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Printmakers, even among artists, are meticulous and controlling. They are fanatical about the papers, inks, and processes they use. The best ones transcend this geek mentality and present a universe of its own, in two dimensions. The worst ones appear to have played with fingerpaint. In the RDU area, this all plays out in a surprisingly rich context of organizations and physical resources.

A recent show at VAE, Raleigh’s community artist organization, helped inaugurate PoNC, a new printmaker’s group. The show displayed a wide, quite educational array of techniques and styles: indeed, an evening workshop during the show featured a wonderfully anecdotal yet scholarly talk by PoNC founder Judy Jones, as well as hands-on demonstrations and opportunities for members of the public to create blocks and pull prints. The print show itself was rich with peculiar edges: the aforementioned fingerpainting joined intricate, multi-textured images and inflamed political and sexual statements. Judy has big plans for the group and for her new printmaking studio at 311 West Martin (she recently moved there from Artspace). The group has lots of active members, some of whom work mostly in other media. They also are aligned with a state-wide printmaking group. It seems to be an admirable emerging community resource we will hear more about as time goes by.

Aligned very differently is another constellation of printers: the North Carolina Printmakers Guild, which is populated by slighter older and more established printmakers whose organization exists mainly to generate shows. One of those shows, at the BTI center in 2004, was the most impressive display of local printmaking I have ever seen in Raleigh. When these guys do a workshop, as they did at Blam a couple of years ago, they present some cutting edge technique and build a little working seminar around that. The lead member in my mind is Jen Coon, whose personal studio houses a magnificent etching press, next door to Rebus. Her Rebus show about the Boylan Bridge was a masterpiece in drawing together artistic expression and community memory. The rituals of remembering and the social history wrapped up in the Boylan Bridge (and its forgotten sister, the Martin Street Extension) are worth a post all their own: suffice to say that Jen Coon used the pressing of images to stamp the soul of a neighborhood on to paper for all to see. The Printmakers Guild is the best way to stay in contact with the best printmaking work in the area.

There is always room for the light touch and you can get plenty of that hanging around the infant printmaking center at Pullen Art Center. Resident artists and printmaking instructors Ann Podris and Keith Norval present a wonderful mix of true bohemian spirit and lots of dedicated discipline for their craft. They are teaching and qualifying people for use of the excellent press they have obtained for the studio at Pullen (They also have a painting studio at Artspace). Here, perhaps is the best of the two previous worlds: get down and dirty in an informal atmosphere with two highly professional and highly personable artists. If you are aspiring to some print power of your own - check ‘em out!