Artist Statement

New Woodcuts

During the pandemic and barn renovation for a new printshop I have not had close access to an etching press. I am currently working in woodcut which will strongly influence new lithographs and etchings as I continually seek to improve my skills in creating simple, powerful statements through printer’s ink. (5/3/21)

The Recent Prints

In the latest series, “Leda and the Swan”, I am pouring new wine into old bottles, adding dimension to the subject which is so often pictorially overwrought. I have long contemplated W B Yeats’ poem of the same name, finding in his memorable lines a complexity of mood. I continue to work on etchings and lithographs referencing the Homeric world, intrigued with the idea that to modern eyes the gods which the Greeks personified may be seen as Nature at large….willful, capricious forces altering the course of human affairs.

About Etching

Etching is a medium capable of great nuance. Etching is a flexible medium, demonstrating the power and resonance of black ink. I let the plates evolve slowly and they acquire histories – accidents, imperfections, traces where I have re-worked the image. My work is classical, in the tradition of Rembrandt, Piranesi, and Degas. I use simple tools. My interest lies in creating what one may call layered prints, prints in which the viewer has the sensation of looking into and through the blacks.  Since 2013 I have also been making lithographs, technically quite a different medium, with its own inherent beauty, although I want to exploit the affinity I am finding between lithographic tusche and liftground technique in etching.

On Sculpture

My sculpture is classical in that it is form emphatic.  I draw as a sculptor.  The forgework reflects my involvement with the material aspects of steel.  As in my prints, my work is decidedly non conceptual: the meaning of each form has a direct relationship to how it is physically made.

In recent years, I began to think more volumetrically in sculpture and have moved beyond the linear aspect of forged steel.  My earliest training was in figurative  and portrait sculpture and I am presently working in cast concrete, plaster, and ceramic.  I have just finished work on four reliefs, depicting scenes from the Homeric world, relating to my recent prints.  These may be seen under Ceramics on this site.  Built this winter (2019-20) they are presently unfired.

I have chosen to return to figurative work as abstract work is no longer a challenge.  I have never been or wished to be an artist with a “groove”.