Meet the Maker: Craig Keenan
Cover photo taken by Matthew Johnson.
Hello! My name is Craig Keenan, and I am a printmaker specialising specifically in Cyanotypes, but my background is in silkscreen printing. I worked as a screen print technician at a big East London studio for about 13 years, where I managed the studio and taught workshops twice a week. I also ran a screen printing business producing work for anyone who needed something printed onto something. This drove me to specialise in cyanotype printmaking as an alternative creative outlet to my everyday working life.
Describe your printmaking process.
My printmaking process is quite free but also quite structured. This is mirrored quite nicely in the fact that the work I make is 50% digital and 50% analogue. So I take or make photographs with a digital camera, then manipulate on photoshop in order to create digital negatives. I then use those negatives to contact print onto substrates I've pre-prepared with a light-sensitive chemical. This is the analogue part. Once exposed, they’re stopped, developed, and fixed with water. The water's reaction to the chemicals results in a beautiful Prussian blue colour.
How and where did you learn to print?
I learned to print at the screen printing studio in Dalston. I worked in an art supply store where I met the head printmaker. He invited me to the studio, and the rest is history! I really have two people to thank for opening certain doors for me. Marco Lawrence for introducing me to printmaking and Ben Rider for introducing me to Cyanotypes specifically. Without those two, who knows what I'd be up to now!
Why printmaking?
I love printmaking for a few reasons. It’s a fun process you can get lost in. There is a strict set of actions you need to adhere to in order to make it work. But there’s room to play around once you’ve mastered it. You produce multiples, meaning you never have to let go of any work you make. And it’s more affordable to sell to people. I like having constraints or limiting factors in creativity, too much freedom can result in creative paralysis!
Where do you work?
I work primarily out of my studio in Dalston!
Describe a typical day in your studio.
My days vary quite a bit. One day I might be taking or making pictures. The next I might be preparing prints, and/or actually producing them. If I've got a show coming up, I might have lots of wrapping, packaging and pricing to do. I’m also a picture framer, so sometimes I spend days fitting up artwork to frames. Super varied. Which keeps it interesting!
How long have you been printmaking?
About 15 or so years! (Old.)
What inspires you?
Other artists, I think. That could be in any genre. Film, Visual Arts, Photography, Music, etc. I get inspired by seeing things I never could have conceived of. Also science in a lot of ways. Nature and science occupy my mind a lot.
What is your favourite printmaking product?
That would have to be Potassium Ferricyanide and Ammonium Ferric Citrate. (The chemicals needed to make cyanotypes.)
What have you made that you are most proud of?
A few things. Maybe the Adidas collab for their shop entrance in Shoreditch. That or the ghost print, which I got into the RA summer show for the first time with. (That’s probably the most popular thing I've ever made.)
Where can we see your work? Where do you sell?
I sell with a few galleries, but Art Friend Gallery probably sell most of my work. Or my website or Instagram.
What will we be seeing from you next?
Horses. I'm slightly obsessed with horses at the moment. Vintage photography and horses. That’s me. And the introduction of colour into my work. Something I've struggled with for forever.
Do you have any advice for other printmakers and creatives?
Just get on it. Do it. Enjoy doing it and be authentic. It resonates more with people when it’s not forced or contrived. Unless you’re just doing it for money, in which case you can just churn out lowest common denominator naff, but there's no longevity or true fulfilment in that, I'd say. But what do I know? Maybe that’s just me.
To see more from Craig, follow him on Instagram!
If you're interested in experimenting with Cyanotype, visit our website, where everything you need is there if you want to give it a go!
