Why would a modern-day woman choose the print industry as her profession? Print is typically a male driven industry. A woman may have a difficult time… The later is definitely true, and being understood as a woman in any male driven industry is challenging.

But why is the question, right? Why, is because as a woman I see the romantic in Printing. To run your fingers across a beautiful toothy vellum sheet made from 100% cotton, the texture, how the fibers are woven together, you can feel each one. Or the luxurious feel of an expensive silk or satin sheet, its strong, smooth finish, the ink lays down as if all along it was meant to be there. The written word, a great novel, a song, poetry, art reproductions, photography books, history recorded, each in print… I can get lost in the romance that begins with the printing press.

The challenge of a woman who owns a printing press yes, it is front and center every single day, but I gladly accept the challenge. I accept it because I have a desire to teach a new generation, a generation who believes that print is dead… I desire to show them the romance of print, of art, of paper making, of the transfer of color from one medium to another. I’d like them to see past a lighted screen where images and words come with the same intensity of color, where any word or photograph or design can be changed, edited, modified in an instant. I’d like to know that they wouldn’t totally miss the nuances of color, of light transfer, and shadows that reproduce in their true form, through great print.

Truth is, I’ve been inked! Inked in a different form than some younger than I may take, but inked it is, as a woman, on a road less traveled.

                                                                                                                        Rene Harbison, Oyster Production Co.