SPONTANEITY OVER PRECISION: Q&A WITH DOMINIE NASH

What inspired you to experiment with the process of printmaking? Who is your favorite printmaking artist?

It happened sort of by accident many years ago. I had been dyeing fabric and yarn, and a friend suggested we try to do batik. We got some books and muddled along until we figured it out. Eventually I got tired of dealing with the wax, but by then was hooked on putting images on cloth and continued to learn a variety of processes. It is still my favorite part of my practice, though I have a long way to go to be a proper printmaker.

I am lucky to have had the opportunity to learn from and to work in close contact with some wonderful printmakers: Nancy McNamara,Aline Feldman, Julio Valdez, and the members past and present of the Graphics Workshop— and too many others to mention. I am also inspired by the prints of Jasper Johns and Helen Frankenthaler

Can you talk more about the process of monoprinting, and what it has added to your work?

Since I am more interested in  spontaneity than precision, and do not need to produce editions, monoprinting is perfect for my needs and is very adaptable to working on fabric. The variation in each print pleases me, and so does reworking or overprinting. I have done simple monoprinting by inking a plate and marking marks in the ink, made collagraph plates and gelatin plates, and use a kind of monoprint technique on  a screen with dyes, in which each subsequent print becomes unique as the dye is gradually used up.

My work is basically collage, with the printed fabrics becoming the elements of the collage. They add so much texture and depth to my work that I can’t imagine creating my work without printing.

What effect do you believe viewing many different techniques and approaches in one gallery will have on the viewer?

The print processes  I use vary in the way they convey the essence of the image I want to portray: crisp, soft, blurry,rough, etc, each process giving a particular effect. My work always involves layers, or the illusion of layers. I hope the variety of print processes and stitching will help the  viewer to look beneath the surface to find these layers. I’d like it to be a process of exploration and discovery.

In your bio, you state “since I didn’t know the rules, I was free to break them and to achieve the kind of spontaneity I was seeking.” Do you advise for young artists to take a similar approach?

Well, it works for me. Everyone needs to learn some technique in their chosen medium, and you can save a lot of time by gathering information from  books, classes, or other artists—I unashamedly pick people’s brains, always hoping to return the favor. However, so much can be learned by just trying and experimenting, and using the resulting mistakes and accidents (which will certainly happen) as opportunities to gain new insights and directions. Stay away from words like “should” or ‘can’t”