What is an IRIS print, technically speaking?    IRIS prints begin with a prototype created by the artist. This can be an elaborate painting or a woodcut, or simply a few scraps of paper and a concept. I usually begin with a collage combined with gouache. This prototype is scanned into Adobe Photoshop. At this point the changes possible are limitless, which can be daunting but is also thrilling. I generally use this stage to fine-tune the prototype, although I may also make radical additions and deletions. There is amazing freedom in creating IRIS prints.    The next step is transporting the digital information to the IRIS printer, a machine with a drum onto which Somerset paper is taped. For about an hour the drum rotates and tiny nozzles smaller than a hair squirt millions of droplets of ink onto the paper. They overlap and saturate so that the end result has an effect much like a woodcut: they glow in a way off-set prints cannot do. What is the archival longevity of an IRIS print?    IRIS prints are not any more vulnerable to sunlight than other works of art. IRIS inks now have a long life now versus those once used. My IRIS prints are also finished with a transparent ultra violet protective coating. What is the "hand" in the corner?    The "hand" is called a "chop," which is the identity image for the artist. In this instance I printed my hand on a piece of paper, reversed it so it shows white against color, and reduced it. This chop identifies my IRIS prints as distinct from my woodcuts. Can one tell the difference between an IRIS print and a woodcut?    If the paper can be touched you will feel immediately that IRIS paper is stiff as opposed to the flexible woodblock printing paper. But if it is under glass you may have a hard time distinguishing IRIS from woodcut. That is why I devised my IRIS "chop" in the form of my own hand print, which you will see next to my signature only on IRIS prints. How did you start making digital prints?    Jon Cone invited me to collaborate on a silk screen print just as he was phasing out of that medium and into IRIS in 1993. The seduction of the IRIS medium was immediately captivating to me and I designed my next print, "Spring on the Upper Connecticut River," to be made this way. I wasn't disappointed; the accuracy and beauty of the medium won my heart. What draws you to working in this medium?    Although I love cutting blocks I have come to a place in my career where I am designing at the edge of the envelope as far as hand printing goes. A number of large blocks and a piece of paper that absorbs and expands accordingly make the hairline registration I seek problematic. IRIS seems logical when detail is profuse and scale is small.    And there are infrequent times when I've composed almost directly on Adobe Photoshop with the expertise of Jon Cone or his assistant printer, Larry Danque. These are moments of mind into matter; the printmaker's dream of envisioning and promptly seeing it realized comes true. ("Metaphore I and II" for example). Why are some of your prints both woodcut and IRIS?    Sometimes a print starts out as a woodcut, but the blocks for an "open edition" woodcut sometimes become so worn or warped that they can't produce a good impression any longer. Then we take a printer's proof and have it scanned and printed as an IRIS with the hand chop on it.    For some images, the proofs may be done as woodcuts, but for practical reasons the edition is done with IRIS. ("Val Tiberina" for example).    I intend to have the medium serve my visual goals. It is a wonderful technology, without restrictions. I expect IRIS has assets and effects that I haven't thought of yet.