Left: Bramante's Lunar Temple 2001
by April Vollmer
Digital print on mylar, 915 x 915 mm.

Into digital Best known for her use of traditional woodcut, April Vollmer's latest prints use digital techniques This summer I held my first solo show of digital prints at the Ceres Project Room at the Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts, New York, USA. It included 11 large format digital prints, a selection of smaller work and a portfolio of hanga woodcut prints (see "Printmaking Today", Vol 7 No 4) illustrating the evolution of this new work. The show's title refers to the architectural plans and elevations, which inspired most of the images. Architectural plans represent the physical principles underlying natural forms. The same structural concerns can also be seen in the woodcuts, but in the new work the computer supplies an explicitly mathematical foundation. Four of the digital prints took Bramante's Tempietto plans as a foundation for radiating patterns of plants and insects, printed on architectural mylar. Others, such as the Iris prints Big Bangs (Fire and Ice) and two Rose Tantras, used astronomical images and oversize flowers as backgrounds. Both of these pairs played with tantric diagrams of the universe, substituting flies and bees for gods and goddesses. All were printed on handmade Japanese paper. Which printer? The prints were created on the computer in multiple layers from scans of drawings and photographs. I proofed the architectural series myself on an HP Designjet 1050 plotter, a 36-inch roll-fed inkjet designed for architectural drawings and photos.		These prints are not lightfast, so I asked Silicon Gallery Fine Art Prints to print the final artwork. For the Tiny Temple series they used a large format six colour Epson printer, which uses pigment based inks, generally agreed to be more lightfast than dye based inks. Epson also makes an affordable desktop printer, the 2000P, which again uses pigment based inks. Both offer smooth colour gradations and a very fine spray pattern. The Tantra series was printed on an Iris printer, using a quality Lysonic inkset. The Iris printers cannot run pigment inks because the pigment particles are coarser than their own spray pattern. However the right combination of ink and paper will produce long lasting images as long as they are handled with the same care as any artwork (see Vol 8 No 4). The Iris is generally reckoned to offer more sensitive tonalities than even the best pigment printer. Also, because it prints from a drum, rather than a sheet feeder, it is able to print on a wider variety of substrates: for the Tantra prints I used handmade Japanese paper, bleed printed over the deckle edge. The final prints owe a great deal to the collaborative energies and atmosphere of the Silicon Gallery Fine Art Prints*. Digital printing requires much proofing and evaluation, and good communication between the artist and printer. Silicon charges a fixed amount for proofs, and by the square foot for final prints. Their informative attitude and their willingness to experiment with materials were essential to the completion of the work. * http://www.fineartprint.com
The following is reprinted from "World of Washi" the newsletter of Hiromi Paper International,      Summer 2000, Vol. 6, No. 3. (published with an illustration of "Big Bang (Ice)") Digital Printing on Kozo Paper by April Vollmer Last year I was invited to participate in an exhibition sponsored by the Women's Caucus for Art titled "Elements 2000".   It was held at seven locations around New York City including Silicon Gallery, a digital printmaking studio and gallery in Dumbo, Brooklyn. Since my proposed work was digital, I worked with Silicon Gallery to produce the work for the exhibition. Adina Segal and Michal Smith, the proprietors, are interested in working with artists who want to experiment with new approaches to digital printing. I have spent the last few years printing with the traditional Japanese woodcut technique. The paper is an important aspect of this kind of waterbase printing. Moku hanga is printed by hand with a baren on damp washi, handmade Japanese paper. It is strong when wet and retains its moisture for even printing and good registration. Washi for printing must be lightly sized so the color doesn't bleed, but stays where the wood block presses the color into the paper. It was my experience with Japanese paper for woodcut that made me decide to use Kozo Misumi for this digital project. The requirements for digital printing are similar to those for waterbase woodcut. Digital printing is done on dry paper, but liquid color is applied to the paper in both approaches, so the paper must be lightly sized, or it will soak up color like a blotter. Big Bang ( Fire ) and Big Bang ( Ice ) are digital collages created on my computer. I transferred them to zip discs and took them and my washi to the gallery for printing. The Iris printer is a large format, high resolution digital printer that can use archival inks. It took some proofing to adjust the color because the Iris printer is so different from a desktop ink jet printer, and the Kozo Misumi is so different from ink jet paper. In general, the color on the washi was softer and less saturated, with more subtle variations visible. I wanted the most physical feeling possible for this digital work. Changes in humidity between Japan and New York made the paper buckle so it was necessary to flatten it before printing. Then Adina and Michal attached the paper to the drum of the printer with double sided tape so it could be printed all the way over the deckle. The Kozo Misumi printed with a rich velvety surface, and printing all the way over its pronounced deckle edge gave it an even more sculptural feeling. For the exhibition the prints were float framed to show the whole sheet. The final prints are rich in color and have the tactile, dimensional presence I wanted for images about the beginning of the physical universe. Silicon Gallery Fine Art Prints Ltd. can be reached at 718-237-0606 or http://www.fineartprint.com Hiromi Paper International, Inc. 2525 Michigan Avenue Bergamot Station G9 Santa Monica, CA 90404