When asked about printing, Deborah Maris Lader believes, most people envision imposing high-tech machines that spit out thousands of copies of just about anything in seconds. “One of my goals,” says Lader, founder and director of the Chicago Printmakers Collaborative, “is to educate the public about the differences between commercial and fine-art printmaking. I get phone calls from people all the time asking, “Do you do business cards? Wedding invitations?’ I understand the confusion because many things are called a print.”
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Lader, now 30, began studying sculpture about ten years ago at Cornell University in upstate New York, not knowing what printmaking was. “I loved to draw, but I loved sculpture more because it was so physical. I loved using my hands to form and shape the result.” Then she took a class in relief printmaking, or woodcut. “Here I was, drawing and using the same materials you use in sculpture, without having to sit up and grind away breathing dust all night.”
But by September 1989 she had founded the Chicago Printmakers Collaborative, providing the studio as a working environment for professional artists who have experience and interest in printmaking. To become a member an artist has to interview with Lader, and once accepted pays a monthly fee, gets a key to the shop, and attends periodic meetings of the group. The collaborative currently has 18 members with diverse backgrounds and a wide range of techniques, including lithography, intaglio (in which an image is acid-burned onto a metal plate and paper is pressed into the resulting grooves), and relief (woodcut).
An exhibition of prints by the members of the Chicago Printmakers Collaborative opens March 13 at the Near Northwest Arts Council Gallery, located at 1579 N. Milwaukee, suite 301, and runs until April 25. The gallery is open Friday and Saturday from noon to 5. Other viewing hours can be arranged by appointment; call 278-7677. For more information about the Chicago Printmakers Collaborative, or to receive a schedule of classes, call 235-3712.
