IN THE BEGINNING, MEASURING THE WORLD
In the summer of 2016, I had the great pleasure of participating in a 3 week artist residency at Druckwerk Print Studios in Basel, Switzerland. When I attend residencies, I often like to give myself a technical skill to learn as a means to help direct my time during my stay. For my trip to Basel, I decided to focus on multiple plate printing. I taught myself how to properly register plates on the press bed so that I could print in different colors and textures to build up an image. During the residency I made 18 new etchings of various dimensions using a combination of Drypoint, Line Etching, and Aquatint techniques. Many of the final prints utilize multiple plate printing processes, and several were large bleed prints incorporating a sort of spontaneous ‘quilting’ approach of assembly on the press bed to create one print from many smaller pieces. The few weeks I spent in Basel felt like very focused play.
![In the Beginning, Measuring the World #19, 4 plate intaglio, with line etching, aquatint, and drypoint, 14” x 36”, 2016](https://jonathanbarcan.com/wp-content/uploads/cache/2019/05/In-the-Beginning-Measuring-the-World-19/3337620446.jpg)
![In the Beginning, Measuring the World #9, 12 plate intaglio, with line etching, aquatint, and drypoint, 38” x 30”, 2016](https://jonathanbarcan.com/wp-content/uploads/cache/2019/05/In-the-Beginning-Measuring-the-World-9/2211920417.jpg)
![In the Beginning, Measuring the World #5, 2 plate, 1 color intaglio, with line etching and aquatint, 9” x 13”, 2016](https://jonathanbarcan.com/wp-content/uploads/cache/2019/05/In-the-Beginning-Measuring-the-World-5/364573017.jpg)