University of Wisconsin-Not In Our Name

Vivisection Victims, ©2009 Elana Goren
Aquatint Etching

One of my etchings was used in an article about horrible experiments being done at the University of Wisconsin. Here's the link to the article and a call-to-action: Maternal Deprivation at UW-Madison Today.

White Ground Experiment

Cattle Car
Etching, 9" x 6"  © 2011, Elana Goren

This was a test plate where I mixed different techniques together to see what effects I could get: strong hatched lines mixed with the crayon aquatint as well as white ground effects. I usually don't do alot of crosshatching and rarely combine this with my usual aquatint tonal shading but since I was experimenting here I wanted to see what would happen. The jury is out on whether I want to do more with it, perhaps if the subject/composition dictated more expressive hatched linework, but for now I am much more interested in what happened with the white ground.

I used alot of water when applying the white ground. In fact, I wet the areas on the plate where I wanted to apply the white ground and then let the ground swirl around in the water as it was drying. I had to let go of any notion of control over where the ground will be thickest and thinnest in the watery swirls but I found this to be a general feature of white ground that I like, yielding results that are surprising, unexpected. The resulting smoky, hazy atmospheric effect came from repeated applications of the white ground in the same manner in between etches.

White ground is a bit tricky, there are so many factors involved in how it will yield results you are looking for. The formula used to create it will determine if it's more pigment-heavy or more soapy which in turn determines how it responds to water and after plate application, to the acid itself. I used a recipe from the book Etching, Engraving and Other Intaglio Printmaking Techniques, by Ruth Leaf. It's a great recipe for ground that can be stored in a jar and activated easily with a wet brush each time you need to use it. 

If you are interested in white ground or any other etching techniques, please let me know if you have any questions or comments. I am still experimenting with white ground and I welcome insights from others who have used this. I hope to post more about it in the future as well.

The Dangers of Auto Pilot

 

For the Kids

etching on paper, ©2011 Elana Goren 

12" x 18"

Above is the second state of an etching that I had been working on for months (not continuously but I started this back in April). I decided that the shadows under the truck needed deepening and I figured this would be a quick finale to a long process of working on this plate.

Since I don't have an etching set up in my studio, I need to etch at one of the several printmaking studio/workshops that I use in New York City. To prepare ahead of time, I applied the resist directly to the plate at my studio so that I could bring it to the etching workshop to coat with rosin for aquatint and then, etch. It was a great time-saving plan, except that it's not the way I usually work. I almost always coat the plate with rosin first and then cover it with resist.

So, I went to the workshop, saw the usual crowd and chatted with my fellow printmaking buddies and then did several rounds of etching the plate in the nitric acid (zinc plate). But at some point I realized that there was something very, very wrong with the plate. It wasn't until it was way too late that I realized that I had neglected the crucial step of coating the plate with rosin for aquatinting. I had disastrously ruined my plate by not paying attention to what I was doing and relying on my own little auto pilot who was used to applying resist-coating to plates that are already pre-coated with rosin, ready for aquatinting and acid.

This mishap happened a week ago and I'm still kicking myself for it. Months of work down the drain because I zoned out and missed a crucial step. So this is my word to the wise, don't rely on your habitual way of working to such a degree that you stop paying attention to what you are doing. I suppose there are much worse accidents that can happen beyond a ruined plate since we etchers work with toxic substances, so my advice is focus and avoid a printmaking disaster or worse, a personal tragedy.

Successful openings

Why?

aquatint etching on paper, ©2011 Elana Goren

Well, I had a two openings this past week, back-to-back on Thursday and Friday nights. They both had great turnouts and the artwork in both of these group shows was first-rate, really great work.

It was great to see many of my fellow artists (and friends) and their incredible work. If you can make it to either of these shows (listed in the calendar section here), I highly recommend you check them out. Especially if you are a printmaker or someone interested in prints and works on paper, as there is a lot to see in these exhibitions.

The exhibition at the NY Coo Gallery was curated by Bruce Waldman and I think he did an incredible job pulling this show together.

From Long Ago

Digging through some boxes, I came across this note that I haven't seen in years but kept because it's part of a story that I always wanted to remember. When folded the front reads, "To the woman with the long brown hair on the parlor floor..." and the inside reads, "There's a duck in your backyard, this isn't a joke. Please take care of him." It's a story that partially inspired this etching entitled "Free."

"Free"

Plate size: 9" x 6"

Aquatint Etching

Here's the story:
A very, very long time ago, I lived in Brooklyn, specifically Cobble Hill, in a strange 1-block neighborhood that was wedged between the BQE (Brooklyn Queens Expressway) and the Hudson River. The block had been cut off from the rest of Cobble Hill in the 1950s when the BQE was built and it was part of a strange area on the waterfront that ran from Cobble Hill to Redhook where there was a mix of apartment buildings, brownstones, varied businesses and warehouses. I had regularly heard talk in the neighborhood about a poultry slaughterhouse that was among the warehouses near the river.

One day, I came home from work to find the note pictured above taped to the front door of the brownstone where I lived. I guessed that my reputation as an animal rescuer (I regularly rescued strays from the street) had reached beyond my circle of friends and subsequently resulted in this note being left on my door. Though I really didn't know anything about ducks.

I went into the backyard and sure enough there was a bird in my backyard, though not a duck, but a beautiful white goose that I assumed was an escapee from the local poultry slaughterhouse. I tried to approach her and she just kept moving away in fear, so I let her be.  I really knew nothing about geese either.

I went to the kitchen and looked for whatever vegetables I could find in the fridge and left them out for the goose hoping that something might catch her fancy. I realized that I was going to have to figure out how to take care of this goose properly so I searched for a place where I could buy goose food and other goose necessities. Not surprisingly, I could not find a store in New York City that supplied such things.

Though I was really guessing (there was no internet then to google "goose care"), I figured that I needed some hay and some goose food to start. I found an Agway in Connecticut and went on a road trip to get the needed staples and hopefully some sound advice about how to care for a goose.

Once I had the goose supplied with goose pellets and hay for a bed, I enlisted my friend to build a wooden "house" which as I far as I can tell was never used by the goose. I also had a kiddie pool which was a leftover prop from a photo shoot and I filled it with water which the goose immediately took to.

The goose never let me get near her but I liked to think she was happy splashing around in the kiddie pool, having her fill of goose pellets and settling happily in her mound of hay. But one day, after a couple of months had gone by, I came home from work and she was gone. My unemployed neighbor downstairs, who was home all day and who gave me daily goose reports, told me, "I watched as your goose just flew away."

I never saw the goose again but I wanted to believe that she flew to a nicer place away from the city where she was able to live out her natural life unmolested by anyone who would use her and/or do her harm. But I am not naive and I know that a domestic bird would probably not fare well out there in the raw city or even beyond if she got that far. Still, I wanted to imagine her flying and living Free.

Dealing with Vivisection

 "Vivisection Victims #809,689,432 & 3"

Plate size: 18" x 24"

Aquatint Etching

Keeping with themes that define my work and that mean the most to me, I am working with an issue that invariably cuts to the heart of how misguided and immoral we can be as humans. I am specifically referring to vivisection, torture of animals in the name of science. The word "vivisection" literally means "the action of cutting into or dissecting a living body."

Non-human animals are so completely at our mercy that they become easy victims of a multi-billion dollar industry that profits from and justifies its horrific practices by using the defense that it is all done for the good of humanity. I find it ironic that one of the practices that turns humans into monsters, vivisection, is referred by some as necessary and good, proclaimed as something done in service to all.

I have nightmares after seeing hidden videos of what goes on behind closed doors in animal laboratories. It's amazing that we're into the 21st century and these barbaric practices that date back to ancient times still exist and constitute a profitable business for corporations, universities, animal dealers, cage and food manufacturers, animal breeders and transporters and scientists receiving grants.

In the wake of the Supreme Court ruling that "crush videos" are legal. I am compelled to make a declaration of my own. Cruelty in all its forms needs to be prohibited and not promoted in any civilized society of humans.

You may be familiar with the quote by Gandhi:
"The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated." 
Or this quote by George Bernard Shaw:
"The Anti-Vivisector does not deny that physiologists must make experiments and even take chances with new methods. He says that they must not seek knowledge by criminal methods, just as they must not make money by criminal methods. He does not object to Galileo dropping cannon balls from the top of the leaning tower of Pisa; but he would object to shoving off two dogs or American tourists."
I just couldn't have said it better myself.

Sugar Lift

I came across a video by master printer, Emily York at Crown Point Press. It explains aquatint and sugar lift processes pretty clearly and succinctly. If you are interested in a primer on sugar lift etching, this is worth a look.

I had mentioned in a previous post, one of my plates where I used sugar lift and then aquatinted over it completely obliterating my original sugar lift image. However, I think it's worthwhile to look into for all of you who are looking for a way to be more painterly with your etching plates.

New Etching

Typical Day at the Circus
plate size: 18" x 24"
aquatint etching on Rives BFK

This is one of the latest etchings I've done. It was a big plate and a bit more difficult to aquatint and get the tonality that I was trying to achieve in some areas but after a few etching states, I finally got the depth and atmospheric tone I was going for.

From the Inside

 

"Interiors," a group show presented by the Flat Iron Gallery that is hanging at the Upper Gallery of the Paramount in Peekskill opened last night. The etching above is included in the show. It depicts a recurring dream I had as a child and fit the theme of the show nicely since it reflects my interior mind and is staged in an interior. It was a good thing this piece was finished when I was invited to contribute to the show since it is the only one that I've done that literally fits the theme.

New Etching Series

I've been working on an etching series featuring animals being stalked by human shadows alluding to the deadly fate that they face daily in the human world.

By experimenting with textures and different acid resists I was able to achieve the eerie atmosphere in the prints that define the series.

This series was created with a mixture of effort to tap into my most gut-wrenching feelings about the plight of non-human animals in a human world as well as hints of satisfaction that I am finally dealing with political issues in my artwork that deeply matter to me.

It's not always easy to deal with deeply emotional and/or political issues when my muse is calling but again it's not very satisfying for me to skip lightly on the surface with little to say about what's down deep. I wonder how many other artists deal with this struggle.

UPDATE: The Huffington Post has been running a series of articles on a new book by Jonathan Safran Foer

Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/aaron-gross/jonathan-safran-foers-con_b_333698.html

called Eating Animals. As Huff Po contributor, Dr. Andrew Weil, puts it, "Foer makes it clear that factory farming is the exceptional human activity that debases and destroys everything it touches: land, people, communities, and most of all, the innocents at the nexus, animals."

Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/andrew-weil-md/the-moral-ferocity-of-eme_b_335811.html

Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/andrew-weil-md/the-moral-ferocity-of-eme_b_335811.html

Eyes Void of Hope

I've been experimenting with textures in my aquatints and the results can be surprising and interesting. I used a burlap texture for this subject, a cow who spends her days with her head locked in bars that do not allow her to turn around, move very much at all. Her eyes are truly void of any hope, or light, or anything beyond her misery.

UPDATE: For a good article on the plight of farm animals in the U.S. look at this in The Atlantic.

Etching with Z*Acryl

I did a test plate using the water-soluble hard-ground, Z*Acryl. I just freehand sketched this goat kid onto the plate feeling out the differences between the way the etching needle cuts into the Z*Acryl hard ground versus the traditional asphaltum-based hard ground. I found that in the areas where my hand was light, the point "skipped" yielding a dotted line. Yet, overall the line was even and thicker than my lines are when using traditional grounds.

In the spirit of fully testing the Z*Acryl products on one plate, I did the aquatint version using the Z*Acryl stop-out. The brush-strokes didn't "spread" the way they can when using traditional hard ground as a stop out. Even when hard ground is mixed with asphaltum to thicken it up, it still is tough to control brushstrokes sometimes. So, there was an advantage to using the Z*Acryl stop out in this regard. However, the Z*Acryl stop-out is a green color that wasn't easy to see on a zinc plate.

I plan to do more experiments with these environmentally-friendly, water-soluble mediums but unfortunately I can't say that I'm ready to give up traditional hard ground yet. There's still nothing like it that I've come across.

Sugarlift Transformed

This print reflects the first state of a sugarlift plate that I did of the Hudson Palisades (for color version of final print see previous post, Hudson Line). I added aquatint and drypoint lines to the etched sugarlift plate before printing because I was too impatient to print the sugarlift alone knowing that I would take it further with aquatint.

I really like the painterly quality of the line that sugarlift yields. I admit that I have not used this technique extensively but I wish to do more. It seems fresher and more immediate than some of the more deliberate drawings that I have done on hard ground with a pin tool.
The second state of the plate still shows some of the sugarlift lines which I had wanted to keep visible but the trees and shrubbery surrounding the Palisades cliffs needed more depth as did the cliffs themselves. The plate for this print was overwiped in some areas but I knew that it was a trial proof and I was going to change the plate again so I didn't make another (better) print in this state.

This shows the third and final state of the plate. Unfortunately, the sugarlift lines are now barely visible but the additional aquatinted shadows add depth and more atmosphere to the print.

Even though the final print has pretty much hidden the original sugarlift lines, I am still a pretty big fan of sugarlift work and hope to post more in the future that retain the original painterly lines that are characteristic of sugarlift prints.

Etching techniques that I like - PART I

I've found that I love most printmaking techniques that I know but up until recently I felt more drawn to linocut and woodcut printmaking. It may be because I am a graphic designer and these techniques yield a more graphic image than etching and monoprint does. Or it may be the therapeutic way I can "zen out" when I am carving a plate.

Recently, though, I have been doing alot more drawing/sketching by working with line as a reflection of what I am seeing. Since etching lends itself to linework more expressively, I have been doing that almost exclusively and I discovered techniques that yield a unique quality to the print that I had been previously unaware of.

[*Alert* - I'm about to get very technical here so I hope this isn't boring]
The print above was created by first open-biting the plate which creates a bubbled texture on the surface of the plate. I used a litho crayon to draw the image directly onto the plate, without ground, and then open-bit it in acid. Then I created the second state of the plate by adding shadows and midtones with aquatint. The grainy and gradated value of the tones was achieved by a combination of the textured plate from the first state and by using a litho crayon as a block out for the acid during the aquatint biting process.

I like working this way and I plan to create more aquatints with this technique. But since I haven't done a woodcut in a while, I'm itching to go back to that as well. I've got a 3 wood plates just waiting for me to cut into at the studio. Maybe I'll do a 3-plate print since they are all the same size. Eh, we'll see what the muse has in store for me...

The Hudson Line

The printmaking studio that I use is in New York City and I have to commute to get there using the Metro North train - Hudson Line. The ride is spectacular as the tracks stretch along the eastern bank of the Hudson River. Across the river are the Palisades, cliffs that jut out from the tree-filled hills that rise above the river. I've always loved the view of the Palisades cliffs and as I passed them while on the train, I would sketch them, trying to capture their magestic beauty as well as the quirky way they they thrust out from the the trees that surround them. I decided to use one of my sketches as a starting point for a sugarlift etching with aquatint. This was my first landscape etching and I was pretty pleased with it. It isn't accurate but I think it is recognizable.

Please let me know if you have any questions about the sugarlift etching technique. I love it because it allows you to use a painterly, flowing line in your etching, a quality that is difficult to achieve otherwise. The aquatint for this partcular etching has obscured the original sugarlift line and this print reflects the third state of the plate, but I hope to post some simpler versions of sugarlift in the future.

Interpretations of a Farmers Market

My work will be in a group show, a mixed media exhibit,  "Interpretations of a Farmers Market" in Peekskill, NY at Gallery 25 N, 25 North Division Street.  The opening is October 25th from 2-6 pm.  Gallery hours are from 1-6 October 24-26 only. It's sponsored by Artists on the Loose, a local Peekskill art organization.

This very gentle and affectionate pig was in a cage at the market. I call this etching "Uncertain Pig" because he was for sale and I worried about his fate.