Ruth Faerber

Born in 1922 and determined to be an artist, I left school early to attend painting and drawing classes in the private studios of some of today╒s most acclaimed Australian artists. My first job as a junior commercial artist was with a printing firm which specialised in the photogravure print process. However it was only when Fulbright Scholarship winner Joy Ewart later established the Workshop Arts Centre (the first ever private tuition centre for Printmaking in Sydney) that I became a foundation student of her lithography class, and then a member of the newly launched Sydney Printmakers group. The art scene in Sydney had expanded significantly after emigre post-war artists from Europe brought with them a long established tradition in printmaking. So it was in 1963, in one of the newly opened city galleries, that I held the first of my subsequent 40 odd print exhibitions in Australia and overseas. It so happened that because archival quality printing paper was imported and was in short supply, I decided to make my own, attending a workshop in 1980 at the Tasmanian Art School, which also led me to making an exciting new discovery. I found that by using my freshly pressed damp, but not dried handmade paper, using a process of bas-relief casting and hand painting, I could create print editions inspired by my special interest in archeology. I began making prints, not only on paper but in paper .... images of weathered rocks and ancient sites, a metaphor for me of the passage of time and the endurance of the human spirit.