About the Artist

Heather Page is a multi-media artist, collaborative printmaker, and educator from the Rocky Mountain foothills in Colorado.

Ms. Page works in and teaches a wide array of media, including book arts, drawing, installation art, mixed-media, painting, printmaking, and weaving.

An avid hiker, Ms. Page finds the source material for much of her work in the foothills and mountains close to her home. She is particularly drawn to flora like lichens, fungi, and weeds for their lacy, calligraphic, and repetitive structures as well as their roles in rejuvenating and reshaping nature.

Ms. Page has an M.F.A. in printmaking from the University of Wisconsin in Madison, Wisconsin, a Tamarind Professional Printer Certificate from the Tamarind Institute of Lithography in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and a B.F.A. in printmaking and painting from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Michigan. She has also worked in print studios in Canada and France.

About Prints

We make prints by transferring a substance (ink, paint, pencil…) from one surface to another. Think of a thumbprint. You push your thumb on an ink pad, then press it on a piece of paper. That’s a relief print!

There are four main ways in which we transfer ink: intaglio, lithography, relief, and stencils. Most prints start with an image or text that we carve, draw, paint, or transfer onto a plate, stone, or screen (the print matrix).

To make a print, we…

Ink the matrix
Align the printing paper (or fabric, or fur, etc.) to the matrix
Press the matrix and paper together by hand or with a press. This transfers the ink to the paper.

Each kind of printmaking can make more than one print. Some processes create just a few good prints before the matrix degrades. Some can be used to print hundreds of prints. So, the number of prints in an edition (group of prints) depends on which processes and presses the printer uses as well as how many prints the artist wants to make. What we printmakers want you to know is that we make artistic decisions at every step of the printing process. That’s why we call our prints “original prints” or “handmade prints” in an effort to distinguish our work from “limited edition prints”. Limited edition prints are reproductions of artworks usually made in other medias. How can you tell which is which? Ask for the print documentation. Or just start talking with the artist about the processes involved. For more information, check out my About Prints page or the following videos:

Here’s an introductory video about printmaking: What is a Print? by MOMA
And here’s a more in-depth video about printmaking: The Printed Line: An Introduction to Printmaking Techniques