Even though there are obvious similarities with the smaller Cleddon Prints, these 6’ tall prints were created to fulfill the need to do something to human scale (and because they were the maximum size that my press could take). The proportions of the MDF gave them the appearance of a window, door or mirror, and this excited me.
Everything was more demanding on this scale.
The initial drawings, though having an intended finishing point, took their own path as I battled to keep the materials under control. The sealing of the MDF was more complex and took longer- and often resulted in the first etch being altered.
As the prints progressed, using a lot of ink, strength and patience to put them through the press (the plate could sometimes bubble up, after caustic soda has been applied, to 3 or 4cm thick), I realized that the initial 4 pieces of MDF were not providing the finishing point and so I created two more plates using Tile Grout on one and Hard As Nails on the other. The second being much more stable than the first (another case of using materials for a use they were not designed for). They gave them the hidden energy and Inscapes that I had been searching for.
The Final Six images have resonances of Bach, Dust and Liszt. As with Dust, they exist as happily independently as they do in a group.
