Lohner Rework 1 & 2

Harold Lohner

Interview by L. Valena

November 28, 2022

Can you start by telling me about the prompt that you responded to?

I really liked the image. It seemed like a woodcut or something like that. It was very dense, there was a lot of black in it, and I wasn't really sure what to do. I do work digitally sometimes, and I make conventional prints. I was working on something else at the same time, so I thought I would take it into the print shop and work on it the old-fashioned way. Typically I do monoprints, and I do one color at a time. As I added a layer onto the monoprint series I was working on, I would also add that color to the printout of the image I had been given.

Cool! How did you decide to go in that direction? What was your thought process?

I've got to say there wasn't a lot of thought. It was more automatic. I kind of didn't want to alter the image; I wanted to embellish it, camouflage it, lose it in the textures that I printed on.

That's a really interesting impulse. Is that the right word?

I think so! I have done monoprints on some of my other prints, and on prints that I've bought at this weird store that sells repurposed art materials. I would print over the prints and then start something else on top. I was thinking about putting another image on top, but then when I got the textures on there, I thought that was a good place to stop.

So you took a printout of the piece that we gave you, and layered on top of that.

Yeah. For patterns and textures and things, I collect stuff. Placemats, plastic tablecloths, different kinds of things that have textures and patterns on them. I ink them up and then print them.

You've touched on this a little bit, but can you say how this relates to the rest of your work?

I love layers of color, pattern and textures. I love what it does. It’s kind of dazzling to the eyes. When you get up close, you can't see the image, and when you see it from far away, you can. When I'm looking at the piece here, I can barely see the image, but then when I scan it, I can see it again. I love that kind of thing.

I love that word 'dazzle.' That reminds me of dazzle camo, which is the coolest thing.

I find patterns almost hypnotic. I couldn't have wallpaper in my house, because I would be staring at it. Years ago, I had a therapist, and she just stopped and said, "What are you looking at?" And I was like, "I'm looking at the pattern on the wallpaper. I can't stop looking at it!

"It's moving!"

They do! And different kinds of light changes it.

Do you have any advice for another artist approaching this project for the first time?

Just relax, and respond automatically. I don't like to overthink things too much.

Call Number: Y93VA | Y96VA.loLo

Harold Lohner is a printmaker and font designer living in Phoenix, AZ. He is Professor Emeritus of Art at Russell Sage College in Albany, NY and has exhibited his prints nationally. He has been an artist-in-residence at Yaddo in Saratoga Springs, NY and Kala in Berkeley, CA, among other sites.