I taught myself how to screen print nearly twelve years ago by reading anything I could get my hands on about the process and lots of trial and error. My initial drive to learn to screen print was to make t-shirts for my band to sell on tour. That went well, and I printed a lot of shirts. I eventually landed a few temporary jobs at large print shops when my band was home from tour and I learned a lot more. At some point I stumbled upon the idea of printing gigposters and art prints on paper and my focus shifted from t-shirts to paper. I love printing on paper. I love drawing with pen and ink. I love composing and coloring those drawings on the computer and then watching them come to life layer by layer through the mesh of a screen on my printing table. I love the smell of ink.

Why the name, The Black Arts Studio? Well, when I was learning to screen print it had an almost magical quality to it. I often found myself thinking "how the heck do they do that?" It seemed like some kind of sorcery. And that word, sorcery, has followed me around through many conversations with people about screen printing. It seems like a lot of people are mystified by the process. The name also has a historical root in printmaking. Print making has been called the black art since Gutenburg invented the first moveable-type printing press. Some say it is because the typesetters hands and arms would be stained black from the ink and metal, some say it is because people of that time thought the ability to reproduce a bible so quickly had to be the work of the devil. And others say the term just comes from the fact that printers throughout history tended to be superstitious types who blamed errors on shop demons (hence the naming of printing shop apprentices as "printers devils"). So I chose to name my shop The Black Arts Studio for a number of reasons. The black ink that I always end up with stuck under my fingernails, the historical reference to printmaking history, and the many times I have heard the word sorcery used to describe screen printing.....and also......it just sounds cool!