Stop 8

Virtual World Tour 2021 Demonstration 8

University of Fukui, Fukui, Japan
September 4, 2021

Duration: 66 minutes

Developing New Etching Grounds with Shichio Minato

Liz first met Shichio Minato on the BART train going from Oakland to San Francisco during the Southern Graphics International Conference in 2014. Little did she know that this chance meeting would result in a series of wonderful collaborations.

Shichio is Professor of Art at Fukui University, Fukui, Japan. He organized the 2019 Symposium The Green Dream? along with Marnix Everaert – the first symposium on safer printmaking in Japan. This lively combination of lectures, demonstrations and exhibitions brought artists from Japan, China, Indonesia, Europe, Australia, Canada and the US together to share technical know-how and philosophies around the future of Green Printmaking. Shichio invited Zea May’s Liz Chalfin to present at the symposium and the bond was formed.

Now Shichio is focusing his attention on developing safer solvents and grounds for the Japanese market and beyond. During his demonstration he will show examples and discuss the challenges of developing new printmaking products.

The University of Fukui in Japan, under Shichio’s leadership, has been working on research and development of solvents/cleaners and grounds using rice or soybean-derived materials. Using these techniques, the Printmaking Studio at the university is creating prints that are not only environmentally friendly, but beautiful and elegant.

Professor Shichio Minato gives a tour of both the studio at the university and his own compact studio at home. He then demonstrates how to use the safer liquid hard-ground techniques developed at the studio, as well as diving deep into the process that went into researching these exciting new methods.