(Secret No. 1: "Cultivate sensuality." Wayne Thiebaud)

Brown's affiliation with these artists is a professional one. Since 1962, when she founded it, she has been the director of one of the world's most influential publishers of limited-edition prints, Crown Point Press in San Francisco. She also is an accomplished etcher and has written, designed and published five books. Brown's expert eye selected works by some of Hawai'i's finest printmakers as well as works by emerging artists.

"Usually, I refuse jurying because I think art is a lifelong process," says Brown, "but I accepted because I could judge the actual work, not slides. Also, you do have an advantage in inviting people to Hawai'i to jury a show."

She selected prints from a variety of printmaking processes, which went with her overall design concept for the installation of the exhibit. Of the 307 pieces submitted, 119 were selected. The exhibit is impressive, with salon-stacked and themed walls of prints alongside works that were given more space.

(Secret No. 2: "Use a lot of time." Chuck Close)

An abundance of awards — 21 — were given, and four prints (by Maile Yawata, Philip Markwart and Jeera Rattanangkoon) were purchased by the State Foundation for Culture and the Arts.

"Grandma's Memory," an intaglio print by Grace Kim, received the Graphic Chemical Award. "She put a lot of care into this," says Brown. "It's poignant."

(Secret No. 3: "Get into the flow." Richard Diebenkorn)

Brown considers monotypes to be more painting than printmaking, and subsequently included only a fraction of the many that were submitted (even though she admitted that many of them were good).

"Monotypes should not be the dominant character of a printmakers exhibition," says Brown, "because they don't involve much printmaking. When you have accomplished printmakers, which you do, there's a discipline and a way of thinking in layers. It is a specific way of skillfully organizing your approach and mentality."

Of the monotypes that survived the selection process, Barbara Okamoto's "Float" received the John Chin Young Foundation Award for Excellence in Monotype. Here, against a stark white field of paper, one mottled brown stone in the left upper corner appears to be either ascending into the air or coming at you.

(Secret No. 4: "Have an idea." Tom Marioni, Sol LeWitt, Hans Haache)

"Dreamtime" by Laura Smith is a woodcut and monotype print of the top of a woman's dress with an image of a bed inserted into the pocket. It was given the Fine Art Associates Award.

"Fraught," a life-sized screenprint of a shadowed figure by Allyn Bromley, also won an award. Here, layers of diagonal lines take the viewer in different directions and give the work an emotional as well as visual edge.

(Secret No. 5: "Don't know what you want." John Cage)

In Hoppy Smith's award-winning photogravure "Kama'aina Collection," the shelves of teal-colored glass balls take on a magical quality of their own.

(Secret No. 6: "Know what you don't want." Robert Bechtle)

"It's the simplest thing, but there is something very evocative about it," says Brown of Daniel Hoskins' "Hawaiian Palms, Part I" plexi-drypoint and monotype print. This very sparse image of an off-centered gray ceiling fan won a Honolulu Printmakers Award.

(Secret No. 7: "Stick your neck out." Pat Steir)

Margo Ray's etching and chine colle "Hoo Doo" won the Peter Morse Memorial Award. This vexing, make-believe landscape incorporates cats on chairs, a large liquid storage tower and airplanes. (Chine colle — CHEE-nay KO-llay — literally "Chinese papers glued," is a collaging or paper-layering process.)

(Secret No. 8: "Use every tool." Shazia Sikander)

Mark Ammen, recipient of the Honolulu Printmakers Traditional/Digital Combination Award for "Traces of a Dream," is exceptional in his use of tools. His print utilizes monoprinting, etching, photography and digital imaging. The archaeological elements in his large print float in a deep turquoise sea, both fluid and metallic.

"There are 10 or 15 layers," says Ammen. "The digital process is very involved in how the layers interact. It is where the transformation occurs."

"You can't see it up close," says Brown. "When I stepped back, I began to see the terrific depth in it."

(Secret No. 9: "Use every source." Laura Owens)

Paul Mullowney's three unframed woodcut prints with hand coloring draw from Japanese animŽ characters. These powerful character images are brightly captured in action poses and "make the show active," according to Brown. His "Hetaine with Sword," one of the largest prints in the exhibit, won the Honolulu Printmakers Award.

(Secret No. 10: "Become skillful." Fred Wilson)

"It snaps," says Brown, of David Hamma's "Wounded, Teeth Missing But Generally Optimistic" multilayered abstract print. This color spit-bite aquatint, hard ground etching, dry-point on gampi paper chine colle print is a mastery of soft and strong lines and colors and won the Dodie Warren Intaglio Award.

(Secret No. 11: "Take yourself lightly." Peter Doig)

Recipient of the Estate of James Campbell Award, Joanne de Pape's copper-plate etching and woodblock "Thinking Deep" is comical. In its various shades of blue, the figure of a man sits neck deep on a rock underwater in the classic "thinker" pose wearing Hawaiian-print swim shorts.

(Secret No. 12: "Own it." Dorothy Napangardi)

Maile Yawata tells stories with her prints. "Leslye," a lithograph, monotype and relief print, won the Pacific Gallery Award. Here, a strong portrait of a female is juxtaposed against a pastel palette of golden yellow, peach and teal with burgundy accents.

Awards were also given to Timothy R. Contreras, Jim Eagan, Christine Harris-Amos, Mary Philpotts McGrath, Roki McMillian, Harinani Orme, Julie Peterson, Fred Smith and Michael S. Teruya.

The 2005 Gift Print, in keeping with the tradition of the annual exhibition, is a multilayered and beautifully printed woodcut by Jeera Rattanangkoon, titled "Maile."