In recent years digital photography has significantly changed how we make images. Though I am deeply grateful for the many conveniences of Photoshop and my digital camera, I still yearn for both the hands-on experience of making art and the magic of the reveal. With the help of a UV exposure unit I transfer images to a steel backed plate and then ink and print them using an etching press. In the darkroom the magic occurs as the image slowly appears in the developer. For printmakers, it is the moment one pulls the print away from the plate. The process is slow, laborious, and hands on.

Anxious to once again retreat into my basement printmaking studio I chose to revisit an old subject that I hoped would produce some lovely photopolymer gravure prints. Still life of natural subjects has been a favorite subject of my since I first picked up a camera. The images in this series include both “portraits” as well as objects “in situ.” The intent is to simply milk the inherit beauty of the natural.