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Making Archival Pigment Prints

 

The other day, I posted some images of archival pigment prints that I created for Corporate Office Properties Trust (COPT) and printed here in Rhode Island at iolabs. I very much enjoyed this break from glass to work in another medium, although the technique for creating these prints is actually quite similar to one I often use to develop painted glass works.

Last year, I wrote a post about action painting as it related to my work on the Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital project. For glass works and prints alike, I often begin with a kind of action painting, intuitively exploring different ways of pouring, splashing, dripping, smearing, or otherwise applying paint. Once I achieve a look that I like, I scan the image, then cut it up in Photoshop and play with different ways of reassembling it. When working in glass, one of those reassembled images might become a guide for how the glass will be painted (akin to the way I used watercolor paintings as a guide for the Spaulding installation). For archival pigment prints, however, I simply print the finished assemblages. Because they are printed on what is essentially a high-end inkjet printer, they can be printed in any number of sizes.

Despite these similarities in process, knowing that a painting will be turned into a print versus a glass installation certainly informs the direction it takes. There is something so interesting about combining a conventional medium like paint with the parameters and possibilities of digital media, a process that continually stretches my artistry in new directions. I look forward to creating more prints in the coming year.