New Image

Still thinking of title….

What Inspires You?

The image below was the result of me being inspired.  I had just read an article about the artist Nancy Spero in Art News, in which she was described as a person who represented her social beliefs in her life and work.  I’ve never been sure how to do this as an artist, but something about that article, and Nancy Spero, created a little moment of inspiration.  I had just started using giraffes in my work, and they were definitely meant to be artist-figures.  I also work as a high school librarian.  Much of my job feels like the scene below, where the penguin and seahorse are the students, and the soldiers are the (unfortunately too numerous) adults who seem to often be clueless about the realities of working with teenagers.  I end up spending a lot of time mediating between the two.

Defender, 9 x 12" multiple plate etching

I’m interested in how others respond to this topic as I try to find inspiration for the new pieces I am currently working on.

Making of an Etching, Pt. 3 (Softground)

This gallery contains 14 photos.

Normally at this point I’d either be adding an aquatint to the existing etching plate, or creating one of two additional plates to use for color printing.  Both of those will yet come in Parts Four and Five, but first … Continue reading →

Making of an Etching, Pt. 2

This gallery contains 13 photos.

In Part 1 I began the process of creating an etching by drawing on a coated copper plate.  The next step is to etch the plate and then ink it up and pull a proof.  (Tragically, this chapter suffers a … Continue reading →

Making of an Etching, Pt 1.

This gallery contains 11 photos.

Many people express an interest in the process of creating an etching.  Over the next few days I will document this process from almost the beginning to the final trial proof. We begin already slightly into the process.  I’ve cut … Continue reading →

What is an Etching?

Etching is an intaglio printmaking process.  It goes back to the 15th/16th century. One of the most famous earlier practitioners was the Dutch artist, Rembrandt.  The Rembrandt Museum, in the Netherlands, has a lovely little Flash animation that gives a visual overview of how an etching is made here.

This is basically the same process I use, except that my ground is acrylic, rather than asphalt and wax, because the acrylic does not require toxic solvents, and I use ferric chloride instead of acid (again, because it is safer).

What Is This Piece About?

I get asked this question a lot.  Sometimes I’m reluctant to answer it, because part of the fun for me is hearing what others think my work is about.  I often hear things I never thought of.

However, there is an answer to this question.  Usually, there are two answers.  One is the “Official Fine Art” answer.  Ideally, this is an articulate, meaningful-sounding answer that combines what I thought I was doing when I started the piece with an after-the-fact analysis of what I was actually doing and what the underlying meanings might be.  The other answer is the “pragmatic” one.  This is a little of the idea I started with and a lot “I wanted to see what happened if I drew this thing in that place with this other thing” together with by-products of solving composition and design problems.

An Example: 

St. Uriel

multiple plate etching, 9" x 6"

 Official Fine Art Answer

This is part of Archangels, a series of four multiple plate etchings I completed in 2009.  Each piece depicted a traditional archangel, but played around a little with the iconography.  They were part of my ongoing attempts at “Non-Religious Religious Art”–art that starts with a a religious topic, but attempts to explore the underlying psychological or archetypal dimensions, rather than taking either a dogmatic approach or an anti-religion one.  St. Uriel has attracted the most interest.  The other three are St. Michael, St. Gabriel, and St. Raphael.

Uriel is also the most obscure of the four.  I think I originally knew about these four archangels as a quartet from reading Katherine Kurtz’s Deryni novels when I was a teenager.  In that context, Uriel was associated with earth, with the direction of South, and with Death.  When I created this image, I had a hard time finding much about Uriel.  Looking now, it seems that more information has made it online.  At the time, all I was really after was earth and an association with death in the sense of decomposition–old things needing to die and wither away so new things would be able to grow.

The Pragmatic Answer

I like drawing outhouses.  An outhouse made sense for the Uriel image, because of the decomposition/re-birth theme.

For some time, I had wanted to make a print with an elephant in it.  This was a problematic intention, as there are lots of associations with elephants I wasn’t interested in.  I wanted I radically different sort of elephant.

When I drew the cave under the outhouse, I realized I had the place to put my radically different sort of elephant.  Hallelujah!

After I drew the elephant, I realized he needed something on his back.  The nest with eggs made sense as new life.  Three is just a good number of objects to have.

That’s it.  Anything else is added by you, the viewer.  The eggs are not my three children.  Any political associations you may choose to read into the elephant are entirely about you, not any intent on my part.