The maker
Mara Ostlund mixes her own ink.
Twelve years at the press, sixty-one editions retired, not a single reprint. Pigment is one person, one risograph and a stubborn idea that a colour-field print should shout a little. Here is how she got here — and how she works now.
The short version
She never forgave the screen for being so polite.
I trained as a screen printer and spent five years making other people’s brands look calm. Useful work, but the colour was always under control. Pigment started the night I pulled a field of coral so loud it embarrassed the room, and decided that was the point.
Each work begins as a flat field, then earns its grain through two or three passes on a thirty-year-old risograph that hums when it’s happy and sulks when the humidity turns. I keep editions small on purpose. A wall should feel chosen, not stocked. When a number sells out, I move on.
- Editions retired
- 61
- Years at the press
- 12
- Reprints, ever
- 0
What she holds to
Four rules at the bench.
Colour first, caption later
The work has to land before you read the title. If a print needs explaining, it isn’t finished, and the title can wait until it does.
Mix it by hand
Every ink is blended in small batches at the bench. No two runs of a colour are identical, and that small drift is the fingerprint of the edition.
Small on purpose
Editions stay short so they stay personal. The maths never tempts me into a second run, because the second run is where the soul leaks out.
Retire, never reprint
When the last number sells, the screen comes down and the file is archived. Owning one means owning all there will ever be.
The colour you tune at the top of the page is the same conversation I have at the bench every morning.Mara Ostlund
On the bench now
The next field, mid-mix.
Drop 05 is being pulled as you read this. Tap a hue and watch the studio shift — this is roughly how the bench looks while a batch is finding its colour.
Editions retired
Sixty-one works, gone for good.
A handful from the archive. Every one sold out and will never be pulled again.
- 2026 Drop 04 — six works, in the gallery now Open
- 2025 Tidal Set — eight cool fields, edition of 30 each Retired
- 2025 Loud Room — the first all-complement drop Retired
- 2024 Hand-Torn — ragged-edge bars, edition of 20 Retired
- 2023 First Field — the print that started Pigment Retired
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