Alchohol & Pigment

by Grayson Bagwell
(Brooklyn, Ny, US)

I am Grayson Bagwell, and I live in a Brooklyn, NY. My work is a combination of two passions, printmaking and electronics.

Since I was a child I've been deconstructing various household electronics. I never intended on putting them back together again exactly as they were, I was always searching for a way to make them do something else, something different. My childhood provided me with an instinctual understanding of technical systems and processes. This is what led me to printmaking during my late teens.

I then began to replace my curiosity of electronics with the real world applications of printing processes. Now, I have come full circle and my electronic curiosity has combined with my love for printmaking.

My prints are created through a linear stream of light data collected by a scanner. My work deals with environmental light manipulations, paint, and corrupted information that is read by the scanner.

Using various lighting treatments and an assortment of modifications I’ve made to my scanner I’ve been creating work that is informed both by printmaking and electrical engineering knowledge.

This is how I approach printmaking. I want to show people things that have never been done, and as 'cliché' as it sounds, I want to revolutionize old world printmaking for a modern age. I have the mind to create new things that will be appealing to the community at large.

What is most interesting about these prints, to me, is the investigation that went into them. I had been working with the scanner for nearly half a year before I was truly satisfied with my imagery. I then began creating my own rules and processes around the act of scanning.

As my understanding evolved I began to translate fundamental printmaking rules for reproduction and ways of achieving different kinds of imagery into my work. The thrill of printmaking for me has always come from understanding a process and trying to find "new" ways of achieving an image from it.