What's Wrong With A Little Experimentation...

    In the year 1999 I began experimenting with a process for producing multiples which was a composite of various printing and art making methods including a banal and redundant practice known to some as...

At that time I was working data entry for a local insurance company and part of my duties as the pion in the office was to make use of the copy machines for a variety of papers and documents. Those particular copiers printed black only, but for me to be able to use such technology for free was a godsend eventually opening up doors to new possibilities for creating art(or as I like to refer to as, "stuff").

Dead Mouse(proof) - Xerox copier print on textured paper.

In the beginning I would use copiers to make images composed of various objects and materials(pages from books, magazines, ads, etc.) that would fit on the scanning bed. These pages were then taken and spread out all over the floor(my artist friend's studio) then brushed, dripped and splattered with oil paints producing a nice, effective mess that would eventually become fodder for collage or as the French would say, papier collé.

Brush(proof) - Xerox copier print on paper.

Color plates for Brush.
Oil on paper.

Eventually the idea to use the copier like a printing press came to mind and I became inspired at the prospect for developing a process based in past printing practices, but with a modern... or dare I say... postmodern twist.

Katana(proof) - Xerox copier print on paper.

Color plates for Katana.
Oil on paper.

Starting off with a few objects drawn from my Japanese heritage, I created line drawings of these items to be used as a base for each print. I then colored each plate(in this case a sheet of paper with an image on it) with oil paint and/or various other materials applied as collage and separating like colors onto their respective plates. Like with other printing methods - especially when it comes to multi-colored prints -  one must plan out each plate so when layered a wider range of colors will be achieved during the printing process. Registration is another key point when planning multi-colored prints; making sure all the elements of an image line up is crucial. One does not necessarily have to follow these rules to produce prints but the quality of the print will depend solely on the artist's vision of what they seek from their printing process.

Maneki Neko(proof) - Xerox copier print on paper.

Color plates for Maneki Neko.
Oil, sand paper, color pencils and pen collaged on paper.

Once I had something ready for print it was time to head to the local Kinkos for proofing. This was back before they had the cards and was based on the honor system where one paid for the number of copies at the register. Of course, not having the funds to drop on the going rate of 99¢ per copy, it wasn't much to run the same sheet through multiple times and come out with a single print made up of many colors having only to pay for the single sheet and not the entire process.
You may be asking yourself, why wouldn't he just take an already finished image and make a single color copy; why go through all the trouble of producing color separations and then printing each one of those separations on the same sheet of paper.
Well, the point of the project was the act of printing in a new and unheard of way(I respectively take into account my own ignorance regarding what others may have already done using copiers). For me, it wasn't about an intellectual pursuit but a desire to explore what could possibly be done with a color copier and ones own imagination. Besides, the effect created by the layering of toner with each run through the copier was what I came to enjoy and seek from this process, something one would not achieve from a single run through the copier.

Visions of a Warrior - Xerox copier print on mulberry paper.
The open white field at the top left was for a Hanko or signature.

Color plates for Visions of a Warrior.
Oil on paper.

The reality of this process is entirely redundant since the copier does much of this automatically, but the basic essence of the process is completely steeped in the tradition of older printing methods such as intaglio, lithography, woodblock, engraving and screen printing. I was very excited with being able to utilize other art making practices such as drawing, painting, collage, stenciling, etc. and applying those things to what could possibly be created within the limits of this medium.

Untitled(dragon) - Epson printer/copier print on paper.

Untitled(birds) - Epson printer/copier print on paper.

One thing I found difficult with this process was the use of mulberry paper to print on and how easily it would jam up in the machine due to the paper's overly flexible quality. Granted this paper wasn't specifically made to work with copiers. I'm still surprised by the number of prints I was able to pull off without completely ruining those machines at Kinkos.

- CJH