Etching is one of many forms of play, and my art conveys my philosophy
Etching, for me, represents more than a technical process. It's an act of playful exploration where boundaries dissolve between creator and creation. Through the dance of acid and metal, resistance and surrender, I discover truths that words alone cannot express.
❀
Take a close look at the bottom left of the heart. Did you notice anything?
“Heart is the strongest muscle.”
This philosophy inspired “Bloom,” my first etching is a piece created to celebrate beauty through its capacity to heal and blossom.
As Nathaniel Branden writes:
“Then the challenge became to accept the resistance, to allow the fighting and denial, to experience that — and to wait. It was an act of trust, trust in the organism’s powers of self-repair, trust that if I did my best not to disown my experience and to own my moments of disowning when they did occur, eventually a healing integration would happen. This is what happened, and what continues to happen.”
Through layers of weight and form, this piece honors the delicate process of acceptance, integration, and renewal.
“Solitude” & its iterative processes
This three-panel etching art explores the profound experience of solitude across different life stages. From left to right: the primordial solitude of floating in my mother's womb, the contemplative isolation of being fully submerged during a bath — ears underwater, world silenced — and finally, the liberated solitude of swimming freely through open water, alone yet completely at home.
1. gather idea
Sketch and collect stencils. My initial theme/ideas are life stages, water, and solitude.
2. set the theme
This project proceeded with an emphasis on the mental strength we gained from solitude.
3. transfer drawings
Etch the metal plates in the acid solution, where the chemical reaction occurs.
4. get the first proof
5. continue design planning
Tonal etching requires planning ahead as duration that the metal plate submerged in the acid will affect the value of print detail.
Proofs allows me to test out how different values, compositions, line weights, affect visual communication.
6. the final print
For this edition (an edition is a set of identical prints made from the same metal plate), I produced 8 prints in total.
For this piece I wanted to play with texture by using powdered resin to create a tonal effect.
Tonal Etching Practice
Glass Half Full
Tonal etching requires detailed planning since the duration of the metal plate staying in the acid solution (where chemical reactions occur) influences the value of every print detail.
