Relaying the path

That title now that I look at it again, is a bit open to interpretations - but no - I am not running relay races - a bit past that ; but on the other hand it does sound rather pretentious. Anyway keeping it simple  -I am just trying to get the communications onto a more regular footing....... footing, path.. ??! geddit  - oh leave it alone.

I haven't mentioned much recently about my own work and that may have had something to do with some of the uncertainty I had been feeling, but now there is a degree of enthusiasm present that was missing.

You may remember my earlier comment on caustic soda and some of the experiments I tried t see if I could damage the Box  .... I failed with the box due to the vinyl covering but this,....    appeared  on some card:

 

There are larger versions of this which  I have put in for the progress review to indicate whence certain images had been derived. I discovered later that the solution had leaked onto some earlier zinc plates producing a surprising efflorescence.

In short it was suggested that I might print from these  and here are some of the results:

 

 

This was over the existing image

 

...and this was on the back of the other plate

These by the way are the prints.

 

Then I decided to pour caustic over more plates and these were some of the prints that resulted. There are a lot more possibilities  here because these have used with different colours and then overprinted onto the Back:

 

 

there is an immediate feeling of landscape here and as I have said elsewhere this is the skin of the earth and when these images are put together with some of the skin pictures there should be some good result:

 

 

 

This is the image of the  Back that was  sugarlifted (by silkscreen) onto a znc  aquatinted  plate and  printed  - later I will show pictures of these results.

Just in the last week we have been having workshops on Photoetching from Susannah O'Reilly and I have been particularly interested in this because in puts together two techniques in which  I am deeply interested.

 

 

This is a close- up of my thumb with cracked skin ; this was taken with a little macro lens attached to my iPhone

 

Here is a very similar photo processed through threshold in P/S:

 

 

then put onto acetate:

 

 

and then photoetched  onto a coated zinc (or aluminium) plate:

 

 

 

Later I will post the results - the process needs some more work as the print wasn't as black as I would like it to have been; but because this plate is zinc I will treat it to the metal and then acid etch it and see if I can get a better printed result.

 

However the main benefit over the past while is in the  aesthetic. The study of skin - particularly ageing skin as a site where culturally much of the 'west' is in denial(indeed one might say even denial of death) and when this skin is compared and blended with the skin of the earth(landscape, seascape) -  provides a contrast worth thinking about.

 

To finish,  another shot of an old favourite 

 

Ground Art Rides Again!