Zero Sum #22

Here's Zero Sum #22, the second Zero Sum etching to use solarplate. I'm really delighted with the very rich velvety blacks that I can get with the combination of transparency and aquatint screen I used to expose the plate.

This piece will go up for auction starting on Sunday night. This link will take you to the Zero Sum auctions. If you go there now, you'll find Zero Sum #21, if you go there next week you'll find #22. So there you go.

Zero Sum #21

Zero Sum #21
intaglio and chine-colle
8" x 10" image

So here's Zero Sum #21. Another editioned print, in another tiny edition of 2. #1 of 2 is being sold now, and #2 of 2 will be sold during the Blogger Show.

As I describe in the auction listing, I'm really excited about this piece, as it brings together elements that I have gathered over the course of the entire project to date. The still life objects in the image include the head of a quail purchased after the sale of Zero Sum #6, a little plastic astronaut from Zero Sum #11, and a globe bank from #16. The box that they were photographed in was built with the proceeds from Zero Sum #16 and #18. The solarplate used to create the intaglio plate from the photograph comes from #13, and the mulberry paper and archival rice starch adhesive for the chine-colle were purchased just after the last sale, of #20. So Zero Sum #21 really takes advantage of materials and imagery that have been developing for the last eight months or so.

I'm going to have to talk about that box one of these days - I'm really excited about it too. It made its first appearance in one of my Fiji Island Mermaid Press books-of-the-month, before it started appearing in the Zero Sum imagery. I'm interested in the way it echoes the theater and puppet shows. It reminds me of the black box, the camera-obscura. It serves as the pedestal that displaces the little objects I'm collecting from the real world and declares them to be "still-life". It's a good box.

Zero Sum #21 also takes advantage of a new technique for me - it's my first use of solarplate, a relatively non-toxic way to do photoetching. The last time I used photoetching it was about the most dangerous stuff you could do in the printshop, so this is a nice return to photography for me.

So, check out the auction for a bigger picture of #21, check out the Zero Sum Art Gallery on FIMP to see all of the previous ZSAP artwork, and watch this blog for updates as we get closer to the bid Zero Sum Exhibition in Pittsburgh and New York and online in November.