Betty Friedman

Born in Los Angeles, CA / Works in Oakland, CA

BIO

Betty Friedman is a printmaker and papermaker—printing abstract intaglio images on her own handmade paper. Betty produces this work at her studio and paper mill located in Oakland, California. She has shown her prints internationally at Tula Prints, Cordoba, and Estampa, Madrid, Spain, in the Netherlands and in Japan. Her paper pieces appear in the collections of The Oakland Museum of California, Apple Computers and Adobe Systems. Betty earned an M.F.A. from the California College of the Arts, and is a Professor Emerita in Art at Notre Dame de Namur University.

I make a variety of unique paper for my intaglio prints. I’m inspired by beautiful jewel tones and chaos in nature, art history in general and by the visual range of the raw materials. Printmaking and papermaking techniques used for these abstract compositions dates back to the 1400s in Europe. I use Asian fibers such as Kozo and Abaca for papermaking, and pigments for the color. This paper is very strong— a great vehicle for ink.