LS-Drew Graphics, "kitchen-table" humble beginnings
I started changing photos I had printed in fine art non-silver processes to fabric screenprints--1, 2, 3, or 4 colors--in the late 1980's. The challenge was often to simplify a softer, more continuous-tone image into a high-contrast & more colorful screenprint. I had recently become fascinated by how layered colors printed on fabric looked. I started printing on white shirts and allowing that aspect to help transparent colors show through better.
(Must have been my earlier watercolor-painting training as well). I had a few influences from Pop Art to guide me, it seemed very natural since I grew up looking at those kinds of prints. I must add that we didn't have the internet to rely on back then, for marketing or even showing our work to others until 1996, and it was rudimentary at that point.
I took a break from my fabric screenprinting from 1998-2005 for various reasons, including attending graduate school. I then re-started my business with the intent to really get my stuff out there. I have more recently incorporated dyeing into my repertoire, I find I really love doing it; and printing on colored fabric is now much more appealing and sells better too. I am currently a one-person shop working from home (with a day job too), which I have always done since the beginning, and I'm absorbing more about this process and its challenges every day.
