The Homecoming. Etching with Chine Colle. 15x18"Creating this etching was a way to recover a memory of a time when I was seven. The house pictured was actually the house where I was born, a farm house in rural Michigan. My parents had moved away for several years, but then they returned with my sister and me.
Moving there was both scary and exciting and as we explored the empty rooms, there were actually things I remembered from the previous time. And later on, I also remembered the sweet smell of Black-eyed susans and St.Johnswort in the long prairie grass that grew everywhere. I made a reference to that fragrance by including flowers over the house. In the cement porch, I wrote a poem about the memory, (written in reverse to make a readable version) and it became the texture of the decaying cement.
Several printmaking techniques were used. Thin paper was rubbed with pencil over a lace texture to make the curtains. A copy machine was used to copy photos of myself as a baby, the candy bar wrapper, and flowers on rice paper. (the grey areas) These copied shapes were carefully cut out and interspersed with the etched portions of the plate using a method called chine colle, which glues the pieces to the print paper at the same time the inks on the plate are printed.
The backs of the small copied pieces were coated with flour and water paste, and carefully placed. The wet paper is laid over all, covered with press blankets and printed with much pressure. When all works properly, the rice paper copier images stick, and blend perfectly with the etched portions on the print, to give it a two color effect. This is an example of both montage and collage. It is also related to other pieces I have done in the Vintage Montage genre.
At this point I am offering these images as a smaller giclee print, separately numbered.
All images and writing are the sole property of Ruth Zachary.
Moving there was both scary and exciting and as we explored the empty rooms, there were actually things I remembered from the previous time. And later on, I also remembered the sweet smell of Black-eyed susans and St.Johnswort in the long prairie grass that grew everywhere. I made a reference to that fragrance by including flowers over the house. In the cement porch, I wrote a poem about the memory, (written in reverse to make a readable version) and it became the texture of the decaying cement.
Several printmaking techniques were used. Thin paper was rubbed with pencil over a lace texture to make the curtains. A copy machine was used to copy photos of myself as a baby, the candy bar wrapper, and flowers on rice paper. (the grey areas) These copied shapes were carefully cut out and interspersed with the etched portions of the plate using a method called chine colle, which glues the pieces to the print paper at the same time the inks on the plate are printed.
The backs of the small copied pieces were coated with flour and water paste, and carefully placed. The wet paper is laid over all, covered with press blankets and printed with much pressure. When all works properly, the rice paper copier images stick, and blend perfectly with the etched portions on the print, to give it a two color effect. This is an example of both montage and collage. It is also related to other pieces I have done in the Vintage Montage genre.
At this point I am offering these images as a smaller giclee print, separately numbered.
All images and writing are the sole property of Ruth Zachary.
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