Ken Pate
Ken Pate
snailsleappress.com
www.instagram/snailsleappress
After 6 years of science and liberal arts education at Oregon State University it was time for me to get serious about declaring a major and thinking about a career. My roommate, Chris Gum, was in the same boat and we tossed that ball around often. Then one day Chris said that he was going to take a ceramics class again. I hadn’t known he had taken any pottery classes in the past, but it kind of perked my interest especially since my mother taught flower arranging and design classes in San Jose, CA. So I signed up as well, and for the next 25 years pottery was my profession and sole means of income.
My studio was always at my residence where I made all my clay and glazes and fired my kilns, some of them fired with wood. I sold my pots a fairs and festival mostly, though I had several galleries and shops that carried my work as well. In the early days it was a meager living, but eventually it all payed off.
In the year 2000 it was time for a big switch. All the time that I was making pots I kept at other arts, mainly drawing and watercolors, always thinking I might like to be a printmaker/etcher someday. So in 2000, I stopped making pots and went back to school at the University of Oregon in Eugene majoring in printmaking. For about a year and a half I studied printmaking with Peggy Prentice, and drawing with Ron Graff, as well as other media with other professors. I loved it there and feel grateful for all the knowledge and support I received. Eventually after a few years of practice and study I grew confident enough to sell my pottery equipment and buy an etching press, and I’ve never looked back.
Printmaking, particularly etching, has gone through major changes over the last few decades. I originally learned a traditional method of etching using copper plates and nitric acid to “etch” my imagery into the copper plate. I then inked and wiped the plate and printed the image onto dampened paper with an etching press. But a new non-toxic method for creating “intaglio” plates using polymer plates was growing rapidly and eventually I learned and heartily embraced this change. This change, along with the advent of “water soluble” oil based inks, has made printmaking a safe and welcoming media, and has opened new avenues of creativity and design in the world of printmaking.
My studio was always at my residence where I made all my clay and glazes and fired my kilns, some of them fired with wood. I sold my pots a fairs and festival mostly, though I had several galleries and shops that carried my work as well. In the early days it was a meager living, but eventually it all payed off.
In the year 2000 it was time for a big switch. All the time that I was making pots I kept at other arts, mainly drawing and watercolors, always thinking I might like to be a printmaker/etcher someday. So in 2000, I stopped making pots and went back to school at the University of Oregon in Eugene majoring in printmaking. For about a year and a half I studied printmaking with Peggy Prentice, and drawing with Ron Graff, as well as other media with other professors. I loved it there and feel grateful for all the knowledge and support I received. Eventually after a few years of practice and study I grew confident enough to sell my pottery equipment and buy an etching press, and I’ve never looked back.
Printmaking, particularly etching, has gone through major changes over the last few decades. I originally learned a traditional method of etching using copper plates and nitric acid to “etch” my imagery into the copper plate. I then inked and wiped the plate and printed the image onto dampened paper with an etching press. But a new non-toxic method for creating “intaglio” plates using polymer plates was growing rapidly and eventually I learned and heartily embraced this change. This change, along with the advent of “water soluble” oil based inks, has made printmaking a safe and welcoming media, and has opened new avenues of creativity and design in the world of printmaking.
