| |
Lithography originated in Europe at the end of the 18th century,
and it was for a long time my dream to return to the continent where
it all began. So back in 1987, when I turned 30 years old, I left
the States to see what it would be like to work in a traditional
European printmaking studio.
My professional career as a fine art printer began in 1979 when,
after graduating from the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design,
I was hired by Masterprinter Ernest deSoto
in San Francisco. At his workshop I had the pleasure of collaborating
with many Latin American artists, including José Luis Cuevas,
Alejandro Colunga, and Gustavo Rivera, with whom I continue to make
prints to this day.
With Master Printer David Salgado of Trillium Graphics, also in
San Francisco, the emphasis was on large-scale realism. This training
was a great help in rounding out my skills as a hand printer.
|
|
By then it was 1987, and Europe beckoned.
Piet Clement's "Printshop" in
Amsterdam was my new home for nearly three years. There I worked
with Dutch, Belgian, and German artists, printing lithographs drawn
exclusively on stone. In addition to working with the Dutch artists
Constant and Lucebert, both major figures in the COBRA art movement,
I had the privilege of printing the notable German artists A. R.
Penck and Jürg Immendorf.
In 1990 it had become clear to me that the next step forward would
be to start my own workshop. In the small mountain
village of Merligen, on the Lake of Thun in Switzerland, I lived
and worked for seven years. My printmaking
atelier was small, but cozy, and together with my faithful
dog Jana we had many a summer making art and taking long walks
up the mountainside that rose from behind the chalet.
In 1999 the time had come to move the printshop
to Bern, the capital of Switzerland. I had the good fortune of finding
an ideal space, but it needed quite a bit of renovating. Two months
and a lot of paint later, in December 1999,
I opened up as Printshop - Gallery Tom Blaess. Since then I have
enjoyed working in the new space, meeting many new people through
exhibitions, as well as learning from
my students, who never fail to come up with new ideas during the
monotype classes.
|
|
