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As a part of the exhibition "Pursuit of Happiness", printmaker and SOU professor Vanessa Jo Bahr has on display a piece titled Creature Comforts. Creature Comforts is a quilt made entirely of paper and cotton, featuring prints of found natural objects collected by the artist. These items include animal skulls, feathers, leaves, and pinecones -- all things that Bahr was able to find in the wilderness. Her work focuses on examining topics such as biodiversity, ecological justice, and habitat loss, and she creates art to explore her deep reverence for the bond between animal and human in a world that has lost its value for all its creatures.
The copper etchings in Creature Comforts are produced through an Intaglio process known as Aquatint. After the plates are shaped by hand with a jeweler's saw, they are coated with a fine powder known as rosin, which is dried pine tree sap. The copper plate is then heated using a torch, which adheres the powder to the plate to create a vast network of dots. This results in a toothy surface that, when drawn on using grease pencils, will produce a tonal effect. The grease of the pencils resists the acid and prevents the copper from etching in those areas. When submerged in a bath of ferric chloride, the acid will creep down in between the dots, eating away the exposed copper and corroding out little pits that will hold ink in varying depths. The longer the plate is in the acid, the deeper, and therefore darker, the image will be. Once the plates are etched and ready to print, they are inked up, wiped, and printed on an etching press under heavy pressure.
Learn more about Vanessa Jo Bahr's studio and print press, Scavenger Studios, and other processes of printmaking she teaches and creates with at the link below. And, visit the Schneider to see our faculty and staff show, "Pursuit of Happiness", before it closes on March 14th!
https://scavengerstudios.net/
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