The Local: Zoran Mishe
Inside the printmaker’s studio, a needle, a camera and a lifelong devotion to his craft tell the story of what he carries with him.
Printmaker and teacher Zoran Mishe comes from Ohrid,
but Sofia has been the place he chooses to live and make art for more than two decades. He discovered printmaking early on and has been immersed in its possibilities ever since. After graduating from the National Academy of Art, he tried moving into graphic design, but the pull of making things by hand brought him back to fine-art printmaking, this time with a master’s degree. In 2012, he joined forces with fellow artists to set up PRINT NEST STUDIO, an independent print workshop where they could work, experiment and develop their practice. From that first idea to exhibitions in Bulgaria and abroad, PRINT NEST shows how much easier it is to make things happen with the right people around you. Today, Zoran combines several roles: artist, teacher at the Iliya Petrov National School of Fine Arts, doctoral student and assistant lecturer in Printmaking at the National Academy of Art. We step into his creative world through the three things he always carries with him.
Etching needle
Printmaking involves a lot of technical processes, and those processes call for different tools and machines. For me, one of the most important tools, and perhaps the only thing that never leaves my backpack, is this needle. Just a needle with a wooden handle,
which we use in almost every printmaking technique,
from drypoint and etching to the lithographic technique known as 'negro', and even in planographic printing, where it can be used to scrape the lithographic surface. It's a fundamental, very basic tool, yet you can create everything with it.
Camera
Photography has been a hobby of mine for years. I've always wanted to take pictures and capture moments. In a way, it's close to printmaking: we make an impression, something that remains as a memory. Photography does something similar, catching a moment, an event or a memory.
I find working with a camera endlessly interesting,
and for perhaps more than 20 years, it has almost always been in my backpack alongside my tool case. I photograph all sorts of things, from events and chance moments to my school and university students. It's part of me, an object I seem to carry around without even thinking about it.
Printmaking
My third object is printmaking, though it isn't an object in the literal sense. I wanted to choose something that's truly always with me, and
printmaking really is my everyday life.
I'm a teacher and an assistant lecturer, and I devote almost all my time to it. I start my day at the school, then head to the Academy. It's something I love doing, a real love, and it's important to me not only to keep developing my own work but also to pass on what I know.
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