Fourth Estate Newspaper

Issue date: 9/18/08 Section: Entertainment

Media Credit: Jason Houge Drew Iwaniw, the newest employee of the Drive-By Press, creates a new engraving while Gregory Nanney, one of the founders of the unique art company, prepares ink for a T-shirt print.

In a world where art can be made in Photoshop and pictures can be sent across the Internet instantly, three University of Wisconsin grad school alumni are still doing it the old-fashioned way.
Lugging a several-hundred-pound printing press across the country in a van, the three printers will print T-shirts for the public, either with the prints the group has brought along or prints the public can bring. They also lecture on the art and history of printmaking.
"They always joke that they are the first of their kind, and I think they may also be the last of their kind," said Casey Schroeter, head of Art Agency, the student organization responsible for bringing Drive-By Press to campus.
It takes a unique person to want to drive across the country and make prints for people, but Greg Nanney, one member of the trio, said there is nothing he would rather do.
"I grew up in a house without art," Nanney said. "I didn't want other people to end up the same way."
"Printmaking is all about Democracy", said UW-Green Bay Associate Professor of Communication and the Arts Christine Style. "It is art for the people".
Nanney shares this ideology.
"I love printmaking because of the idea of the multiple," Nanney said. "I can make a print and put it on hundreds of shirts, so people all over the country can experience the same art. Art shouldn't be about standing in a museum feeling alienated because you don't understand the piece or you can't afford it. No one should have to feel that way."
Nanney is very passionate about his cause and he puts that same focus into his lectures.
"My favorite part about having the group come here is the energy that they have," Style said. "We always have a lot of fun and learn a lot when they come around. I found out about them about three years ago, and this is their third time visiting here, it's always great to have them come here."

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