I first learned etching when I was 19 and studying in Florence, Italy, my junior year of college. Our wonderful professor, Swietlan (Nick) Kraczyna, introduced myself and two other students to the various processes of etching, ranging from aquatint to mezzotint to drypoint to the more complicated multi-plate color etchings. Our studio was a centuries old stable, across a small courtyard from the Il Bisonte printmaking school. We worked for several hours each day, and after a few false starts and failures, I felt a connection to the process. I finished the year making portraits, learning more about the technicalities of the medium, and developing a real love for the visual language of etching.
A couple of the prints I made that year:
After returning to the states, I enrolled in a printmaking class for my final year in college, and struggled with finding the same feeling from the process that I had in Italy. Short classes, limited access to the presses, and strict assignments all contributed to making the class less of a passion and more of a duty. I left college still loving etching, but less hopeful about applying that love to my real life in some personally useful and meaningful way.
A course in graduate school restored some of my passion, although access to presses was still an issue (students signed up for time slots, and they were often full), and as a candidate for am MFA in Painting, I always felt like a bit of a guest in the printmaking studio. I missed the freedom of using a press whenever I wanted, and of making countless foolish, ugly mistakes without embarrassment. That year underscored the point that for me, the mood of a studio can be as important as its facilities.
After school, presses were harder to find, and seldom open for public use. My husband and I moved a few times, finally settling in a smaller town on the coast of Washington state, where press access for those not involved in school is simply not available.
For Christmas this year, my parents bought me a Conrad 12" etching press. I was (and am) so excited. Because they make each press one at a time, it will be arriving some time either this week or next. The opportunity to practice etching in my own home, any time I like, with my own materials and my own ideas, is a wonderful luxury. I am grateful to them for the gift and the opportunity, and am looking forward to exploring etching once more, on my own terms.
