Advisor: Martin Levine

The Traveler Collection

Genre painting is a style of art that originated in the 17th century in which scenes of daily life were depicted as a way of expressing life in its truest form. The emphasis on humans in their natural habitat brings out a sense of rawness that cannot be captured through a carefully composited and posed image.

The multi-series collection of prints, The Traveler, aims to show modern 21st century life while maintaining the traditional practice of copper plate printmaking. All prints are based on spontaneous photographs ranging from the wheat fields of Poland to the sandy canyons of Nevada. Essentially, they are snapshots of moments time, like that of stills of a movie – a record of my various travels over the past few years.

Title: The Traveler Collection, Date: 2021-2023, Dimensions: 48” x 36”, Medium: Etching and aquatint

It is important for me to capture the essence of the current life of this century and continue to do so through the genre style. The combination of “genre style” and “printmaking” combines a traditional technique with a traditional style to juxtapose with present-day techniques of making art. This paper will specifically be focusing on my travels in Poland through a series of rendered images taken in spontaneous moments.

The Intaglio process, where a copper plate is etched using aquatint and acid, is used throughout the series, to achieve a vast range of grey tones. Intaglio is the primary technique used for this project as I feel as though it has worked effectively in showing my style of art-making. Initially, a copper plate is coated with asphaltum, and lines are scratched into the asphaltum exposing the metal. The plate can then be etched in acid to deepen the grooves enough to hold the right amount of ink. Once the asphaltum is removed with mineral spirits, the plate is de-greased with a mixture of acetic acid and baby powder in preparation for aquatinting. Aquatint is housed in a rosin box that is activated through the spinning of its interior, leaving a light dusting of rosin in a couple of minutes. The plate is then transferred over to a hot plate where it is quickly melted to reach its clear, stable stage. After the plate has cooled, hard ground can now be used to stop out areas of lightness. The plate is etched in intervals to achieve a full grey scale. This is the stage that permanently etches the plate to hold ink, producing the grey tones that fill up the linework. The aquatint is then removed with denatured alcohol before ink is applied to the plate. A smooth application of ink is then polished away with muslin fabric to aid in the correct removal of unnecessary ink. Once the press is adjusted and correctly set to printing copper plates, the plate is placed under several blankets and rolled through to reveal the final impression.

“Why not just view the picture taken on your phone rather than replicating it just to look like that same exact picture?” some may ask. The pictures I usually take end up having a poor quality or are screenshots from quick videos filmed in sudden moments. As a result, these snapshots cannot stand alone the way that they are. It is almost as if the image has lost its purpose and storytelling. By turning these images into intaglio prints, the life gets brought back to them through a more subjective manner, where I can shape the image to the way I remember seeing it. Some of these prints did not come out identical to the original, but that is where intention comes into play. Sometimes there is no pure intention of the finished result, but rather the reaction of the plate itself. Etching does not always come out the same way every time because a variety of factors influence its final look. The only control the artist has is when to stop.

The Traveler: Poland Edition

While color is not necessary in expressing the rawness of life and is not something that I usually do in my work, I decided to include a colored edition beside this black and white series to bring out a nostalgic quality of Poland. Every country, place, area has its own color palette, one that distinguishes itself from everything else. Poland, specifically, has two very specific color palettes that I intend to bring out. The first palette emphasizes the typical dull and grey look of Eastern European countries that most people tend to associate them with. This color scheme contains cooler beiges, browns, blues, and greys.

Many Eastern European countries are thought as being cold and “anything-but-warm-and-inviting,” however there is quite a bit of truth to this assumption. Coming from someone who has visited Poland a couple of times, most days feel like there is an expectation for it to rain. However, it usually does not, and the clouds are just there blocking the sun for the entire day. The second palette emphasizes the sunny colors of the wheat and potato fields that span over most of Poland’s land. This color scheme contains warm yellows, blues, reds, and greens. While sunny days in Poland are quite rare, even in the summertime, they are seen as a blessing, giving locals another thing to be happy about, especially farmers.

The exhibition of these works will showcase water-colored linework accompanied by a black and white aquatinted version for comparison. The display of both techniques side by side would give the viewer two different interpretations of reality. The colored version does not have many grey tones as it is based on the linework and overall color scheme. Whereas the uncolored version is filled with rich tones, giving the forms a sense of depth and life. In a way, both mimic reality, one version just relies on color and contours while the other relies on highlights and shadows. Displaying these works this way gives the viewer the ability to see a collected memory in two different ways, where color and form are separated into two different artworks of the same image.

Title: The Polish Countryside’s Ultimate Vehicle, Date: May 2023, Dimensions: 8” x 10”, Medium: Etching and watercolor; Etching and aquatint

Pictured is a closer shot of my uncle’s tractor on a wheat field with my aunt sitting in the back seat. The way this image was captured has an interesting story behind it because the tractor was already going at a very fast speed. It was taken on the attached tractor trolley that pulled my cousins and I through the fields. This was a very special moment for me because we were all having a fun and light-hearted time. The tractor is not only considered to be a machine for labor, but in this case a machine to make people laugh and have a good time. Especially with my family living in a rural setting, they find ways to work with what they have at their farm, having a laugh out of nothing, such as enjoying a roller coaster ride by using tractor trolley.

Title: The Polish Countryside’s Ultimate Vehicle, Date: May 2023, Dimensions: 8” x 10”, Medium: Etching and watercolor; Etching and aquatint

Pictured is a road in the middle of the countryside in Poland. Perceptively, the viewer is riding inside a car, hence the dashboard slightly showing itself at the bottom of the image as well as the car riding in front further down the road. The most important element of this image is that cows are seen walking alongside on the road without a person leading them. At the time of taking this picture, seeing these cows walk by the road made me nervous being in the car because I was worried one of them would potentially start walking into the road. I thought that making a print of this memory would be quite a shock to some people, as they would be seeing something like this for the first time. The fact that the cows have been trained enough for the owner to trust them walking alone along the road is quite impressive, considering they are not house pets.

Title: The Polish Countryside’s Ultimate Vehicle, Date: May 2023, Dimensions: 8” x 10”, Medium: Etching and watercolor; Etching and aquatint

Pictured is a raised wooden shed with an attached ladder to climb up into. Kids are climbing the ladder to go into this built shed, which most probably is a hunting shed to shoot from. However, it does likely look like a tree house through the eyes of a child. I thought this would be an interesting image to capture considering something like hunting is juxtaposed with the innocence of the youth. Just as in the image of the tractor, something is being used for a purpose different than its intended usage. I also did not expect my cousins to climb this ladder, but their eagerness and bravery got them up right as I was taking out my phone to take a snapshot of this moment.

Title: The Polish Countryside’s Ultimate Vehicle, Date: May 2023, Dimensions: 8” x 10”, Medium: Etching and watercolor; Etching and aquatint

Pictured are my family members looking out into the fields of barley. They did not know I was taking a picture of them, making this another scene of unposed life. The field is cropped to the lower part of the plate to emphasize the spaciousness of the fields. While we do live in a very social media-based world, there is so much more to do in rural areas, that it is harder to find time to even use social media. I chose this image to convey a sense of being at peace with nature. Sometimes we drown ourselves in our own thoughts in the seclusion of a room. However, living in an area like this one can cause you to get lost in your own thoughts because your mind has the freedom to wander.

Making this collection of prints expand over several semesters enabled me to create a large collection of works that hold some of my life’s best memories that I will always cherish.