Week One - Back Story

Steve Edwards Blackfriars - West

I was invited  to the exhibition "Image of the City" at the Hightgate gallery of Printroom London, (www.printroomlondon.com) , where Steve Edwards (www.steveedwardsart.com) gave a short talk about the method he used for his lino prints - essentially an acid etch for lino, using caustic soda, together with traditional cut lino plates. Intrigued by the intedeterminancy that this acid method produces, I set out to try it myself.

For the moment I will continue to look at the image of  tools, their reference to DIY and craft, and how their image relates directly to process. I've been reading Richard Sennett;The Craftsman, and Peter Dormer; The Culture of Craft, both lamenting the loss and value of true skill and craftsmanship. The idea that by mastering technical skills artwork develops  - the physical and manual co-exist - is what interests my printmaking practice. It would be very difficult to talk about printmaking without talking about process, so this may well be the subject of my work.

Ian Davenport Citric Etching

I also want to look at digital manipulation and its use in the traditional etching process. More of that later, but I visited Alan Cristea's gallery, where Ian Davenport has his etchings. Again, it is the transferring of one process to another, to another, to finally realise his image. He paints first,      photographs the painting, divides it into colours (presumably on photoshop) and transfers these colour separated images onto separate etching plates. (Every 3rd colour is on the same plate). Several plates are used to form one image.




I'm interested in having one image separated into colours, using aquatint and printing on top of each other so the colours merge but the image is moved away from its original photograph. 

So, investigating process, tools with which to initiate the process, digital manipulation. The image of the object may indeed become superfluous, or become a memory - the work may record the absence of the tool.