Matriarch

This is an interesting etching on several levels. First, most people that I've asked don’t know what it is. Guesses range from horse to bird. Most people focus on the center of the image in trying to figure out what this is. In reality, it is a close up of the eye of an elephant, based on a black and white photo I took. If you look at the whole image, instead of just the center, the elephant becomes more visible. The other thing that is interesting about this etching is that it is an etching of a linocut. I spent a summer cutting this image into a linoleum block. I then made several prints from the block before wondering what it would look like as an etching. So, I covered a plate with soft ground and impressed the image from the linocut into the ground. I then etched it with this result. Of course, the etched image is reversed from the image in the linocut. Also, the etched image is not as clear and crisp as the linocut.

This print is 11 ¾ by 7 ½ inches. There is no edition but there are four artists’ proofs in different colors. They are black, violet/yellow, red and Indian red. The linocut on which this image is based is 12 by 9 inches and there are four of them printed in black.