Entre Itacurubí y San José

Entre Itacurubí y San José

Double Plate Colour Etching with Stencils.

40x60cm. 2011.

I finally got around to making another print of my Paraguay series. I'm hoping to extend the series a bit more in the near future so I can propose an exhibition in Asuncion sometime in 2012 or 1213. Entre Itacurubi y San Jose illustrates a stretch of Highway #2 that is lined with the most beautiful fruit stands all year round. Last time I visited, the merchandise was mandarines intricately tied to sticks, bags of oranges and grapefruit, pumpkins, gourds and peanuts glowing in all shades of orange, yellow and green. I remember a few years back when I came by the same area in December the stands were packed with pineapples and bananas. The displays, arrangements and colours are so inviting that you simply have to stop and buy some fruit. There is something about the lovingly arranged fruit in the makeshift little shelters seen only by the few passers by that strike a chord with me. To me they represent the abundance of fruit that we have all year round in Paraguay that I so miss in this winter stricken Canada. And so here you have another memory map of my dear home country.

Like Aregua and Asuncion, Entre Itacurubi y San Jose is a double plate etching. Since the two plates weren't quite enough to illustrate the vibrancy of the colours of the fruit stands, I decided to add two more colours with stencils. This is the first time I've really tried this technique and I'm very pleased how it turned out. I cut out stencils for the yellow and green shapes out of acetate and after I wipe each plate I roll some ink in relief onto the already inked plate (see the photographs below; the first two are the wiped copper plates with the relief roll and the last one is the print of the two). That way the yellow sits on the surface of the red-wiped plate and the green sits on the surface of the black-wiped plate. Then I print one plate after the other with exact registration and all four layers of colour blend together to create the image.