Super happy with this feature (and cover photo) in Pressing Matters magazine issue 26! Pressing Matters is all about printmaking artists, their creative processes and passion for print. Expect inky fingers, creative workspaces, sketchbooks and prints made using all kinds of techniques and mediums.
Photo credits: Axel van Dijk @axelfreelens
WHAT ATTRACTED YOU TO YOUR CURRENT WORKSPACE? It has been a really long time since I had a workspace separately from home. At a certain point I felt more comfortable working from home and intertwine daily life with work. In recent years I worked in the garden shed. A teeny tiny place, but very practically furnished so both my large and small press, glass inking plate and drying rack were displayed. I could only turn exactly around my axis in between. In time it got to small, eventually every inch was occupied and I had to bring most parts of the print runs into the living room to dry and do the carving work in the kitchen. It became circuitous and the move to my current workspace was much needed.
Through an artist friend I heard that a studio became available in this building. Right in the center of the old city of Hoorn. Which is actually quite rare, there is little efflux as most artists in this building stay and work here like forever. I applied for the vacant studio and I feel very privileged it came my way. It is a former school building and the studios are just beautiful, very spacious, with high ceilings and huge windows facing north. I was told that the workspace which became available was the least attractive because of its location. But I actually think it’s the most beautiful one. It indeed does not directly overlook the back garden, but is directly neighbouring to an ancient chapel, which is peaceful and comforting.
DOES YOUR WORKSPACE INFLUENCE YOUR WORK? The size of this studio provides a lot of possibilities such as printing much larger editions and most certainly make larger format works. Also it’s really an advantage that I can work on multiple projects simultaneously without interfering each other. There is room to experiment and I can leave a linoleum block I am carving and continue working the next morning. I noticed I’m much more focused working in this workspace and I can find more depth in my work than I previously did at home. My current series of ‘bird portrait’, reduction prints with up to 12 colour layers, are definitely a result of this.
The height of the walls provide enough space to display a lot of my prints and for the first time in years I am able to see them all together which makes me very happy and teach me a lot of insights. It’s interesting to see as an overview, coherence, progress and interpretation of my work.
Before I started working in this studio, I renovated and decorated quite some time to really make it ‘my own’. It has become a super pleasant workspace where we (my love, our dog and cat) spent a lot of time and feel very happy.
Suzanne Kruisdijk 