ART UNDER PRESSURE

Artist's Statment

"Imagination Precedes All Events"

Printmaking has always challenged me to find unexpected ways to create animage – on metal plates, blocks of wood or other materials. From traditional methods to experiments, I have always been enthusiastic about these processes – from conception, to plate work and finally the printing itself, through an etching press. The original plates and blocks, from which aprint on paper is made, are quite often objects of beauty themselves.

The art of printmaking is a slow, manual process. It takes time. This is another aspect of printmaking which I particularly appreciate. The time it takes to make an etching or engraving gives me extra time to consider changes and the opportunity to develop the image further than originally planned.

The works I have created include both Abstract Art and Descriptive Art (or "realism"), both of which I love. Many of the etchings involved the use of photographic transfers, aprocess I have been using for many years, now. My earlier etchings involved the use of caustic acids (Nitric andSulfuric) to etch Copper or Zinc plates. More recently, I’ve been using a safer mordant of Copper Sulfate. I also work in Mezzotint engraving, which uses no mordants at all. These various methods each have their unique strengths and limitations which, now, after decades of use and experimentation, I can call on, at will, to achieve the desired effect.

I had no formal training in Art school or college but, rather, was blessed to have had two fabulously talented teachers: the late Peter Ramsey in Seattle; and the well-known Mezzotint artist, Laurent Schkolnyk, with whom I studied in Nantes, France. I prefer this old-school way of learning, from a master, one on one.

Currently, I run a printmaking studio and gallery, Cloud Shadow Studio, in Wakonda, SD. I enjoy teaching as well as showing not only my own work but other artists' work as well.

Artist's Bio

Anthony DiMichele is a professional printmaker who, in the mid-1980’s, studied Intaglio and Relief printmaking techniques with Peter Ramsey, via The Experimental College in Seattle, Washington; and became a founding member of Presswork, a Seattle-based printmaking collective. He specialized in Mezzotint, after residencies in Nantes, France, studying under the master Mezzotint artist Laurent Schkolnyk. While in Seattle, Anthony taught printmaking to developmentally disabled adults, as an instructor for Creative Living.

From the late 1990’s to 2020, he was an active member ofthe arts community in Friday Harbor, Washington, where he was a founding member of another artists’ collective, known as The Collective; manager of Studio7 gallery & printmaking studio; a private art instructor and guestteacher at Skagit Valley Community College, Friday Harbor branch. Anthony was a participating artist, as well as employee of, the San Juan Island Museum of Art.

Relocating to South Dakota, in 2020, Anthony established anew printmaking studio and gallery, Cloud Shadow Studio, in Wakonda, SD, where he currently works and teaches, and exhibits his and other artists’ works in printmaking and photography.

(For current bio and catalog of works, visit the artist's website: https://www.adimichele.art/)