of Powerhouse Arts, Brooklyn. This is a two-parter. For this interview, Platemark collaborated with its sister podcast Hello, Print Friend. Miranda Metcalf, Hello, Print Friend’s host and creator interviewed Luther about his background and early career; Ann Shafer spoke with Luther about the present and future at Powerhouse Arts, a new non-profit arts center in a renovated transit power station on the Gowanu...

In this bonus episode, Hello, Print Friend creator and guest host Miranda Metcalf talks with Luther Davis, master printer and director of Powerhouse Arts Print Shop, Brooklyn, about his background and early career. Powerhouse Arts is new player in the printing/publishing ecosystem and warrants extended conversation with its leader. This is a two-parter in which Miranda converses with Luther and then in another episode, Ann Shafer speaks with Luther about the present and future at Powerhouse Arts...

In s3e39, Platemark host Ann Shafer speaks with Sue Coe, an artist and social activist. The pair were joined in the conversation by Tru Ludwig (Sue is one of Tru’s art heroes) at Sue’s home in the Catskill Mountains, New York. Sue creates art that goes right to the heart of an issue, whether it be animal cruelty, capitalism, authoritarianism, women’s rights or any other progressive ideal. Images are sometimes difficult, (TRIGGER WARNING) and the conversation touched on some topics that may be d...

In this week's episode of Platemark (s3e38), host Ann Shafer talks with Jillian Ross, collaborative master printer and publisher with an eponymous imprint, Jillian Ross Print, in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada. Ross returned to her native Saskatoon after many years in Johannesburg, South Africa, where she was the master printer at the David Krut Workshop (DKW) from 2003 to 2020. There, she worked with over 100 South African and international artists, most notably William Kentridge. Ross and pa...

In the second part of their conversation, Ann Shafer and printer/publisher Phil Sanders continue talking about the state of the printmaking ecosystem. They talk about why supporting artists is important even if you don’t like what they are doing, why that new Julie Mehretu set of etchings costs $250K, the imminent brain drain among our elder printers, and the importance of art and creativity to humanity’s survival. Cynthia Bringle (American, born 1939). Blue Covered Jar with Fish. Ceramic. 21 ...

In s3e36, Platemark host Ann Shafer speaks with printer/publisher and author Phil Sanders about the state of the ecosystem. Phil has a finger in nearly every pie in the ecosystem, so after a Platemark listener wrote in to ask about breaking into the publishing end of things, Ann turned to Phil. They talk about the history of print publishing after the print boom quieted down in the 1980s, why the prices of prints are in need of revision, and how to read a Joan Mitchell painting, among many othe...

In s3e35, Platemark host Ann Shafer talks with Larissa Goldston, director and owner of Universal Limited Art Editions, usually referred to by its acronym ULAE. We talk about ULAE’s founder Tatyana Grosman, and her harrowing escape from first Siberia following the assassination of Czar Nicholas, and then from the Nazis in France. Larissa talks about the early days of ULAE, growing up there, how they find artists to work with, and all her favorite print projects. Larissa‘s father, Bill Goldston, ...

In s3e34, Platemark host Ann Shafer speaks with Jason Scuilla, artist and professor at Kansas State University in Manhattan, KS. The university is hosting the Mid America Print Council conference in the fall of 2024, and Jason was eager to talk about the conference and its call for proposals of all sorts. The deadline is the end of September 2023; the link is https://fromtheashes.k-state.edu/. In addition to the MAPC conference, Ann was eager to speak with Jason about his research into electrol...

In s3e33, Platemark podcast host Ann Shafer talks with Ruth Lingen, printer and owner of Line Press Limited, located in the Dumbo neighborhood of Brooklyn. Line Press Limited does just about everything except screenprinting. Ruth is a jack-of-all-trades, and loves book arts the most, from papermaking to typesetting to printing and binding. After studying with the legendary Walter Hamady, Ruth got her start in New York with Joe Wilfer in the very early days of Pace Prints. She printed for many ar...

In s3e32 of Platemark, host Ann Shafer speaks with Ad Stijnman, an independent scholar of historical printmaking processes, specializing in manual intaglio printmaking techniques. He is also a professional printmaker. Ad is the go-to guy on all sorts of things. When he speaks, we listen. Beaming in from Amsterdam, our conversation covers all sorts of topics from paper sizing and watermarks to acids and chine collé. We talk about teaching people to look, really look, and be able to describe what...

In s3e31 of Platemark, host Ann Shafer speaks with Lothar Osterburg, artist, professor and leading expert on the fine art of photogravure. These are basically photographs transferred to copper plates and printed as etchings. (It's, of course, more complicated than that.) In this way, it is possible to get images to print with continuous tone, as opposed to half-tone, or stepped biting. The results are luminous photographs printed with printer’s ink. It's a result that cannot be achieved in any ...

In Platemark s3e30, host Ann Shafer speaks with Ruth Fine, retired curator from the National Gallery of Art. Ruth was curator of modern prints and drawings there from 1980–2002, followed by an additional period working on special projects in modern art. Since her retirement in 2010, Ruth has been working on exhibition and writing projects, as well as sitting on the boards of the Roy Lichtenstein Foundation, the Helen Frankenthaler Foundation, and others. As we are releasing this episode, Ruth h...

In Platemark s3e29, host Ann Shafer speaks with April Vollmer, an artist working in mokuhanga (Japanese color woodblock printing), who also wrote the indispensable guide to that form: Japanese Woodblock Print Workshop (Berkeley: Watson-Guptill Publications, 2015). What's mokuhanga, you ask? It's a method developed in Japan that was used to print images that are probably familiar to you, like Hokusai's Great Wave. It allows artists to work with water-based inks (more environmentally friendly) on...

In s3e28, Platemark host Ann Shafer speaks with Linda Hults, retired professor of art history from the College of Wooster, Wooster, Ohio. Linda wrote THE textbook on the history of Western prints, which any student of the topic will undoubtedly still have on their shelves. At nearly 1,000 pages, the book offers up more than 800 illustrations and covers print history from Gutenberg through the early 1980s. It also includes incredibly thorough notes, bibliography, glossary, and index. It is indisp...

In Platemark s3e27, host Ann Shafer talks with Emma Nishimura, an artist and professor based in Toronto. Emma works in printmaking, photography, sculpture, and installation. Her work addresses ideas of inherited memory and trauma with a specific focus on the experiences her family and thousands of other Japanese Canadians endured during and following their forced incarceration during the Second World War. Episode image: Ann Gaby-Trotz. Emma Nishimura (Canadian, born 1982). Blending In, 2008. P...

Platemark s3e26's guest is Jennifer Mack-Watkins, an artist and children's book illustrator based in Savannah, GA. Her work looks at social conformities that limit us and box us in, whether beauty, relationships, body image, power, or gender roles. Her work often features young African-American children playing, celebrating their innocence and freedom, as well as imagination. Jennifer recently illustrated a children's book called You Gotta Meet Mr. Pierce! and she is currently on a book tour. Th...

Platemark s3e25's guest is Michael Barnes, an artist and professor at Northern Illinois University who specializes in lithography. In addition to deep knowledge of how lithography works, Michael is also an historian of the technique and a collector. Michael's prints are set in strange desolate lands and feature figures engaged in absurd tasks. While these surreal visions come straight from the artist’s imagination, workers trapped in a farcical dystopian future is something to which we can all ...

In s3e24, host Ann Shafer speaks with Steve Goddard, curator emerita from the Spencer Museum of Art at the University of Kansas in Lawrence. Steve’s specialty is prints of northern Europe (1450–present), although he has been known to stray into the graphic arts of the World War One era, as well as prints that sit at the intersection of art and the biological sciences. I’m sharing some of his favorite prints here. A beloved educator, Steve has inspired generations of students with his engaging a...

In Platemark s3e23, host Ann Shafer speaks with Kimberly Henrikson, Executive Director, Center for Contemporary Printmaking in Norwalk, CT. CCP offers myriad services from contract printing, to artist’s residencies, classes, workshops, and exhibitions. It really does it all. As CCP’s executive director and administrator, Kimberly not only makes sure the lights are on, but also runs the budgets, raises funds, organizes programming, and curates exhibitions. Managing human resources and staffing, ...

In Platemark s3e22, host Ann Shafer talks with Laura Einstein, manager of the Gallery at the Met Store. Tucked away on the mezzanine of the bookstore at the Metropolitan Museum of Art is a gallery space where limited edition, fine art prints are available for purchase. The Gallery (formerly known as the Mezzanine Gallery) has been a somewhat hidden gem at the Met since opening in the 1970s. Really affordable, wonderful prints are selected by Laura who always has time to talk shop with artist, bu...

In Platemark s3e21, host Ann Shafer talks with Pam Paulson, founder of Paulson Fontaine Press, Berkeley, California. After earning her MFA in painting from the San Francisco Art Institute in 1982 (she was a teaching assistant for Robert Colescott), Pam cut her teeth in printmaking at Crown Point Press in downtown San Francisco. There she worked with luminaries such as John Cage and Richard Diebenkorn. In 1996, she started publishing prints as Paulson Press. She and Renée Bott joined forces as P...

In Platemark s3e20, host Ann Shafer talks with Kimberli Gant, curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at the Brooklyn Museum. While Kimberli’s specialty isn’t in prints per se, she is one of those unusual non-print curators who likes and appreciates prints and incorporates them into her projects. Among many projects, her work on Jacob Lawrence and his time in Nigeria led to the exhibition, Black Orpheus: Jacob Lawrence and the Mbari Club, which traveled to the Chrysler Museum, the New Orleans Mu...

In s3e19, host Ann Shafer talks with Maryanne Ellison Simmons, printer and owner of Wildwood Press in St. Louis, MO. She and her husband, baseball hall-of-famer Ted Simmons, also collect contemporary art. A large portion of the collection is now at the Saint Louis Art Museum where it was celebrated in an exhibition in 2022. Listeners may remember that Ann and Tru Ludwig traveled to St. Louis to see this exhibition and interview curator Elizabeth Wyckoff (s3e7), artist Tom Huck (s3e4 and s3e13),...

In s3e18, host Ann Shafer talks with dealer Susan Teller, whose eponymous gallery operates out of the Mana Fine Arts facility in Jersey City, NJ. Susan specializes in American paintings and works on paper of the mid-twentieth century. She also works with multiple artists’ estates including Peggy Bacon, William Baziotes, Bernarda Bryson Shahn, Sue Fuller, Michael J. Gallagher, Peter Grippe, Fannie Hillsmith, Hugh Mesibov, Angelo Pinto, Anne Ryan, Louis Schanker, Karl Schrag, Judith Shahn, Ben Sha...