"-59" - Electro-etching
"-59" - Electro-etching
About the Work:
My inspiration for this piece was the parka that I wore in the High Arctic when I was in Ulukhahtok.
The parka both heightened and dulled my experience. It confined and protected me. It limited my vision, constricted my movement and muffled sound, yet it was mandatory survival gear. I experienced -59 Celsius temperatures, high winds, snow fog, fear of frostbite, and fear of wolves and polar bears. The dangers were real but my physical response was altered. As an outsider to this environment, I had a keen awareness of my parka experience.
There are thirty hand-pulled and numbered images from this electro-etched copper plate. Each image is 4x4in and the Somerset support paper is 8x8in.
I based the image on a photo of me in my parka in the High Arctic. The image is hand-printed using an etching press on a Somerset 100% rag printmaking paper.
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Karen Cornelius holds the Copyright on all her artwork. No image may be reproduced for any reason without the consent of the artist.
Copper sulfate and distilled water bath with copper plate
How it Was Made
This work was created using electricity and water in an electro-etching process in which electrolysis is used to remove selected areas of a metal plate. A resist is applied to the plate just as in traditional etching. I use a soy-based BIG Baldwin Intaglio hard ground as a resist. Once this ground has been heat set I draw through the ground with a sharp metal needle to expose the metal plate.
The plate is then placed opposite another plate of the same metal in a bath of copper sulfate and distilled water. The positive and negative plates are connected completing an electrical circuit when the current is turned on.
Once the lines have been etched I clean the plate and apply a stop out resist with a brush leaving the areas where I want tone exposed. I made an acrylic stop out that works well for this purpose. I enhanced the gratuitous tonal effect that the electro-etching process creates with spray paint and used carborundum and a shot glass to create a rich black mezzotint background.
Electro-etching doesn’t produce toxic fumes and the copper sulfate electrolyte solution doesn’t degrade over time which makes this process less toxic and more environmentally responsible.
