In s3e54, Platemark host Ann Shafer talks with Andrew Raftery, artist, professor, scholar, and wallpaper designer. Andrew works in several modes, most notably in engraving. The through line in the work is domesticity. An early print featured a young man suit shopping. Next was a portfolio of engravings detailing rooms during a real estate open house. Then engravings representing each month in the life of a garden were transferred to twelve dinnerplates and sold as a set. His latest show included watercolors depicting historical interior rooms that feature French and Chinese wallpapers. He also produces letterpress wallpapers himself.
Ann and Andrew talk about how engraving shows itself completely—there is no secret to how it is made, the inscrutability of Vermeer’s paintings, the importance of understanding the history of prints, how the transfer process works with ceramic dinnerware, how French and Chinese wallpapers were made (some were hand painted!), and hatboxes.