New/old prints

After a long absence, I'm back. I've recently changed my major technical mode of operation from large scale digital prints to small solar prints; so far, intaglio (etching) images developed from a variety of sources including some older drawings and digital prints and photography new and old. I've also been doing more painting - acrylic in various sizes-and I'll post a few of these along with the first batch of solar prints.

On solar prints: in traditional etching, acid is used to eat away the to-be-printed lines and tones of the image on copper or other metal plates. Solar plates, now copper colored (!), are thin steel plates with a coating of polymer; the polymer is photo sensitive, hardening when exposed to UV (sun) light. To make an image one either draws or paints directly on the polymer with tones of black ink which blocks the sun, or on a transparent sheet, glass or plastic typically, using various ways to get the light-blocking, positive image onto the sheet. This transparency with the dark image on it is placed on top of the polymer plate which is then exposed to the sun for a short period of time. The plate is then washed with water which removes some of the polymer not hardened by the sun (the image parts that were various tones of light-blocking black). The plate is then inked like an ordinary etching plate and run through a press to transfer the image to paper. The process was developed by Dan Weldon in the 1970's. Many thanks to my local artist colleagues Nancy Vickery, Jude Silva and Conrad Nelson for tips on getting me underway.

Nothing Inside

Pond Totem