Digital Atelier: Printmaking for the 21st Century

	The first quarter 2009 edition of the SGIA Journal has an article, "Crossing Borders: Digital Atelier® artists explore and combine new digital tools with traditional techniques and materials" by Schminke, Krause and Lhotka. It explores the artistic possibilities of digital laser engravers, perfect bound
and editioned books, and creating multiple commissioned pieces for a single site. Download and read the pdf file.

Work from the Digital Art Studio
Traveling Exhibition

Digital Atelier artists Karin Schminke, Dorothy Simpson Krause, and Bonny Lhotka announced that the exhibit of their art “Work from the Digital Art Studio” is now being made available to galleries and museums across the continental US. The exhibit is being offered by the American Print Alliance for exhibit in 2008 and beyond.

The 36 pieces in the show were chosen to represent their nationally recognized art utilizing techniques from their best selling book, Digital Art Studio, Techniques for Combining Inkjet Printing with Traditional Art Materials. Educational panels are included in the exhibition, which fills about 100 running feet.

Alliance Director Carol Pulin talking about both the book and the exhibition, says, “Even for artists (and viewers) who are uninterested in computer and inkjet options, it is an amazing inspiration for thinking outside the box–for techniques and media, of course, but also in terms of transfers, surfaces and all sorts of conceptual and imaginative ideas.“ (Contemporary Impressions, vol. 12 #2)


Work from the Digital Art Studio installed at the New Bedford Art Museum,New Bedford, MA,2005

The exhibit premiered in March 2005 at the New Bedford Art Museum in New Bedford, Massachusetts. During the summer of 2005 it was shown at the Center for Contemporary Printmaking in Norwalk, Connecticut. In 2006 -2007 it was shown at the College of St. Catherine in St. Paul, MN, Cape Cod Community College, West Barnstable, MA, Lower Columbia College, Longview, WA, Cornish College of the Arts, Seattle, WA and the Palo Alto Research Center, PARC, Palo Alto, CA. In 2008 it was at theNational Art Material Trade Association, (NAMTA) Conference Sponsored by Golden Artist Colors, Inc. and the Rochester Institute of Technology, Rochester, New York. A partial listing of 2009 venues includes Monmouth University in Monmouth, Jew Jersey.

Detailed information can be found in the complete PDF prospectus of the exhibit
available for downloading.

For additional information contact Karin@Schminke.com.

The book has 160 pages, includes 300 full-color illustrations with step-by-step instructions. It is priced at $29.95. One of the demonstrations from page 38 - 389, Base Method; Preparing Nonwoven Fabric has been posted to give a sense of the way the content is presented.

If you would like more information on Digital Art Studio, Lorna Gentry wrote about it for PEI, Wayne Cosshall reviewed it on The Digital ImageMaker site and Aisling D'Art has a review on the How to Make Art website. There is also a review of Digital Art Studio in the Winter 2005 edition of Printmaking Today - check out their website and consider subscribing - and there are more than 20 five star reviews of the book on the Amazon.com website. Below is the review from the Library Journal:

Schminke, Dorothy Simpson Krause, and Bonny Pierce Lhotka, from Seattle,
Boston, and Boulder, respectively, are three outstanding digital and print
artists. In 1997 they collaborated on a three-week workshop at the
Smithsonian American Art Museum. In their hands, the computer becomes a
mixed-media machine to weave together traditional and contemporary art
materials with digital scanners, cameras, and image software. The first half
of this book explores ways to prepare surfaces for digital printing. The
second covers advanced methods for printing images to absorbent,
non-absorbent, and three-dimensional surfaces, and how to layer digital
prints with collage and paint. Also useful: a glossary of terms and a
resource guide for hardware, software, and art materials. The result of ten
years of experimentation, this should remain a useful and inspiring work for
many years to come despite the rapidity with which the digital world
changes. Highly recommended for all collections.

Alan Singer, professor at RIT’s School of Art, where Digital Art Studio was exhibited in the fall of 2008 says: “Digital Atelier’s collective work is a bridge between technology and traditional art. Their artwork is an eclectic mix of images with vibrant originality—representing a kind of cutting edge in printmaking by building lush textures of color and content.”

Articles
The November 2008 issue of Digital Graphics magazine has an article, "Blazing a Laser Trail in the Art World" by Krause, Schminke and Lhotka. It explores the artistic possibilities of digital laser engravers. Down load the pdf file or visit the Digital Graphics website.

The February 2008 issue of Digital Graphics magazine has an article, "The Finer Side of Digital Printing" that features work produced by Lhotka, Krause and Schminke. You may subscribe or read it online at the Digital Graphics website.

John Nemo has written "A Visit to the Digital Art Studio" for the Spring 2008 issue of PaperWorks, the quarterly journal of PaperWorks Sonoran Collective for Paper and Book Artists, in Tucson, Arizona

Check out Digital Atelier: The art collective that puts digital to the test! an article in the February 2006 issue of the number one digital print magazine in the uk, Image Reports.

"Paint & Pixels" by Krause, Schminke and Lhotka appears in the January 2006 issue of Just Paint, (Issue 14, pp 1-4), published by Golden Artist Colors, Inc. A pdf file of the newsletter is available on their website.

The September 2005 issue of Digital Graphics magazine has an article, "Fine Art and the Flatbed Printer" by Lhotka, Krause and Schminke. You may subscribe at the Digital Graphics website or download the pdf file.

Update: please note that Oce no longer sells the FCPLS4 film used for creating transfers with printers with pizza wheels (see Chapter 5). If we discover a replacement product we will post it here.

You can see work by Dorothy Krause, Bonny Lhotka and Karin Schminke here and on their individual websites.