Best known as a sculptor, Martin Puryear returned in the late 1990s to an exploration of printmaking at several California fine art presses, masterfully rendering his three-dimensional ideas onto paper. His work at Paulson Press typifies his approach to printed imagery, with its references to his world travels and distinctive areas of interest that have included falconry, archery, guitar building, basketry, and furniture design. The shapes in Puryear’s sculpture are typically organic constructs informed by natural and ordinary objects—tools and vessels as well as the biomorphic aspects of Surrealism and the modernist abstractions of Constantin Brancusi and Jean (Hans) Arp. The subject matter in his prints follows suit, particularly in the complex etching Three Holes. The dominant image in the print can be seen as a basket or open-weave vessel, although the opening revealed at the bottom of the image suggests that the form might also be seen as a protective net for hair or vegetation. Puryear has used this shape in his sculptures, particularly those constructed of wire mesh and tar. He replicates the effect of those media with the delicate etched lines that crisscross the object’s surface in an indication that the image functions as an advanced drawing for a sculptural form, attesting to printmaking’s usefulness as an art form that corresponds to and informs his sculpture-making in a powerful way.