Etched in stone…

After choosing painting as a medium for over 20 years, I decided to try something new. As I wind down my studio classes in graduate school, I signed-up for a general printmaking course & a lithography course. Deep sigh/happy sigh…it, in short, has been the most difficult thing that I have EVER done as an artist. For those of you who know printmaking-you just know & feel my pain and for those who don’t…well, just imagine being pledged/hazed. It has definitely been a learning experience and when I tell people what I’m up to they have a new found respect (or sympathy) for me.  To start, there’s this really heavy stone that is about 100 years old & 50 pounds.

An image is drawn on this stone in reverse (it prints backwards) and different type of ‘crayons’-oil based pencils and then there are chemicals (acid!) involved in a detailed process called ‘etching’, then lots of ink and with each step there’s this Goldilocks element to it of not too much, not enough…try, try again. By the time the image is printed, my hands look as though I’ve just changed a tire and I want to cry…a lot! And I’m not one for tears. So, with that said I am making my way through this process and learning, with trial & error (lots) a new widely respected medium…now I understand why Michelangelo demanded that there be a publicly held mass before he worked in certain mediums.

  

And just to clarify, I am NOT giving up painting…I’m finishing up a commission this week of a scene from Ireland…will post by week's end.