I am so delighted to introduce you to Ele Willoughby, a Toronto-based print maker and one of the best craft show neighbours ever! Ele doesn't come from a traditional art background, she has a PhD in geophysics, and her stories from being out in the field are always fascinating. Her analytical science background translates really well into her art with a process that is so precise and technical.
Even though this isn't art related I have to continue to brag about her because back in 2017 Ele was on the short list to become a Canadian Astronaut! There were over 3700 applicants from across Canada and Ele was in the top 72. How insanely cool is that?
What does handmade mean to you?
It turns out that it's hard to make a tidy definition, but handmade to me is the opposite of mass produced. A real person thought up the item and brought it into being using their own hands. They may use tools (even those we think of as high technology), but they employed their creativity, skill and labour to do it.
How long have your been working in your chosen medium? Did you attend college or university to learn your craft?
I sometimes joke that my education as an artist is a doctorate in physics. I have a lot of schooling but it's not directly related to my art practice (apart from the strong influence on subject matter). But, I had the good fortune to attend class at the Art Gallery of Ontario Gallery School from the age of 10, where I first learned printmaking including linocut, etching and screen printing. So, I have been working in this medium for decades! I have taken various courses and workshops over the years, including moku hanga (traditional Japanese woodblock printing) and assorted printmaking classes offered by Open Studio here in Toronto. I also sometimes include my science skills in my art-making, when I work with electrically conductive ink, electronics, thermochromic and UV-activated pigments and make interactive multimedia work.
I'm thankful that printmakers are by and large a very welcoming lot and I don't encounter a lot of gate-keeping based on secondary education and formal qualifications. They recognize you as a printmaker if you are printmaking and doing the work of the traditional printmaking methods.
Tell me about your process. What would surprise people about your process? Is there a part of your process that you don't enjoy?
I make relief prints, which means that I carve away the negative space on a block (usually linoleum, or artists’ materials which mimic lino but are a bit softer, sometimes call "softoleum" or sometimes vinyl). Then, I ink it and then print it onto paper or fabric. For me the process starts with drawing, sometimes on paper and sometimes directly on the block. I have to draw everything in reverse (because the printing process reflects an image as in the mirror). Think of the way a typewriter works, or a rubber stamp; the fundamental concept is the same. I often use a lot of photographs as reference material and sometimes I plan out a composition on the computer in advance. I carve away everything that isn't to be inked, all the background or negative space. Then I mix my inks on a palette and roll it out with a brayer (which is like a hard rubber roller) and onto the block. I have a couple of small simple presses, but I usually print by hand using a Japanese printmaking tool called a baren. I have a traditional one which is a flat disk covered in a bamboo leaf tied to make a handle on the back, but also use modern wood and plastic ones (which work well!). I burnish the paper onto the inked block and then carefully peel it back to reveal the print. You can make multiples by re-inking the block and repeating on a new sheet of paper, but unlike "archival prints" or "digital prints" where an artist uses a computer printer and can print limitless numbers, each and every print is made with my hands and elbow grease, as they say. Each print is also editioned and numbered and a human could never make an infinite number!
There are a few different ways you can get a multicolour print using this technique. You can ink different areas of a single block carefully with different colours. This is called inking "à la poupée" - it's 'doll style' because each area and tool is small and doll-sized. I often do this. You can carve multiple blocks to print different areas with different colours. I sometimes do this, but to be honest, registration - the careful alignment of the blocks and papers so that every print is the same and the colours line up as intended is finicky and my least favourite thing, so I tend to avoid it as much as possible. The third method is using "Chine-collé" or printing areas on to delicate coloured papers and affixing them to the main print. The term comes from French: collé means glued and Chine is for papier chine, or delicate handmade papers from China, India or Japan. Traditionally this is done in the press or with precut papers but I've adapted it to my purposes. Since I print by hand (and produce less pressure than a press) and use Japanese papers almost exclusively, I will collage coloured, or even patterned cut papers after making the key print. You can, and I do, combine all three methods.
There is a final method called a reduction print (or sometimes, unfortunately, a "suicide block"). This method involves using a single block for multiple multicolour inkings. After each colour is printed, you carve away more of the block and then over-print the remaining smaller area in a new colour. You often continue until you have virtually carved the whole block. You print is therefore by definition a limited edition; each successive colour destroys more of the block and there is no going back. I almost never use this technique. I like going back and revisiting and reinterpreting prints. This just doesn't suit my personality.
What about your chosen medium(s) made you pursue your craft?
I loved printmaking from childhood, though I loved other media as well. When I returned to it as a young adult, it was because of the means of making multiples. It's a medium that I can make and sell at a reasonable price point because I can make multiple prints from the same block, so it allows me to share my art with more people. Also, I just really love carving!
If you could work in any other medium, what would it be?
Sculpture. I always enjoyed sculpture and thinking in three dimensions. The carving still gives me that dimensionality (even if in low relief). I've started to do more multimedia and think about how to move my prints into the third (and occasionally fourth, as in time-varying) dimensions!
What is the most important thing you want people to know about your work?
I carved every single image in reverse and used my own hands (and arm strength!) to print them onto paper.
What is your greatest accomplishment, or the thing you are most proud of achieving with your art?
This is a hard question! I'm very pleased to have developed an identifiable style. I didn't set out to do things a certain way or according to a set of rules, but I find that my own output is distinctive. I'm really glad to see that my work has been purchased by a few international museums; I find that really exciting. I'm proud that I've had some big clients who brought some work to a wider audience. I'm proud to have helped run a gallery for a year and curate shows. It's hard to choose a greatest accomplishment. In a lot of ways, I think taking my own self-expression seriously and putting it out there is something I think is an accomplishment.
What has been your biggest challenge while pursuing your art?
I think like most artists, economics are the biggest challenge! I've managed to find a way to work from my own home. Promoting my own work is time consuming, but technology makes it much easier than in the past. But I always wish I had more time, and often that translates to money, with which I could afford to farm out some of my non-art responsibilities (whether that means getting help with shipping and other aspects of running a small business, or childcare and so on).
Has the confusion surrounding the term "handmade" affected your business/practice? What are your thoughts on re-sellers?
Printmakers specifically struggle because the word "print", which we have used for centuries to mean an image made with relief prints, etchings, screen prints, lithographs and other traditional methods, is now also used to mean a digital reproduction made by a machine. To my mind, these digital prints are still handmade, in that an artist made them with either real media or on the computer - but each one is not an original. It's a reproduction. And the value in terms of the material costs and labour of a single digital reproduction (one of a potentially infinite number) versus a traditional and original print made by an artist's hands (one of an edition or smallish open edition) is not comparable. But printmakers are competing with machines when it comes to price, and often have to keep prices as low as or lower than a reproduction produced by pushing a button.
I don't knock digital reproductions; this is a means for artists to make a better income and a democratizing force on art by making it more accessible to more people. These are very good things. One of the ways I can make a living is by licensing my artwork to be digitally reproduced (say, for illustrations in books and periodicals, or on clothing or other products). So I love that this exists and gets more art to more people! But handmade is a separate, special thing. I love having customers who understand that and I would love for that to be better known by more people.
One of the other things I do is organize craft shows. We work hard to have a jury of handmakers so that we can properly assess that work is indeed skilled handwork. The sad thing is that re-sellers can sometimes be quite sophisticated at disguising themselves, but we work hard to catch and reject those who merely import, repackage and resell items (often machine made and passed off as handmade).
How do you (and how can we) educate consumers about what handmade actually means?
For in-person sales, I've started to bring actual blocks with me so I can show people; I carved this by hand and then printed it. As an artist, I also view social media as part of my job. So I'm always sharing images of my process. Here's a drawing on a block, or a block being carved. Here's an edition I've printed laying out to dry. Process videos are even better. I enjoy your videos of flame-work and should post more of me physically printing! "The reveal" videos are pretty popular with the printmakers, as they slowly pull the print away from the block!
I think it would be great to get more exposure to more art in schools. Give more children more chances to try a greater variety of media. Get more artists into the schools to share their processes.
Lastly, if you want to support artists and makers and collect art, a good way to make sure you are investing in handmade goods is to learn more about the artists. These days it's easy to follow people online. You can actually see how they produce their work and you might find it then has more meaning for you.
How has being an artist changed the way you shop?
The gifts I give are almost exclusively made by artists (if I include authors as artists). I give handmade items and books. I love printmaking but I also really love handmade work that I could never make. I have a lot of respect for the work that goes into producing things by hand and I appreciate things that will last (and hence have a lower environment impact).
Who are your favourite makers?
That's like asking my favourite child! Luckily I only have one child...but I have so many favourite makers. Any list would be incomplete!
I have about 4000 favourite Etsy shops, for instance. You can have a look here. I could spend many hours trying to figure out a list of favourites. Instead, here's just smattering of a few great artists & makers: Horse Fiddle Press, Animal Sleep, Tugboat Printshop, Emma Kidd, Tosca Terran, Annie Bissett, the Vexed Muddler, Hine Mizushima, SHiliconfETTI°, Story of a Seed