Episode 176 | Sam Davidson

Published February 7, 2023

Transcript

Miranda Metcalf  00:31

Hello, Print Friends, and welcome. I'm your host, Miranda Metcalf. This is a bilingual podcast. So if you subscribe to us, you'll be getting episodes in English with me, as well as in Spanish with Reinaldo Gil Zambrano. Together, we speak to people from around the globe about their practice and passions in the fields of print media and multiples. Hello, Print Friend is brought to you by Speedball Art Products, who have been offering a diverse range of high quality products to your practice since 1997. If you're looking to add some pizzazz to your practice, check out their new line of additive glitter. Add a sprinkle of their additive glitter to any Speedball fabric screenprinting ink to bring a touch of shimmer to your next design. This additive glitter can be used in nearly any ratio. Whether your sparkling vision is more subtle or dripping with scintillating shine, check out the link in the show notes. This episode is also brought to you by Legion Paper. Legion Paper is a fine art paper company representing the best papers in the world. They either stock it, source it, or make it. With brands like Stonehenge, Somerset, Coventry, Reeves, Arches, and more, Legion is the best paper resource for every artist's and printmaker's needs. Learn more about the variety of papers Legion stocks at www.legionpaper.com. This episode of Hello, Print Friend is also brought to you by McClain's Printmaking Supplies, who have been dedicated to the art and artists of relief printmaking since 1979. The small specialist team in the Pacific Northwest is the leading supplier of Japanese relief tools for printmakers in the US and abroad, whose primary purpose is to help you find the materials and support you need to reach your printmaking goals. Our editor Timothy Pauszek's two favorite tools are his Futatsu Wari Sankaku To three millimeter v-gouge and his Josei Maru To one millimeter u-gouge, both from McClain's. But you don't have to take our word for it, because these tools speak for themselves. So head on over to McClain's at imcclains.com to find your new favorite tool and keep on carving. My guest this week is Sam Davidson, director and owner of Davidson Galleries in Seattle, Washington for nearly five decades. Davidson Galleries houses 18,000 works on paper dating back to the 15th century, and an extensive collection of contemporary prints. The name Davidson Galleries might be familiar to dedicated listeners, as it comes up often as the very first place I ever worked in contemporary printmaking. We talked about Sam's early days driving around the US selling prints on the road, selling work which spans centuries, highlights from the last 50 years, and what he's going to do next. So without further ado, sit back, relax, and prepare to go back to the beginning with Sam Davidson. Hi, Sam. How's it going?

Sam Davidson  03:22

Very well, Miranda. It's been a long time since we've seen one another and worked together.

Miranda Metcalf  03:27

I know, I'm so happy that you've agreed to come on, because I don't know how many people know this, but there would be no podcast without you. You gave me my first shot as a barely ink-dry Master's degree student, and it was working with you that made me fall in love with contemporary printmaking.

Sam Davidson  03:51

Well, you took the bull by the horns very quickly, and the position that you were in allowed for some wonderful travel and involvement with print communities around the world, whether it was in Russia or Japan or wherever it happened to be. I thought that you made wonderful use of the opportunity to develop that department, and I thank you for that.

Miranda Metcalf  04:16

Yeah, thank you. So I'm excited to be a part of sharing your story and the story of the gallery with the audience that I've built through the podcast in the last four years. And before we jump into that, would you just let people know who you are, where you are, what you do?

Sam Davidson  04:38

Sure. I'm the owner and director of Davidson Galleries, which is now a print gallery, it had been more broad for a certain period of time, in terms of handling sculpture and painting as well. But ultimately, I've come back to focus on works on paper, particularly prints. And I'm located, or the gallery's located, in Seattle, in the old part of the city. And we've moved around different places in the area and re-invented the gallery's direction and location multiple times, but it's still alive and well, and continuing to bring wonderful prints to the public through exhibitions, catalogs, print fairs, and things like that.

Miranda Metcalf  05:37

Absolutely, yeah. And where did you grow up, and what role did art play in that part of your life?

Sam Davidson  05:44

I grew up really in the Seattle area, with a lot of links to the East Coast. Family on both sides involved artists. More the women than the men had either painted or did watercolor, my mother worked with Teeny, in Rockport, and my grandmother, both were painters. And so that was where it really began, being aware of it, and the trips to museums and so on, developed sort of subconsciously an interest. And then when I went away to school, I went to Wesleyan in Middletown, Connecticut. And that was where I took the deep dive. Instead of using all my book money to buy the books that I was supposed to, I bought my first print from Ferdinand Roten Galleries, who was a gallery based in Baltimore that toured campuses and art centers and museums presenting one- and two-day exhibitions where they would put out this array of prints, both contemporary and antique, on tables and invite the public, or the students, depending which location it was, to peruse these things. They're all labeled, and the representative who accompanied the collection would answer questions about either the artist or the medium or what editioning meant or some of the terms associated, and so on. And so after I bought my first print, that became the slippery slope, which went on further. I got my Master's in Art History at University of Massachusetts. And when I finished that, I approached Ferdinand Roten Galleries, and [asked] whether they needed another representative, and they did and took me on. And I traveled for them for two years all over the country, particularly the western half. And that consisted of, you drive a station wagon loaded with portfolios of prints from one museum or art center to another, putting on these shows. And the inventory, as you sold things, was replenished from Baltimore by air. So you might have a show starting at nine o'clock, and before that, you'd have to go to the airport, get the replacement prints, and integrate them into the collection. And so you would be able to go on to the next location. Some of the travel was a little dicey, in terms of whether you felt secure having all that inventory in your station wagon. So in some cases, you would lug it into the room you were sleeping in just to make sure it didn't get ripped up during the night. But after working on the road for them for a couple of years, I was brought back to the main office in Baltimore  to assist the directors of the gallery and be in charge of inventory control, and supplying and picking the inventory from the gallery selection and sending it out to all these traveling collections. There were 10 traveling collections all over the country that also went into Canada as well. And I also got to produce the catalogs that the galleries sent out on an annual basis. So it gave me a wonderful amount of experience. At the end of that period in 1973, my brother - who also would work for them, took over my territory when I got off the road - we left Roten Galleries to go to Seattle to set up our own version of the Ferdinand Roten traveling exhibitions. And so we created that, and that's sort of how things evolved. I moved the gallery down to Pioneer Square rather quickly, because my brother had taken on the frame shop that we had taken on, and it was down in the basement of where we currently have the gallery. And so from then on, we moved multiple places, and as I said before, reconstructed both physically and the way the gallery operated and focused, as I moved eight different times. So that's essentially the nutshell of what's happened with the gallery. We've been in the current location since 1986.

Miranda Metcalf  10:26

And I think maybe it'd be good to explain, when you say the basement of where you are now, people might be getting a little bit of the wrong idea of what that looks like. It's not a typical basement. It's the Seattle Underground, right?

Sam Davidson  10:41

It is the Seattle Underground. Seattle's main streets and main commercial district was actually one floor below the current level, and there were storefronts and there were other businesses down there with this when we moved there, antique shops, restaurants, and so on. So it wasn't like you were in some dure place, it was a quite lively area for about a year after we got there. And then the restaurant that had been sort of providing a lot of the income for the landlord, or landlords, decided they wanted to move, and so on. So we all needed to find new locations. And that began the sequence of changes.

Miranda Metcalf  11:27

Yeah. I'm just so struck with this image of you driving across the country, station wagon full of prints, going from place to place. And of course, this is before GPS, cell phones. So I'd love to maybe hear a bit more of the details of that experience, in the sense of, did you know you had... everything was planned ahead of time, and you just would open your atlas to figure out how to get there and hope that there wasn't construction along the way?

Sam Davidson  12:02

All the promotion of the event was done from Baltimore. So we had this schedule, we had to be on a certain date at a certain time. And it was fairly tightly scheduled. So they - and Baltimore, they didn't have a clue about the mountain ranges and things that you were going to have to deal with. And so you would have barely enough time to get to the next location to get set up and so on. And if the weather was inclement, which often happens in the West, it made it even that much more exciting or dangerous. So it was definitely an adventure being on the road for that. I mean, I remember driving from El Paso to Albuquerque, and it was dusk and there were these shapes I could see ahead of me on the road. But I kept going. And I realized in a few seconds that I was in the middle of a herd of cattle that were crossing the road, and I just barely didn't hit one. So it was weird little things. It was so incredibly beautiful out there, so you know, the reward was the contacts [were] incredible. And you met wonderful people, and the contacts there often took you to see special things that were in that area. So it was a mixture of wild times.

Miranda Metcalf  13:25

Yeah, I just have this image of a station wagon hitting a poor cow and prints just flying into the air.

Sam Davidson  13:32

Exactly.

Miranda Metcalf  13:34

The road littered with antique treasures.

Sam Davidson  13:38

And they wouldn't even appreciate them!

Miranda Metcalf  13:42

Just wasted on some cows. And so you said when you started the gallery, it was 1973.

Sam Davidson  13:52

Right.

Miranda Metcalf  13:52

And the model was going to be the same, right? You were planning on doing these traveling roadshows?

Sam Davidson  14:00

Exactly, we'd have - the gallery itself would have sort of a sampling of things in it, and the public could come in and so on, but the main revenue stream needed to come from these traveling exhibitions. And we did, obviously at that point, we were doing our own promotions and all that. It was a full time thing for sure, but as soon as we moved out of the basement to the the street level or above, then we started doing regular exhibitions. And one thing that inspired that was the Seattle Art Museum used to do an international invitational print show, and they stopped doing it. And so I asked them if it would be okay if I took that on, since it was a print devoted exhibition, and they said sure. And so we started the northwest invitational. We called it Footprint, because we thought if we restricted the size to a manageable size for shipping and so on, it would really be helpful. And people really responded. So for two or three years, we did that. And the world print organization had been doing some wonderful big exhibitions all over, and they agreed to let me have their mailing list to publicize our event. And it really drew a tremendous response from all over. The one thing that I hadn't counted on was how much time it was going to take to return things at the end of the exhibition.

Miranda Metcalf  15:43

Yeah.

Sam Davidson  15:44

Packing everything, getting up at five in the morning to pack the next batch to go out. It was a wonderful thing, though, it made us known to artists all over, which served us well as we gradually did more of those Footprint shows. And that sort of began to evolve. But it was largely a regional awareness that was created initially. And we worked closely with local and regional artists at that point, mostly. And then a variety of things occurred.

Miranda Metcalf  16:20

Yeah. And at this point, was the gallery showing just prints? Just works on paper? Were you also doing paintings in the early days?

Sam Davidson  16:28

At that point, when we were doing the Footprint, it was above a bar called the bay bicycle shop. And we had the upstairs. And that was just prints, everything to do with prints. But gradually, things evolved. We got involved with the the Goodwill Games, and did an exhibition associated with that. The work was flown over, Russia had just opened up, and so the artists were anxious to have exposure in this country. And we did a wonderful exhibition called "Meeting," as in "meeting the artists." And the work was flown over, and when the artists were brought over for the Goodwill Games, they provided the transportation. But it was a wonderful way to become aware of the artists there. And our intern went and traveled to Russia, and ultimately, detach Canton put together some exhibitions. And these were paintings and sculpture. We had a different space by then.

Miranda Metcalf  17:31

Well, I mean, it seems like... it's just been such a beautiful way for me, definitely through the work that I've done with you, and hearing your stories of even the earlier days, as a vehicle to connect with people. You know, you get to do these projects with these artists across the world. And one of the things you get from that is you get to know people and meet people, and you never would have an excuse to go visit them or sit and break bread with them under any other circumstance.

Sam Davidson  18:03

Absolutely. It was a wonderful entree. There were people in the Seattle area - Kaye Bickford, who was instrumental with working with Madame Chang - when China opened up, we did a series of exhibitions. And actually, we had the first exhibition of contemporary Chinese painting after it opened up. And that was just a huge, wonderful opportunity.

Miranda Metcalf  18:29

That's beautiful.

Sam Davidson  18:29

So you know, these were paintings. And so we were fully engaged with all media at that point. And I can't remember... were you there when we did the wood engraving invitational?

Miranda Metcalf  18:43

Yeah, I think so. I think I wasn't there for the first one, and then we brought it back during my tenure at Davidson. And that was huge.

Sam Davidson  18:53

It was wonderful. You got to know all these artists from all over the world who are working in that medium. And some wonderful relationships went on from there. These international or invitational exhibitions afforded us such an incredible opportunity to evaluate all these artists, and the ones that we were particularly drawn to we would approach for, as you know, representation or solo exhibitions or individual exposure. And it was just - you couldn't ask for a better way to get to see a lot of work in a concentrated period.

Miranda Metcalf  19:29

So in the whole process of the gallery, I know it's gone through a lot of phases, it's evolved. At what point... what was the largest number of prints you had on site at one time, so people kind of get a sense of the scope of what Davidson was? Because I know it's ebbed and flowed throughout the years, but at the highest number of prints, how many antique, modern, contemporary [prints] do you think you had?

Sam Davidson  19:54

Well, probably right now, we have about 18,000 pieces of paper. And that doesn't really include some of the things squirreled away in various places for various reasons. But yeah, it's a lot to look after and try to keep track of. I'm working with a staff that is so committed to a better system than whatever I grew up with, so we're in a constant battle of me just being casual about record keeping, and them saying, 'That just doesn't work with all the things we're trying to keep track of! To do the catalogs, to travel to the print fairs, to do this and that.' And so it's an old person like me, and a young, digitally oriented, educated staff. So it's a constant adventure in trying to be brought into the current times.

Miranda Metcalf  20:49

Yeah. I'd love to hear you speak a little bit to the importance [of] the relationships between dealers and artists. Having worked with many artists, as you said, having sort of more casual relationships, like just through an invitational, but then also having these more in depth [ones]. How has this shaped your experience as an art dealer?

Sam Davidson  21:14

You know, one thing that has been consistent all the way through is I've always had an enormous respect for how incredibly dedicated artists are, and how they've committed their lives to a belief in what they're producing. And that's just an incredible thing, the sacrifices they make to follow that dream or belief that they have something to say or something to offer. And in meeting the artists, you're meeting them under so many different circumstances, whether it's in travel, or they come in, or you've dealt with them for many years, you really get to develop some fairly close relationships, and some, of course, less so than others. But it's just such an incredible opportunity to deal with some really interesting people who have an interesting perspective on both what's going on, and what's going on in their imaginations. It's just a gift. And that's what I think makes having a gallery so exciting, is to get to be a part of, or a vehicle for these things to be brought out to the public and to a broader audience. And I'm so thankful for that opportunity.

Miranda Metcalf  22:45

Yeah, that's so beautiful. And that's something that I really connect with too, from my experience having been in that position, it's just that if it was truly just getting objects in the mail and selling them, it wouldn't have the heart. It wouldn't have the reward, I think, of totally getting to know the person, the voice, the story, the vision behind these art objects. And that's what gives it the soul and the fire, I think, for sure.

Sam Davidson  23:20

Absolutely. It's so much more helpful, too, to be able to have a direct conversation. Sometimes it's not possible, because they're a continent away or something, and so you have to work with a statement and then piece it together, looking at the work and seeing if you can make the statement relate to what you're seeing in the work. But it's an incredible opportunity and gift.

Miranda Metcalf  23:47

So having been a dealer who's had the opportunity to work in antique work, which we tend to think of maybe [as] 1800s and before; Modern work with a capital M, which is all through maybe - this is, again, not everyone agrees on this, but maybe Goya through the mid-20th century - and then contemporary, living artists. So you've really spanned all 500 years of printmaking history. How do you find that audience for what is really different work? There are definitely some collectors who are interested in everything, but certainly I would guess that people who are buying a broadside from the 16th century are a bit different than people who are buying, let's say, a Ben Beres that's all about this tiny, tiny writing...

Sam Davidson  24:48

Absolutely. There are different audiences for different parts of the work, and the interactions, again, with collectors, like artists or consigners, they bring such an interesting perspective on the material they're interested in. And I think each period, obviously, contributes to the next in sometimes unexpected ways. And in the contemporary work now, particularly as you well know, the things that are possible digitally, and the appropriation of imagery from anywhere and how to integrate it, and to make it interesting and make it their own, the artist's own, is a different thing from the early early work, which depended so much on mythology or the Bible or early writings. And so now many collectors, the younger ones particularly, are not as familiar with those, and so the characters that are shown in those images don't mean as much to them, and so on. But each period brings something to the overall print world. And that, too, is something that makes it so exciting. And some contemporary people can relate to earlier things, because they're finding something in that work, either technically, or just a perspective that's being shown, that resonates with them. So each of those periods I find incredibly interesting. And some are more predictable, seemingly, in terms of the interests of the artists pursuing. And others, in the early early work, much of it was at the beck and call of the nobility or the church or something like that, where the directives came from very specific places. And then as the Industrial Revolution came in the early 19th century, there became a middle class, and there were many more influences. And many more interests, varied interests, in terms of the subjects that they would respond to, whether it was just recording monuments in the neighborhoods where they were growing up, or the figures that were active at the time, or making fun of social foibles. And now, anything is fair game, it seems like, as a subject. And you know that as well as anybody, because you've been so instrumental in giving exposure to these contemporary artists and the things that inspire them and are [interesting].

Miranda Metcalf  27:39

Yeah, I feel like there's so much in there for me, I'm just kind of processing everything you said. But considering that there's this huge history, and when you're in printmaking, because of the multiple, because of the fact that these prints last a long time, you know, we - see, I'm back in the gallery, I'm like, 'We have prints!' But you have prints now - you have prints hundreds of years old.

Sam Davidson  28:06

Absolutely. People think they're so fragile, but... they're vulnerable to being abused, in terms of the weather, the moisture, amount of sun, and so on. But if you take care of the work, it can last hundreds and hundreds of years.

Miranda Metcalf  28:27

Yeah.

Sam Davidson  28:28

I mean, Albrecht Durer, you've got a piece that looks like it was printed yesterday in some cases, where it was part of a portfolio and never saw light. And so it's a wonderful thing, and the multiple aspect of it is an immediate connection for so many people. In other words, they run into someone who also has this work by that artist, and it begins a conversation which goes on and on.

Miranda Metcalf  28:58

When you're getting work in for the gallery, when you're finding pieces that come in, whether through consignment or purchase, how much of that is driven by market and how much of it is just your own tastes? You know, what you like, what you want to see?

Sam Davidson  29:17

That's an interesting question in that I think each gallery, for instance, and I'm no exception, is a reflection of the person who is making those choices. And the baggage they bring or the insight they have. They're going to want to have input within the pool of material that's being made available to decide which ones they feel have particular merit. And that may not coincide with critics or museum curators or so on. But within the carefully selected works that you're considering, you as the gallery owner have the right and the duty to make a judgment. And that's what separates one Gallery from another. It's the differences in perspective that each of those owners or directors bring to that opportunity to assess the work. And I'm not without blind spots and without biases. I definitely bring baggage and a lot of years of liking things to the table. But that's what distinguishes, I think, one gallery from another. We're not too interested in pursuing something because, allegedly, it's particularly saleable, and someone shows that it's a great investment and so on. That is not a part of our picture. We believe in the work that we select and show, but we're not about to market it as an investment that we guarantee is going to double in a few years, or that it's going to have this extraordinary gain and value. We want you to pick a piece that you love and has meaning for you. And we can supply you with background on the technique and the background on the artist. But it ultimately comes down to you wanting to engage that image, and we try to make it available to you.

Miranda Metcalf  31:37

Yeah. I remember learning that through my time at Davidson, coming in not having been in the art dealing world, and then understanding that collectors would sort of ask me these questions about, is this gonna go up in value? You know, that kind of thing. But it's funny you should talk about your tastes, and you said your "blind spots," or something like that. Because whenever I jury a show now, I still have you sitting on my shoulder. Like I will still hear, 'Oh, it's a tree!' Or, 'Oh, it's some words! I don't think Sam would like that!' Because we spent so much time jurying together, all of these invitationals. And that was my first exposure. Like, I have my voice, but I still have your voice. I've taken it on.

Sam Davidson  32:30

Well, I hope it's muffled, because you have to build so much overview and exposure and opportunity to see so much work that it's so educated. It would be fun to do a curation together now, just to see what you think and bring.

Miranda Metcalf  32:48

That would be really fun! We should talk about that, doing like a Davidson Galleries/Hello, Print Friend show I think could be really fun. So yeah, we'll talk for sure. Over the past couple of decades - just a couple, just five of them - how have you seen the market change for prints?

Sam Davidson  33:12

It's interesting. When I first got into it and was involved with Roten and Associated American Artists, doing all their outreach with catalogs and memberships and so on, it really propelled an awareness - at London Grafica and a number of organizations - awareness of prints that wasn't foremost... In Europe, for instance, prints were considered somewhat of a second class citizen, where in the States, it was all fresh and new, and the amount of emphasis being put on it through these various organizations, I think, made it get a lot more visibility and become more popular and more respected in this country at that period. Sure, there were abuses, but market people just became interested to see what was going on and so on. But gradually, the market has definitely changed. And it's more from the last 10 or 15 years, I guess, where the computers as a vehicle for exposure and for experiencing work has had a huge impact. I mean, websites have made available work from anywhere, anytime. And also technically, of course, the changes have come with the digitalization of the images. But I think that's probably the biggest change, has been since the computer and phones and iPads and so on, various devices, because of the availability and the awareness. And you can look up anything and check on anything. Where before, you had to sort of trust that the dealer was telling you the truth or had the information that you might need. Now, you've got multiple resources to double check anything you're being told, and to pursue a direction that you've been introduced to find more work, either by that artist or that group of artists. And also, one thing that I wanted to mention that I think needs to be addressed in printmaking, is that there needs to be a separation from traditional print processes from digital work. Because I think that the hand of the artist is what's distinguished. The early work, it was so important, and you could see evidence of how the artist interacted with the plate or the block or the stone, or whatever the surface was that they were creating the image. Now, so much can be accomplished digitally, and as they say, manipulated and borrowing this and that to create your image, and so on. Or even within your own work, you can piece things together digitally and render it. And I think I find it, when I go to an international print exhibition, a little disturbing to have the two side by side. I'd much rather that the digital work got its own day, and own terminology, and its own way of being evaluated, where the traditional work has all those things already established over 300 or 400 years. But the newer directions and capabilities and way of producing the work, I think it deserves its own terminology and its own way of being evaluated and exposed, and so on. And to try and mix the two, I don't think it does either one a service.

Miranda Metcalf  37:22

Yeah. Listening to you talk about it, it sounds like the way prints and photographs are separated or something.

Sam Davidson  37:30

Exaclty.

Miranda Metcalf  37:30

Where it's just, they share certain formal similarities in terms of editioning, in terms of often being on paper, and even can take up similar spaces within the art world. But they are distinct processes that, as you say, have distinct ways of being evaluated and appreciated. And to try and crosspollinate them is just going to make it confusing and undermining for both. Yeah, yeah, that's a really good point. Not to say that digital is less, it's just really different, and you need a different set of standards for it.

Sam Davidson  38:07

Exactly. And the younger generation is going to give every benefit of the doubt to the current work so that they're not discriminating against it or feeling that it's a lesser thing or so on. And they shouldn't, it's just different.

Miranda Metcalf  38:20

Yeah. And so looking back over the last almost five decades, five decades next year, what are some of the highlights?Either artists you work with, or exhibitions you put on, or things that you look back on and feel like they were real high points in the career and the undertaking and the legacy?

Sam Davidson  38:46

Gosh, that's an awfully long list. The shows that I mentioned, like Footprint, Goodwill Games, the contemporary Chinese paintings, the wood engraving, the International Mezzotint Invitational, we did an artist's stamp traveling exhibition - which toured parts of the US and Canada - of artists working in the stamp format. That was a wonderful thing. And the creation in Seattle, for instance, of SADA (Seattle Art Dealers Association), I guess, would be a highlight, where there was a celebration that happened around Fat Tuesday. And we saw all these people coming down to where we were located in Pioneer Square, and wandering around, going to the different bars and restaurants and so on. And so we thought, 'Well, why can't we get them to come to the galleries?' So we did an artist walk, and we put these footprints on the sidewalk and tried to encourage them, and in the bars, we had little signs telling them where to go. And then, the gallery dealers saw that that sort of worked. And so then we created "First Thursday," which was to combine our mailing lists and promotions and have our shows start on the same first Thursday of the month. And that worked wonderfully well. But we weren't getting the publicity we wanted from the press. One or two of the galleries that had been around the longest or had the biggest names would get reviewed, but a lot of them wouldn't. And so we thought, well, maybe we make a publication, which will give everyone equal exposure in a sense. And that's how [the] Seattle Art Dealers Exhibition publication came into being. And we pooled our mailing lists that varied from 15,000 to 22,000 people, and we sent it to critics around the country as well, at the same time. So every month, you had your page or part of a page in this publication. And so you really developed into a wonderful monthly vehicle for convincing people that there was an art scene in Seattle. And so that specific to that was a wonderful thing. And I am proud that we created that. I think that some of the prints that we've contributed to various museum collections, we're proud of those. Many of the exhibitions that we put on for individual artists we've been very proud of, whether it's giving Leonard Baskin his last show before his passing, shows of Wayne Thiebaud, Xiao Zhu, who's still going strong as a painter, John Grade, who has a huge piece in the Seattle Art Museum of a cast he took from a tree in a million pieces, put together with a whole team, and created this piece. These artists, there's so many, I mean, I'm leaving out tons of artists that we've had the pleasure and the honor of working with, but I guess it's the individual shows, the individual artists, and the connections one's had the opportunity to make with them that are what's been so important and meaningful, at least to me.

Miranda Metcalf  42:22

And so now the gallery is starting to go through a transition, right? You're starting to think about maybe stepping away and seeing what comes next.

Sam Davidson  42:32

Yes, I'm thinking of looking toward the end of July as to possibly retiring, although with 18,000 pieces of paper to find homes for or to return, that's not going to be an instant thing. But I'd love to find a person who loves art, specifically prints, but they could obviously put their own stamp on the gallery. But it's in a position where the staff is well versed and can run the thing, more or less, without me. Not as much for the old stuff, but certainly the mechanics of the gallery, doing the exhibitions, taking care of the inventory, all of that, it would just be someone cashing me out. So the debt that I've accumulated over 50 years could be settled. It's not a huge thing, but I'd like to have that cleaned up. And then they could be behind the scenes and involved to whatever degree they wanted. I would be available for a couple of years to help with the transition if they wanted, in terms of, particularly, the older material, or they may want to just abandon the older part and just do contemporary work. So there are many forms that it could take. But I would love to sell it to someone who would love for it to go on, who is excited about the material and the opportunity, and believes in sort of the mission of a gallery, and that it would go on. So I'm open to and interested to talk to anyone who is seriously interested to think about having a little print gallery.

Miranda Metcalf  44:26

A little print gallery of 18,000. Yeah.

Sam Davidson  44:29

Exactly. You don't have to show them every minute all the time, but there's a wonderful reservoir of inventory and connections, both to clients and to artists. And you can add to that all the time. I regularly go to print fairs, or go online to them, and make overtures to new artists that seem to be interesting. You only have to see one or two in a print fair situation, or a print competition situation, but it leads to all kinds of connections and opportunities for adding inventory and making it your own thing. In other words, as I talked about earlier, it will reflect your interests and what moves you. And you'll have a staff that wants to continue for another five years that is very familiar with the inventory, and would be helpful in assessing work that's being brought in, feeling whether it's overlapping with something that's already in the collection, or whether it's a wonderful new breath of fresh air into contemporary work. So it's a wonderful, very flexible opportunity to be involved with the arts. I mean, you wouldn't have to keep it as a print gallery, it could also involve paintings and sculpture. It's just wide open. And I want to be able to step back and turn it over to someone else who loves the work.

Miranda Metcalf  46:12

I would hope that whoever steps in would want to keep on the historical work, because one of the things that I thought was so wonderful about the space is that you can walk in and you can physically go through history, you can start with a Durer and move through a Goya and then through an Escher and then through a Moreau. I mean, you can just, in the physical space of the gallery, walk through printmaking time with your own hands. Which, of course, you're not allowed to do at a museum. But you've got boxes, you've got the bins. Anyone can just walk in and look around. I mean, obviously, it would be whatever anyone wanted it to be. But my stake would be to keep it, of course, with that unique ability to do that. Because I remember that kind of blew me away, coming from art history where I was interacting with all of these objects in museums, and then showing up and working in the gallery and you can hold it! I can hold it in my hand! They're trusting me with it!

Sam Davidson  47:23

That's true. And I think that it's also doing these international outreach type exhibitions, it means you can see a contemporary artist working in Thailand or Japan or anywhere in the world, really. So not only is it a historic opportunity to see through history, but also to get a sense of what things are interesting artists in other continents and other places. So you helped bring that with the mezzotint show and wood engraving and other things, when you were at the gallery participanting, organizing, and traveling to these places. So I think that's still valid, the fact that you can handle these things and see them one next to another. A print done yesterday and a print 400 or 500 years ago.

Miranda Metcalf  48:15

Yeah. Do you have any thoughts on creating a legacy, or being at a point in your life and your career where you're really thinking about how there will, at some point in the not too distant future, be sort of the coda, like, 'Okay, this is what I did with my professional life,' and looking back?

Sam Davidson  48:39

Not so much. I'm not. Really, the daily doing, and the immediate connections and the ones of the past are what I have been lucky enough to enjoy and soak up. And I'm not looking to have some particular legacy. I've been blessed and very fortunate to have had the opportunities that I've had, and to meet the people that I've met, and worked with a work which is just so incredible every day. And new bodies of work, a name you haven't even heard of, you suddenly get to see things and be knocked out by how incredible either the handling of the engraving is, or just the range of subjects that no one seems to have treated before. It's just those things that make it so worthwhile every day.

Miranda Metcalf  49:39

Do you have any advice for people who want to start out and are building something right now? I know there's a lot of students who listen to the podcast, people who love printmaking and are in their early 20s. And they might be thinking, I want to do a gallery or a shop or anything like that.

Sam Davidson  49:59

Oh gosh, I'm not sure that I would have much useful information. It's been a sort of an accrual over all these 50 years. I think that with a website, you can do a certain amount. And I think that's important. And if you have some built in connection to a group of people through some organization that doesn't seem to be taking advantage of the opportunities that you see inherent in their situation, you could step forward and say, well, look, if we did this, and maybe did this quarterly or annually, or we worked with these other people that are already doing this and that, that you can make up something by being creative and thinking creatively, by recognizing an opportunity, either access to a group of people that have a wonderful resource, which is under exposed. I mean, I haven't really given too much thought to this. But I do think those would be a way I would approach it. Because if you're young, and you've got all the energy, and you've got some time, and maybe not a lot of resources, working with the givens and recognizing opportunities within those, that's where I think you'll get ahead the quickest and become very influential by how you directed something that you recognized.

Miranda Metcalf  51:41

I think that's really nice. Yeah. And so where can people find Davidson Galleries online and see the work that you're showing?

Sam Davidson  51:54

Well, online, it would certainly be the website, that's going to be the best. Or joining the mailing list. I mean, we're just davidsongalleries.com. And that will take you to the website, which will let you know of all kinds of inventory. We don't have all 18,000 online.

Miranda Metcalf  52:24

You've got a lot, though.

Sam Davidson  52:24

We have 8,000 or 10,000 works, probably, by category or period or name of the artist. Or if you're in Seattle, come visit us in Pioneer Square, the old part of town. And we'd love to have you rummage through the work carefully.

Miranda Metcalf  52:45

313 Occidental Avenue South. I'll never forget it! Yeah. Well, Sam, it's been so nice to see you again, and to talk about old times, and even to learn some of the history that I didn't even know, even when I was in the ranks. So thank you for taking the time today.

Sam Davidson  53:07

Well, Miranda, thank you so much for giving me the opportunity to share "my legacy." And I wish you continued success with all the wonderful exposure you're giving to printmaking, printmakers, and it's such an incredible world, and you're doing such wonderful work in it. Thank you for that.

Miranda Metcalf  53:30

Thanks, Sam. If you liked today's episode, we have a Patreon where you can help us keep the lights on and get bonus content, like Shoptalk Shorts, where our editor Timothy Pauszek digs deep on materials, processes, and techniques with past guests. Also, if monetary support isn't in the cards right now, you can leave a review for us on your podcast listening app of choice or buy something from one of our sponsors and tell them Hello, Print Friend sent you. But as always, the very very best thing you can do to support this podcast is by listening and sharing with your fellow print friends around the world. And that's our show for this week. Join me again next week when my guest will be Amos Kennedy. And let me tell you, print friends, you are in for a treat. Amos is a living print legend. We talked about his time being employed, not working, at AT&T while making and giving away prints; hanging art shows like it's a crime; and an exciting new project in a pile of bricks in Detroit. You won't want to miss it. This episode, like all episodes, was written and produced by me, Miranda Metcalf, with editing by Timothy Pauszek and music by Joshua Webber. I'll see you next week.