S e p t e m b e r 2 0 1 7 7 5 trends P f rom left: meaghan maurice (1); Blar Best (2) sient digital content. “About 15 to 20 years ago, young peo- ple could still remember the old days of let- terpress. But this new generation has never been exposed to it before. There’s a sense of excitement among young artists discover- ing printmaking for the first time.” Freshly Pressed Pickwick Independent Press may be a rel- ative newcomer to the print scene, but it’s perhaps the most visible to Portlanders. Situated above Space Gallery on Congress Street, Pickwick is a collective of printmak- ers responsible for many of the posters that herald music and art shows on the city’s fly- posting walls. Owner Pilar Nadal runs this community art space for around 25 pay- ing members who have 24-hour access to a number of letterpress, woodcut, lithogra- phy, and silkscreen printing systems. The organization was bought by Nad- al in 2015. She’d begun to take an inter- est in the art of traditional printmaking in 2006 while living in New York, working as a graphic designer for Whole Foods. “I had a happenstance education in print up until I moved to Maine,” she says. “Then I grad- “Big print shops in New York, Boston, and San Francisco are closing down because of rent costs. It’s cheaper to work with printmakers here in Maine instead.”–David Wolfe “W ith printmaking, there is defi- nitely a fine line between art and craft,” says artist Jessyca Broekman. I had the chance to personally walk that line and wit- ness the inner work- ings of nonprofit printmaking studio Peregrine Press. “We work together, we teach each other, and we help each other,” Broekman continues, as four other female artists, dressed in ink-stained aprons, prepare paint and type trays around us. Surrounded by carving tools and paint-covered work tables, it’s captivating standing alongside these artists and watch- ing their meticulous printing processes. I’m particularly drawn to one printer and her jour- ney.Jenny Scheu is an architect and has been using monotype printing while adding layers of ink, glue, sand, tape and watercolors to cre- ate large abstract printing plates.When her third print of the morning rolls through the press, I watch her struggle carefully to peel it off. “I might end up coloring it or cutting it up for a collage. It doesn’t feel very successful to me, so I’m still trying to experiment. I’ve been working on developing this plate for a whole month,” Scheu says.There is a palpable sense that these printers share a love for the fine art of printmaking and embrace the long, chal- lenging processes involved.They even trust me to pull the heavy press wheel on one of the proofs myself and watch the inked print reveal itself on the paper below. Consider me a print convert. – By Blair Best An Exact Art