[Michael R 1974]

Does anybody else find themselves in a situation similar to mine? The desire to aspire to becoming one of the upper echelons of printmaking. But at the same time finding it frustrating that printing something today will basically be a learning experience for getting better, basically rendering a print a little bit obsolete as soon as it's created. It's a thing of never being satisfied, I guess, a desire to push boundaries and limits, to find out what's beyond my current scope of knowledge and skill. It is a wonderful journey, don't get me wrong, I'm both happy and proud about what I'm able to do, and a prospect of becoming even better.

In my opinion there is no other way to be. The principle, at least for me, is to develop enough skill and technique so that I can picture the print in my mind and be able to think "I can do that". I always want to get beyond the requirements of the art, so that there are as few limits as possible when creating things. This approach comes from studying a musical instrument, and I've applied it to every other creative endeavour.

Learning new skills, tricks etc inevitably means re-assessing old work. As long as it doesn't paralyze you, it is the right approach. My favourite artists, composers etc spent/spend their lives trying to get better. I don't know of one awesome printer (Tice, Sexton etc) who prints old negatives the same way now, and often they use different techniques they've picked up since.

There is always something out there to learn. I think any serious artist should be relentless that way, whether the art is a hobby or a profession. I don't see this enough. Too often these days there is this false dichotomy: technique, detail etc vs art. what a bunch of baloney. If you ask me, detail is underrated. There, I said it. I think too many people have the same attitude regarding skill and technique that most of us had when we first started doing long division: "what the hell do I need to know this for?" Well, I guess my answer is you never know what apparently useless little thing might eventually be relevant, if only even in some cursory way.

Learn more about developers. Learn more about masking. Learn more about toners. Whatever. And yes, even learn more about how these things work.