In September 2024, Michael Massie and I travelled to St. John’s, Newfoundland to meet with one of the printmakers at St. Michael’s Print Shop, a renowned printing studio. Michael had recently turned to creating graphic art and wished to revisit printmaking, a media he had not pursued since his student years. St. Michael’s was not only the obvious choice as Michael lives locally, but because of its history; for 50 years artists from across Canada have made the pilgrimage to this studio. Watching the creation of this extraordinary print, At Home With Kenojuak (2024) was an extraordinary experience for us both. We had not anticipated the fascinating journey to make a collagraph print, nor the difficulty. The matrix, or original drawing, consisted of a design created with string and sand.
Mixing the pigments to make the variations of colours was itself challenging and took the greater part of a day.
Once that was done, it required a minimum of six hours of inking the matrix by hand to print a single print. In the words of printmaker Margaret Joba-Woodruff, “It is like sitting down to do a five-hour painting that you can’t make any mistakes on; this was certainly one of the trickiest prints I have ever worked on”.
This edition was crafted using collagraphy, an experimental printmaking technique known for producing unique variations in texture, colour blending, and intricate details on each print. The meticulous process involved 12 ink sets to achieve the vibrant, richly layered palette. Instead of using a separate matrix for each colour, the printer, Margaret Joba-Woodruff, carefully applies different printing inks to a single plate, ensuring the colours do not mix. This method allows the coloured image to be produced in a single pass through the press. However, it demands exceptional precision, as preventing the colours from blending is crucial. The process of palming and wiping, which removes excess ink from non-engraved areas, becomes significantly more intricate with this technique. Additionally, the need to meticulously reapply ink between each press run extends the printing process. This approach closely resembles traditional stonecut printing, where all colours are applied to the matrix and printed in a single pull.
The print is prepared for the first pass through the press. Then the fine-tuning begins. A brighter red is added to the sun by hand and a stronger blue to the sky. Finally, a black outline is rolled onto the sun’s rays.
The next print is pulled and approved. Called a BAT or bon à tirer (good to pull); this is the print used as the guide for the edition.
Printmaking has stayed with Massie ever since he first explored the medium in 1989, when his focus was on both painting and printmaking. Now, over 35 years later, he returns to printmaking with the same passion, seamlessly embracing new techniques after dedicating countless hours to creating this edition. The outcome is a limited edition of 12 original collagraph prints by Massie, celebrating Mokami, an iconic mountain in Labrador, and honouring the profound influence of Kenojuak Ashevak on his work.
To view available artworks by Michael Massie, click here.