chin-cole and Photo transfer:

I think for the continuing study of the hand (the chin cole) the project is fairly successful. The Photo transfer didn't quite come out as I had thought, but still not bad.

The study of Goya/Aquatint:

I first and foremost really like the final image that comes out of aquatint. I think that it is by far the most visually interesting of all the techniques we have practiced in Etching 1.

As I mentioned before, my hands which were depicted in a certain way in the previous assignment had become a clue for this one. Goya had done a series of etchings devoted to the foul executions of innocent women and civilians. I decided to take that approach and concentrate on a community that I was very much a part of: Homosexual men. I chose to depict myself being executed with a Nixon-like figure pointing a gun at me. The hand of the person being executed was very important here. The hand is depicted in what society might term a "feminine" way. I think that what was being said here was: Even in the time nearing this persons' death they are still standing up for their belief system. "My spirit will never die."

Self-portrait:

I talked a little bit about this in the evaluation that we did in our final class meeting. I think that this was a really good foreshadowing for something that I would do later. The gesture of the hand was important but it was one of the things that seemed unfinished for this piece. Why were my hands in this strange/bizarre/elongated position? What was it that I wanted to say with this? It is something that I revisited in the Goya reproductive aquatint project.

The still life project:

I just did not care for the dry-point technique at all. Perhaps there is a method you can find for yourself to get a better quality result. However, I didn't become fully in tune with that method this semester (if it exists) and so I simply say: I do not enjoy drypoint.

I do think that there was something nice about the still life that we worked from. The egyptian figurine (I believe his name was Horace) that was really nice.

Assignment 3:

This dealt with a sense of place. I feel it's open to be honest about the project: I was driving around this neighborhood (admittedly, it was a pretty rough one) and I came upon this old house. It was decrepit, in horrible condition. What's more, there seemed to be very little if anything that was holding up the structure of the house. It seemed mysterious to me, and so wonderfully visually interesting. I ended up driving around the house with me zoomed in camera. If only I had made the commitment to get out of the damn car!! I think something really strong could have came out of that investigation had I gotten out of the car. For whatever reason though, I just didn't want to take that risk. I played it safe. Damn!

Assignment two:

This dealt with setting up a system of limitations for ourselves. We could NOT in any way make a mark ourselves on the plate. Something outside of ourselves had to be what was making the mark. Students had many different ways of interpreting this. I am afraid that I did not do a thorough investigation of what might be dictated a valid set of limitations for myself. However, there is something rather nice about the etching that came out of the assignment. What I decided to do was glide the plate around the parking lot in a sort square shape. Following the lines of the square that I observed in the pavement, I noticed that the scratches on the plate were building something quite interesting of an image. I did this routine about 4-5 times and the started printing.

Assignment One:

I don't think I remember having any concrete ideas of what I wanted to do for this assignment. If anything I think of it as more of a doodle than a finished piece of art. But I think that's exactly what was to be taken from the assignment. A free open interpretation that would hopefully access the doors of creativity and NOT provide the student with any mental blocks, in other words do a lot of drawing and not worry what the final outcome will be. The final outcome indeed was: Flesh eating Piranha floating in a world of pansies. Hilarious!!

So here's the deal, I have been very neglectful of my blogging habits this semester for etching. So, what I have decided to do is openly discuss each of the assignments. Sorry, I am afraid I don't have any visuals. But still though I think it could be fairly informative. I'll begin with assignment one.