The exhibition features works by Joan Wadleigh Curran, David Fertig, Rebecca Gilbert, James McElhinney, Sarah McEneaney and Bill Scott
Last year during the preparations for my installation O.T.W. On the Water, at Philadelphia’s Independence Seaport Museum I worked with master printer Cindi Royce Ettinger to explore some new processes for producing intaglio prints, using a process known as Chine-colle,(Chinese pasting) combined with digital printing technology. Drawing directly into copper plates in the form of linear sketches, the printed image was traced onto watercolor paper, where a color scheme was developed. This was then scanned, resized and printed onto thin Japanese washi (mulberry-paper). These were then trimmed down to the same size as the plate, laid face down upon this sandwich of copper and paper and lightly dusted with powdered rice starch paste. 100% acid-free archival rag etching-paper was then placed over top and run through an etching-press. The result was in effect the same as a hand-colored etching, with line and color married to one another at the same time. In most hand-colored intaglio prints the color is added after the print has been pulled and dried.
Cindi Ettinger’s studio is located in an historic storefront at 2215 South Street in Philadelphia. The printing shop is located behind a small gallery space in which Cindi presents rotating exhibitions of the artists with whom she works. This year she will include in her end-of-the-year exhibition a series of test-prints we did together, while exploring the process of digital Chine-colle. What makes these prints unique is that while we were waiting for the archival pigment prints to arrive, as an experiment Cindi printed a few of her own on her office inkjet printer. Archival pigment prints–sometimes known on the photographic world as Light Prints–are water-resistant, whereas traditional color inkjet prints are not. When Cindi used these instead of the more permanent pigment prints, wonderful things happened. Surprising patterns appeared in the prints. Colors bled, setting up a visual tension between the reasoned line and the randomness of the color, making each print a unique image.
The exhibition will also feature works by wonderful (and prominent) Philadelphia artists like Joan Wadleigh Curran, David Fertig, Rebecca Gilbert, Sarah McEneaney and Bill Scott. All of the works in the gallery will be available. Cindi describes it as a neighborhood event, a way for locals to acquire works by notable artists at affordable prices. Some may regard prints like these as the equivalent of lab-rats, preferring to acquire nothing but finished works. I salute Cindi’s enterprise of making in-process-works available at modest prices. Like drawings, prints such as these offer the collector a kind of intimate experience that brings them into the artists’ personal thought-processes.
I might dare to add that Cindi’s shop is at most a ten-minute UBER ride from Philadelphia’s 30th Street AMTRAK station.
Here is a preview of our test-prints that will be on view:
Columbia Bridge Number One. 2018. 500
Columbia Bridge Number Two. 2018. 600
Columbia Bridge Number Three. 2018. 600
Columbia Bridge Number Four. 2018. 400
Columbia Bridge Number Five. 2018. 600
Black Mesa Number One. 2019. 600
Black Mesa Number Two. 2019. 600
All prints are priced between 400-600, each numbered 1/1, titled, signed and dated, with CR Ettinger blind-stamp
To order contact:
C. R. Ettinger Studio
2215 South Street
Philadelphia PA. 19146.
610-585-4084
cindi@crettinger.com
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