Written by Miranda K. Metcalf Published 23rd October 2019
I studied printmaking during my master’s in art history and loved every minute of it, making me, and I don’t know if this is an exaggeration to say, one of the few people working within the contemporary printmaking global community strictly as a curator, writer, and advocate without a personal printmaking practice. I’ve dabbled of course, but always, when looking over my attempts, come back to the apt phrase: stay in your lane. This is when I first had the idea for PCL. I wanted a place where our close knit, but geographically divided community could gather, share our stories and learn from one another – our successes as well as our filled in tusche washes.
Like many lithographers – and one could argue that perhaps it is a necessary if not sufficient quality to be a lithographer – Lancaster enjoyed the challenges of all things lithography. When something doesn’t go the way it should, there are innumerable possibilities. In lithography one is dealing with mercurial chemistry, the temperature and humidity of the day, or even where the sun comes in through the window. All of that could affect how the printing went. Lancaster eventually found his way to the Tamarind Book of Lithography, which he lovingly refers to as the bible during our interview, and admits that he probably highlighted the book from cover to cover before he was done with it while mastering the craft.
When he learned about the Tamarind course he knew he had to attend. He got his references, applied, packed up and moved from Melbourne to Albuquerque to attend their printer trainer program. At the time, what is now a year long course was condensed into four and a half months, “It was like military school,” he recalls. From that first year of students, then as now, only two people are selected to go on to the second. In the second year, students work in the Tamarind editioning studio alongside the master printer creating lithographs with incredible artists from around the world. Tamarind has produced editions with George Miyasaki, Jim Dine, Judy Chicago, Nick Cave and Kiki Smith to name a few. Yet, Lancaster didn’t even apply for the second year. He was too keen to get to Melbourne are start his own print shop.
Once he was back in Australia, he worked for a year as the technician at the University of Melbourne before he threw it all in to focus on his own publishing shop. “People thought I was crazy, it was a regular salary,” he says, “but I was driven to start my own print shop.”
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