This week Miranda speaks with journalist and author Holly E. J. Black to talk about her wonderful new book, The Story of Printmaking: A Global History of Art.

If you've ever wished there were a single book that told the story of printmaking, from its origins in East Asia to the contemporary artists pushing the medium forward today, this is that book. Holly manages to tell thousands of years of history without losing sight of what makes printmaking so compelling in the first place: the people, the processes, and the stories behind the prints.

Holly isn't just an art historian or an author. She trained as a printmaker herself, and that practical knowledge comes through on every page. They talk about why printmaking is so difficult to define, the forgotten printers and publishers who shaped art history, Renaissance lawsuits over copied prints, propaganda, politics, Paula Rego, Robert Blackburn, Atelier 17, and why understanding how a print is made is often just as important as understanding why it was made.

They also end up taking a detour into AI, journalism, and why there's something deeply satisfying about reading a book written by someone who clearly spent years in libraries, archives, and print studios rather than asking a chatbot to summarize the internet.

Holly's Substack

Holly's Website

Holly's Instagram

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This week Miranda speaks with artist, educator, community-builder, and all-around creative force Ben Beres.

Ben first joined the podcast way back on episode six of Hello, Print Friend (née Pine | Copper | Lime), and in this episode sits down face-to-face in Chiang Mai, Thailand with Miranda while he was here for a residency at Hello Print Friend Studios.

A lot has happened since 2019. A global pandemic, major shifts in the art world, the loss of loved ones, new creative obsessions, and the inevitable perspective that comes with getting older and staying committed to a life in the arts.

They discuss growing up as the son of a pastor, building community through art, teaching the next generation of artists, and what it means to keep making work when art is no longer just something you do, but something that has become the fabric of your life. They dive into his recent fascination with paper marbling and vitreography, the evolution of his practice over the last several years, and the role that travel, experimentation, and collaboration continue to play in his creative life.

They also talk about his time in Thailand, the prints he created during his residency, finding inspiration in unfamiliar places, and the ways different cultures can challenge our assumptions about how life is supposed to be lived.

This is a conversation about art, grief, curiosity, aging, friendship, and the strange privilege of getting to spend decades doing the thing you love.

Ben Beres' Website

Ben Beres' Instagram

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This week Miranda speaks with Elizabeth Hawley, owner and director of Gallery No. 85 in Seattle, Washington.

Gallery No. 85 now occupies the historic home of Davidson Galleries, one of the most influential print-focused galleries in North America. After fifty years under the stewardship of founder Sam Davidson, the gallery has entered a new chapter, and Elizabeth is the person carrying that legacy forward while building a vision entirely her own.

Elizabeth's path into the print world is anything but conventional. Trained as an art historian and working professionally as an attorney, she brings a deep appreciation for the stories that surround works of art: their creation, collection, preservation, and eventual place in history. In this conversation they discuss everything from her graduate research on world’s fairs and to art law, estate collections, and the emotional relationships people form with the objects they live alongside.

They also talk about the unique challenges and joys of selling contemporary prints, the educational role galleries play, and what it means to inherit a respected institution while trying to build something new. Throughout the conversation, Elizabeth returns to a simple but powerful idea: that art is ultimately about connection: between artists and audiences, objects and histories, and people and one another.

Gallery No. 85 Website

Gallery No. 85 Instagram

The World's Largest Woodcut

Hello, Print Friend Documentaries

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This week Miranda speaks with David Barker of the Muban Education Trust, an organization dedicated to collecting, preserving, researching, and exhibiting contemporary Chinese woodblock prints.

David is a researcher, writer, former professor of printmaking, and one of the leading English-language scholars working on Chinese printmaking today, having contributed to a number of books published by The British Library, The British Museum and The China National Academy of Fine Arts contributing regularly to the journal Printmaking Today. He joins the podcast today in his role as the Senior Research Fellow at the Muban Educational Trust weeks before the trust was to show at the London Original Print Fair.

In this conversation, they discuss the history of the Trust, how a small London-based institution became one of the most important collections of contemporary Chinese woodblock prints outside of China, and the relationships they’ve built with artists and academies across the country over the last three decades.

They talk about the continuing importance of woodblock printing in China, the role of institutions like the Central Academy and Hangzhou Academy in preserving traditional techniques while fostering contemporary experimentation, and why woodblock remains such a vital and evolving medium for young artists today. David also reflects on the educational mission of the Trust, the challenges of collecting and exhibiting contemporary Chinese prints internationally, and the fascinating lineage that connects today’s artists back to some of the earliest print traditions in the world.

The Muban Education Trust

London Original Print Fair

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This week Miranda coming to you from El Barrio Artsspace in New York City, where we recently screened Impresiones de Resistencia: Printmaking in Puerto Rico at the Rafael Tufiño Printmaking Workshop.

This conversation was recorded on-site, and Miranda was joined by artist Oliver Rios, a printmaker and filmmaker who documents the stories of the Puerto Rican diaspora in the city. He helped guide this interview, so a big thank you to Oliver for being part of this moment.

Our guest is Nitza Tufiño, an artist, educator, and one of the key figures behind the workshop itself. As the daughter of legendary printmaker Rafael Tufiño, her life and work are deeply rooted in the history of Puerto Rican printmaking and the cultural movement of El Barrio.

In this conversation, Nitza shares what it means to build and sustain a collective space for artists: one grounded in community, education, and cultural memory. We talk about the role of printmaking as a tool for connection and resistance, the importance of creating spaces where people can see themselves reflected, and the responsibility artists have to carry history forward.

This episode is about more than printmaking. It’s about community, resilience, and the power of art to bring people together.

Nitza's Website

Rafael Tufiño Printmaking Workshop

Hello, Print Friend Residency in Chiang Mai, Thailand

Hello, Print Friend Documentaries

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This week Miranda speaks with Shivangi Ladha and Asha Vaidyanath to talk about Moments of Being, an upcoming exhibition presented by India Printmaker House at the London Original Print Fair.

Together, they share the story behind this year-long curatorial process, one rooted in studio visits, artist-to-artist dialogue, and a deep commitment to supporting emerging voices in contemporary printmaking. We talk about what it means to curate as artists rather than gatekeepers, how intuition and vulnerability shaped the exhibition, and why they chose to move beyond identity as the primary framework for bringing artists together.

This conversation offers a thoughtful look at collaboration, materiality, and the evolving role of printmaking in a global context. It is also a reminder that some of the most compelling exhibitions don’t start with a fixed idea, but with curiosity, trust, and a willingness to listen.

India Printmaker House Instagram

India Printmaker House Website

London Original Print Fair

Hello, Print Friend Documentaries

Hello, Print Friend Residency in Chiang Mai, Thailand

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This week Miranda speaks with Heather Muise—a Canadian printmaker living and working in Greenville, North Carolina, where she’s a teaching professor at East Carolina University. Heather has taught printmaking across continents, including seven years in Dubai, and their conversation moves through all of those layers: place, language, culture, and how those experiences shape what we make.

They talk about Heather’s evolution from being a diehard lithographer—fast, loose, printing full editions in a single day—to falling deeply in love with the slower, more patient demands of etching. We get into her approach to color etching using a CMYK process on a single plate, and how that method connects back to her lithography brain in a way that just clicks.

But the heart of this episode is symbols—how they travel, how they hide meaning in plain sight, and how they can guide a viewer without spelling everything out. Heather shares how growing up bilingual, living abroad, and even experiencing functional illiteracy in a new writing system pushed her deeper into thinking about coded visual language—everything from carpets and borders-within-borders, to tattoo iconography, to dream logic.

Heather received first place in the SGCI Juried Members Exhibition, which is on view February 6 through March 28, 2026, at the Louise Hopkins Underwood Center for the Arts in Lubbock, Texas. If you’re anywhere near there, go see the show.

Heather's Website

Hello, Print Friend Residency in Chiang Mai, Thailand

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This week Miranda speaks with Christie Tirado, a first-generation Mexican American artist, educator, and third-year MFA candidate at UW–Madison.

They talk about leaving a stable teaching career to go back to grad school, building community wherever you land, and how labor, in the field, in the kitchen, and in the studio, becomes an archive. Plus: the print gods, when to walk away after two messed-up prints, and why you should absolutely pair printmaking with salsa dancing whenever possible.

Christie's Website

Christie's Instagram

Hello, Print Friend Residency in Chiang Mai, Thailand

Hello, Print Friend YOUTUBE

Hello, Print Friend MERCH

Hello, Print Friend WEBSITE

Hello, Print Friend INSTAGRAM

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Hello, Print Friend SPONSORS

Legion Paper