Preaching to the Choir: Thoughts on Contemporary Printmaking

Journey through a lifetime in the work of printmaker Hugh Merrill, in his words

…My work and approaches to make art have significantly changed, and yet in many ways, they have remained the same. In the past 30 years, I have worked as a community artist, producing complex arts actions both locally and internationally. I have also continued my studio work, including working on sequential etchings each year.

The two seemingly separate modes of creativity, studio art and socially engaged art, feed and provide freedom and validity for each other. These consistent and varied interests in my life as an artist have always led me to return to that first etching. The advice provided by teachers and other artists, and the process I have developed over this time still seems new, deeply valid and refreshes my imagination and desire to engage in a continuing dialogue of creative discovery.

Each new generation defines the values of a discipline. When I started my work in 1968, there were two main currents in contemporary art, pop art and abstract expressionism. These two movements strongly influenced the direction a generation of print artists was taking. Always tilting the present conceptual views were artists such as: Peter Milton, Warrington Colescott, Lynne Allen, Ruth Weisberg and June Wayne. All of these people approached print from the depths of their own unique studio narrative.

Today we hear of the Outlaws of printmaking: Tom Huck, Bill Fick, Sean Starwars, Michael Krueger, Jenny Schmid and other rambunctious print artists. To a great degree, printmakers have always followed a different drummer, filling the role of outlaws and expressing their own eccentric visions. Where will that vision go next? What new artist and discoveries will grow out of this magic discipline?