Gimson describes the sacrosanct collaboration between fine artist and print technician as "like a sort of alchemy" and, out of this winning combination, comes the magical moment when a pristine and resolved image is created. Gimson's decisive intervention invariably resolves technical and aesthetic impasses. It has been stated that "Artizan Editions are fine art screen printers, one of a handful of workshops working in direct collaboration with artists. Gimson strives to follow the ethics of the Arts and Crafts movement which believed in the importance of creative manual work and art as a way of life". In this sense the workshop follows the example of the legendary printer Stanley Jones at Curwen Press, London after 1958. Jones specialised in lithographs but Artizan's allegiance to screen printing has a later, contemporary feel and, to that extent, follows Kelpra, Advanced Graphics and Coriander. Putting to the sword the myth of the artist as solitary genius, Artizan emphasizes the art historical fact that productive studios, from the old masters onwards, are based on teamwork in which technical assistants made decisive contributions. Even a virtuoso genius and overflowing polymath like Picasso used specialists and technical assistants especially in the case of the late graphic flowering marked by his post-1950s lino cut oeuvre for which he used the poster printer Armera. Artizan's specialisation in screen printing gives it a contemporary ring, a process that hit the limelight at Andy Warhol's screen print Factory. In terms of Pop Art and also hard edge abstract painting, of which Riley's optically vibrant 'Dots and Stripes' are a preeminent example - screen print has become the primary vehicle allowing for photographic or stencil imagery. Gimson's prowess with the oil-based screen print medium came more through long working experience as a commercial graphic designer in advertising than through academic fine art training. She became acutely aware of the missing creative magic in the advertising industry, a gap she aimed to fill with the joys of collaboration and the give and take between aesthetic and technical considerations. She learnt the major print making processes while training at Loughborough as a graphic designer. She later worked for King Publishing in Brighton where the making of reproduction prints based on the work of celebrated moderns like Matisse, Picasso, and Rothko later encouraged experimentation in the adjacent field of original fine art print making.
