Description

I have spent much of my professional career attempting to make the etching process a safer one. In creating this work for MinersImprint I have realised the parallels concerning the dangers of printmaking and those associated with coal mining. The Welsh miner in ‘Descent into Darkness’ faced the dangers of toxic gases and choking dust, as well as the potential for explosions; all of which are also possibilities when employing traditional etching processes.

The safer etching developments made possible through my research have eliminated these dangers for printmakers today, giving greater resonance to the use of the faux mezzotint in this work, which depicts the darkness (both literally and metaphorically) of the coal miner’s hazardous working conditions.