Artist Sarah Welch and I produced this art print during the planning stages of the Misseen book. We needed to test several sample sheets of paper before committing to an order for the production of the book, and rather than waste those printed sheets, we decided to make a small edition of art prints on paper.
This edition also market the first time we attempted to print on text weight paper. Generally, we prefer to use water based inks here at the studio, but these inks have a tendency to distort paper. The effect is usually greater on light weight papers, as they can not stand up to the process of the ink drying.
Yet, to our great surprise, these one color art prints turned out nearly perfect and we were happy to print them and Misseen on 80# text weight. Screen printing strikes again!
Another happy accident was that we managed to use the proceeds from the sale of this art print to help fund the production costs for Misseen, which was one of our most ambitious projects to date. As a comic / artist book, we made the decision to screen print the entirety of that book by hand, which is almost unheard of to our knowledge, due to the amount of labor that goes into producing a book this way.
I believe that this is something all artists should consider doing, as it helps pad the expense of bringing a new work to light. And also, if during the process you can properly prototype the work you have in mind while making some profit off of the prototypes, then you’re in a much better position to accomplish an ambitious project with less risk during the printing phase of production.
The image itself comes from one half of a two page spread contained in Misseen, wherein a young Sarah Welch, suffering from bad vision, mistook her mother’s pile of black laundry for the family cat. The realization was made when she reached out to pet said cat.
This edition is sold out. Thanks!
