Amy Nack: On the Ritual and Process of Printmaking

Amy Nack is a Boise-based artist and printmaker whose practice centers on the expressive possibilities of hand-pulled prints and paper arts. She is the founder of Wingtip Press, a community printmaking studio dedicated to fostering collaboration, education, and the preservation of traditional print processes. With a background in both fine art and art education, Amy creates works that often explore the interplay between texture, pattern, and narrative, drawing inspiration from the natural world and the rhythms of daily life.

Amy sat down with us to discuss how she got into printmaking and what she will be teaching at her workshops coming up this weekend, September 12 and 13.

After a 3-decade career in paper and graphics marketing, what led you to a fine art renaissance in your career? Lots of people dream about this – but you actually did it!

I took a printmaking workshop in Italy the summer of 2024 and after returning to Boise, I wanted to take an Art History Class about the Italian Renaissance. After registering, I walked by the printmaking lab and peeked in. The instructor saw me, welcomed me in, and convinced me to show up the next day. I showed up the next day and left 4 years later.

You have a studio in Boise called Wingtip Press, can you tell us a little bit about it. Is it an open artist studio? Do you do custom printing? What kind of printing do you do?

I opened Wingtip with a partner in 2009 with the goal of making art and offering workshops. It started in my garage and then moved downtown. We did several community art projects, offered monotype, relief, and intaglio workshops, and brought in visiting artists. The shop was closed in 2021 due to COVID, but I soon discovered that making art and prepping for workshops on my dining table just couldn’t cut it. I am in the process now of outfitting a new studio and hope to commit to my own art making again. 

You have been a paper artist for many years now, and bring a long professional career to your artmaking. Having spent many decades working with paper, what inspires you about it – paper that is? About the printmaking process? You have a unique perspective on it.

My very first job was in the basement stockroom at F. W. Woolworths, making signs on a small spring-operated letter press. After college, I spent a few decades in the paper and packaging business and have seen paper being made industrially and by hand by Japanese artisans. I love paper’s resiliency, its texture, and most of all its willingness to receive a variety of marks from a broad array of tools to become a precious piece of art.  

I see that you are a teaching artist for the Idaho Commission of the Arts. That’s an amazing role. Can you share with us what excites you most about working teens and kids?

I love the energy and the willingness of teens and kids. The younger the student, the less likely they are to have developed their inner critics. I just need to silence mine.

I personally love printmaking but have found it’s the most secret and unsung of the art genres. Most people know about sculpture and painting, but less about printmaking. Share a little with us the magic of printmaking!

Printmaking requires a ritual of processes and tools that despite the ritual, there is mystery in the outcome once the paper is peeled from the block. I love process and I embrace that mystery and surprise.

Speaking of secrets, can you share with us exactly what Pochoir is and means! We are hosting the Teen Workshop - Pochoir Monotypes this Friday.

Pochoir means “stencil”  in France.  It was popular for making multi colored prints, particularly for fashion magazines and  advertisements.  In this class, we will be inking a large plate of plexi in one color and will be rolling ink on the paper stencils to create a multi colored print. Then we will flip those stencils and reposition them to produce a multi-colored, multi-layered print.  This is  always a favorite process of my Boise State Intro to Printmaking class.

Also, please explain drypoint printmaking to those who may not be familiar with the process. Do you have any favorite works of art that are drypoint?

Drypoint requires a sharp tool, like a needle to incise the surface of a plate of copper, zinc or plastic. We will be using a thin plexi plate to incise our image, which can be either representational or non-representation. Ink is forced into the incised lines and run through an etching press.  If the registered students have a particular image they would like to use  as a guideline, they can size it to 5 x 7 for our class.  

There are too many to name, But I  do love Whistler’s drypoint, Mary Cassatt and of course, Rembrandt. Cy Twombly, whose work is non-represenational is also one of my favorites.