Artist Statement
About Etching
Etching is a medium capable of great nuance. Etching is a flexible medium, demonstrating the power and resonance of black ink. I let the plates evolve slowly and they acquire histories – accidents, imperfections, traces where I have re-worked the image. My work is classical, in the tradition of Rembrandt, Piranesi, and Degas. I use simple tools. My interest lies in creating what one may call layered prints, prints in which the viewer has the sensation of looking into and through the blacks. Since 2013 I have also been making lithographs, technically quite a different medium, with its own inherent beauty, although I want to exploit the affinity I am finding between lithographic tusche and liftground technique in etching.
On Sculpture
My sculpture is classical in that it is form emphatic. I draw as a sculptor. The forgework reflects my involvement with the material aspects of steel. As in my prints, my work is decidedly non conceptual: the meaning of each form has a direct relationship to how it is physically made.
In recent years, I began to think more volumetrically in sculpture and have moved beyond the linear aspect of forged steel. My earliest training was in figurative and portrait sculpture and I am presently working in cast concrete, plaster, and ceramic. I finished work on four reliefs, depicting scenes from the Homeric world, relating to my recent prints. These may be seen under Ceramics on this site.
On Drawing
Unless it is a meticulous objective description of a “thing”, drawing is the most improvisational form in two dimensional art. When at their best my drawings flow and are visual compositions beyond deliberation, evolving from the unconscious, notations of fleeting inarticulate thoughts, runs of inspiration, changes of mind, startings and stoppings. I try to avoid “afterthink” to “improve” the drawing.
Different subject/ visions in my prints require or suggest different styles of drawing, different solutions for best expression. I am not an artist with a groove but look to challenge myself with each new project.