Episode #185: Filmed in 2002 at the printmaking workshop Harlan & Weaver, artist Kiki Smith discusses the challenges and pleasures of printmaking. Shown working on a portrait titled "Two" (2002), Smith and the workshop's master printers make numerous proofs and revisions until she is pleased with the image. Using ink on paper, Smith combines traditional and self-taught etching techniques in her attempts to represent the subtleties of human flesh.

Kiki Smith's work explores the body as a receptacle for knowledge, belief, and storytelling. Her sculptures, drawings, and prints are often meditations on mortality, incorporating animals, domestic objects, and narrative tropes from classical mythology and folk tales.

Learn more about the artist at:
http://www.art21.org/artists/kiki-smith

CREDITS: Producer: Ian Forster. Consulting Producer: Wesley Miller & Nick Ravich. Interview: Eve Moros Ortega. Camera: Mead Hunt. Sound: Bill Wander. Editor: Morgan Riles. Artwork Courtesy: Kiki Smith & Harlan & Weaver, New York. Theme Music: Peter Foley.