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40 Years of Screenprinting- 1979-2019
This summer I celebrate my 30th anniversary as a serigraph printmaker. Thirty years of being attached to a squeegee and getting dirty with ink prompted me to be indulgent and reflect about the early days of my journey. In the summer of 1979 I was as a college senior anxious to finish my degree at Oneonta State College, NY. I chose to do some independent study in serigraphy, commonly known as silkscreen printmaking. For four hot July weeks I did nothing but work on prints. I had the printmaking studio to myself and would work every weekday from 8 AM to 4 PM (I considered this my "summer job" ). I enjoyed being alone with my thoughts and becoming familiar in what would turn out to be my area of focus for the next twenty-five years. My early works were inspired by screenprints I had seen that spring by Alex Katz and Richard Estes. My printmaking teacher, Ms. Burmeister, would check up on my progress and occasionally give me feedback. I felt, however, that she was cutting me loose and giving me a chance to explore my craft independently. At twenty years old I was discovering what it meant to be a serious printmaker. At the end of the summer I had a small body of work that I used to try to get into Grad School. More importantly, I had my first experience with the pleasures and pains of being a printmaker. I had worked hard to produce a series of prints that reflected my vision. I had met the challenges of the medium and had been bitten by the bug hard enough to continue on for another forty years.
-William Mitchell, June 2009 Pictured below student work from the summer of 1979 From left to right: Winter Shadows, 8C Vine Street, Cars at Hampton Beach,and Brett.
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