Student Interview~ Brad Haubrich

Idiosyncratic and purposeful, Brad Haubrich's work is best described as digital screenprinting. He is open to the serendipitous nature of picture making in a world of over-wrought precision that can come from working digitally. His work is intelligent and has a quick-read quality that he applies to both his professional and personal art.

When is a piece finished for you?
It's definitely the print. It scares me that a piece can be just a digital file on the computer, but different papers add textures and a feel to the piece that brings it into the real world and makes it more than just that "file." I try to print everything I make, whether or not it has any legs. I wanted to paint initially, but I was very stubborn and actually against digital work. It was last year that I began to dig deep and really investigate what might be the best way to work.
How does your personal work differ from those pieces you do professionally? How is it similiar?
I just think that there's a place for illustration and a place for the piece as an original. Gallery work is about the experience of a piece, similiar to a project that featured on my website, that tells a story not just through the drawing itself but the experience of reading it. I think that digital work isn't really meant for a gallery environment, which goes back to my original convictions, because I just can't get the same results and as when I'm exploring the world I've built for my illustration work. But, everything comes through my voice.
There are artists, Gary Taxali, Gary Kelley, etc, who use printmaking techniques for their work. Why do you choose to work digitally and does the issue of editioning your work ever come into play?
At the moment, I'm straddling the issue. I work digitally because the work is so much faster but doesn't have a digital look to it. But you also have to keep in mind what you lose when you move to the computer. I can make as many prints as I want all at the same quality with a digital file, but the same isn't true of someone who does an etching plate. Right now I try to use the technology creatively. In the world of wireless gadgets and monitors you lose the tactile process essential to something like a letterpress but the mental process is so much more important in digital work.