Aura Print

Aura, Intaglio Etching on Cotton Rag Paper, Made from Impression of Artist’s Hair, Chance Procedures, Aquatint, and Sugarlift, Limited Edition of 16, Numbered and Signed I make these prints by using my hair to make an impression on a zinc plate coated in acid resistant wax, and then the plate gets etched in an acid bath. I begin by drawing with strands of hair on a piece of acetate film. During this process dust and water intervene to create invisible patterns. Like my shower drawing process in my other works, I never begin this process with an image in mind. Rather, I push the strands around until a woman appears to me. When this figure emerged I had the sense that she was both blowing and being blown by the wind. In Greek mythology Aura means "breeze." The water and dust from the studio created "stars" in the background, making her appear a constellation. Fortuitously, the multiple stages of aquatint I applied in order to deepen the blacks created an unintended "aura" of space-time around her. I like to think of her as the angel at the edge of the expanding universe - or the messenger from an other dimension, promising the fruits of a new reality should we commit our minds and hearts to first being there without material proof. Ovid wrote in Metamorphoses: "I wooed the breeze, blowing gently on me in my heat; the breeze I waited for. She was my labour’s rest. ‘Come, Aura,’ I remember I used to cry, ‘come soothe me; come into my breast, most welcome one, and, as indeed you do, relieve the heat with which I burn.’ Perhaps I would add, for so my fates drew me on, more endearments, and say: ‘Thou art my greatest joy; thou dost refresh and comfort me; thou makest me to love the woods and solitary places. It is ever my joy to feel thy breath upon my face.' "

Printmaking:Etching on Paper

Original:One-of-a-kind Artwork

Size:11 W x 15 H x 0.1 D in

Delivery Time:Typically 5-7 business days for domestic shipments, 10-14 business days for international shipments.