printmaking
Studio Work
Kate, Goodbye
Etching with aquatint on cochineal-dyed paper, 22” x 16”, 2024My good friend, Kate, helped my partner and me move across the country in 2023. I documented the week-long move with a disposable camera—leaning into the nostalgia of a road trip cliché—because I wanted tangible photos of the experience. I knew this was a pivotal moment in my life, and yet, like most people today, I rarely have physical photographs; everything sentimental exists as pixels on a phone screen. This image captures the goodbye hug between my partner and Kate at the airport, a fleeting but deeply felt moment. I wanted to push back against the contemporary art world’s tendency to dismiss sentimentalism and instead embrace it fully in this etching. The slowness and permanence of the etching process mirror my desire to preserve this memory beyond the fleeting nature of digital images.
I translated the photograph into a weaving structure file, which I then laser-engraved onto an intaglio plate, creating a high-resolution etching that mimics the texture of a weaving produced on a TC2 Jacquard Loom. The image comprises a range of satin weaves and selvedges, visible along the sides of the print, like the edges of a bolt of fabric, tying the work to the tactile history of textiles and the act of weaving itself. To enhance the emotional resonance, I naturally dyed the paper with cochineal, giving it a pink hue that will slowly decay over time. This, along with the red ink, heightens the tenderness of the piece, emphasizing its warmth and sentimentality.