Description
John Cage has been influential most of my art life. I loved talking about his 4’39” piano performance, his prepared piano concerts, how his 99 mushroom stories challenged my ways of thinking and listening. Thus, it was a huge privilege for me to spend one day at Crown Point Press watching Cage create and print.
There, aided by 12 studio assistants, Cage created his H/V collection of prints. I watched him direct the assistants to obscure the colors of the cans of ink with paper and bundle copper plates by size. His rationale: “Very simple. To remove the ego from art making.”
That day, as low person on the totem pole, I stood far back from the press. After the first piece of paper was rolled through the press, the master printer lifted the press blankets, then the paper to show us the result. As everyone oohed and aahed, I thought— “Oh!! Just a little bit of ego!” Meaning just a tiny bit of choice.
In my first attempt to recreate a John Cage like print with just a little bit of ego, I quickly realized that I was only one person without an army of assistants. I grappled with how to proceed.
Last year I used a small table top spinner that aligned with my 12 tubes of ink, numbered 1 through 12. That way I couldn’t choose which color to use: the spinner mostly dictated my process. But sometimes I added a bit of ego by deciding when to ignore the spinner, to add some color of my own choice. Thus, my prints combine contrary approaches to art: the intention of the artist (her ego) nullified by randomness.
