Stop 3

Virtual World Tour 2021 Demonstration 3

Academy for Visual Arts, Ghent, Belgium

Duration: 2 hours, 15 minutes

DIY Soft Ground with Marnix Everaert

Marnix Everaert first came to Zea Mays Printmaking when John Schultz (SMFA) brought him for a spontaneous visit in 2012. We had just moved into our new building and were hosting a visiting papermaker from Japan, who just happened to know Marnix! Sometimes the world feels small indeed. This serendipitous meeting began a near decade-long relationship between Marnix and Zea Mays Printmaking. He returned to ZMP in 2015 and 2017 for residencies where he immersed himself in etching and shared a few of his fantastic techniques with us, including DIY Soft Ground and Acrylic Manière Noir.

Marnix teaches Printmaking at the Academy for Visual Arts Ghent and travels the world conducting workshops on sustainable printmaking. In 2019, Marnix and Shichio Minato organized A Green Dream?, the first ever international symposium on safer printmaking in Kanazawa, Japan. Marnix is an innovator and ambassador of safer printmaking, whose focus is always on equity of access to materials and open sharing of techniques.

In 2006 Marnix spent time in South Africa as an instructor, setting up a small non-toxic printmaking studio in an orphanage in KwaZulu Natal. During that stay, he was confronted by the fact that not every printmaker on this planet gets the possibility to buy safer printmaking products in the local shop or online. The products that we so easily can buy in Europe and North America are too expensive for some, or just difficult to get in the part of the world where the artist is living.

Back in Belgium, he started playing with the idea of “Why not make some grounds ourselves?” Grounds made with materials that are available everywhere. A mixture that is safe to use, produce and helps move towards the safer and more sustainable printmaking world we all dream of. And, of course, making the formula open source so everyone can benefit from this idea.

During Marnix’s demonstration, he shows us how to prepare a do-it-yourself soft ground for etching based upon two simple ingredients that are available everywhere. Further, he demonstrates how to apply the ground, etch and print. He also focuses on clean-up and how to use as little water as possible for the job. In addition to the demonstration, Marnix gives us a tour of the printmaking studio at the Academy for Visual Arts in Ghent.