“Rose”

Description

PLEASE NOTE: Every print in the edition is slightly different from the others as this is a hand-made process.

The rose was in the last hours of its life, petals almost falling… Something had to be done.

First, I made a drawing of the rose in pencil on paper. Then I used that sketch as a reference to draw on a copper plate with a steel point. This printmaking technique is called drypoint.

Early proofs were very straightforward – a light drawing of a rose on a white background. Sweet, yes, but somehow lacking emotional content.

I tried heavier plate tone and in the end, I simply left the ink around the image as it was – rough and row, only removing enough to allow for the rose to appear from underneath it.

When I was little, we used to play a game of making “secrets”. The “secret” was a pretty arrangement of flowers, shiny things like sweets’ wrappers and pieces of coloured glass or beads, placed in a small hole in the ground. You’d put a little pane of glass over the hole and then cover it back with dirt to hide the “secret”.

There’d be a few of us competing to make the prettiest “secret”. We’d go off in search of the materials and then make our pieces. Once everybody was done, a “judge” would go around looking at the “artworks” and awarding points.

To see the “secret”, one had to clean the earth off the little glass window covering the hole and there it would be – a masterpiece composed of flowers and random shinies.

Every now and then I journey back to that game of “secrets” through my art. This print of rose is one such homage, innocent fun of making something pretty and covering it with dirt before unveiling one’s creation to the world!