This is very interesting for printmakers and other artists! Artist-blogger Gregg Chadwick at Speed of Life has written:

Kathan Brown, the founder of San Francisco’s Crown Point Press, has a new book out – “Magical Secrets about Thinking Creatively: The Art of Etching and the Truth of Life”. The book is put together as a series of thirteen creative secrets gathered from working with contemporary artists as they created etchings at Crown Point.[…] Kathan writes clearly about the process of creation, the decisions involved, and the benefits of collaboration. The mix of artistic styles among the artists discussed is refreshing and inspiring.

There’s even a Magical Secrets website where you can download the first chapter AND a blog.

As a printmaker, I’ve long been aware of Kathan Brown and her famed Crown Point Press for its printmaking studio and as a publisher of books. Nearly two years ago I wrote this about a Virtual Exhibition of 35 Years at Crown Point Press (still active!) by the National Gallery of Art, Washington: Crown Point Press, a community studio in San Francisco founded by Kathan Brown, was a gathering place for artists to share ideas and equipment. Many of the best-known American painters, sculptors, and other artists, collaborated with the master printers here to create printworks. You can see a number of these prints in this virtual exhibition along with some discussion of printmaking techniques and a history of contemporary printmaking.

I love my copy of Ink, Paper, Metal, Wood: Painters and Sculptors at Crown Point Press by Kathan Brown, 1996 Chronicle Books, and recommend it highly for other printmakers. (It’s not to be confused with Ink, Paper, Metal, Wood: How to Recognize Contemporary Artists’ Prints, also by Kathan Brown, which is a handbook containing descriptions of all the printmaking processes with an emphasis on intaglio – good for students.) I’m really very tempted to get Magical Secrets!