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Eye of the Beholder
This print emerged from a wide variety of sources and influences. My main subject was inspired by one of the more
flamboyant paintings of the National Portrait Gallery in London. A fascinating portrait of Edward VI, King of England
(1537-1553) at the age of 9, obviously created with the aid of early optics. This novel approach to Royal portraiture,
the distorted perspective or anamorphous of an honored face where the subject only comes into relative normalcy
when viewed at an extreme angle. To me this was not just a form of parlor entertainment or visual oddity but an
interesting view on our perception of one of the most important aspects of how we view and understand each other
socially, the recognition and perception of emotions from another’s face. The other primary inspiration came from a
BBC documentary on the human face and the many aspects, physical, psychological and social that we react to daily.
One segment featured a Los Angeles Plastic surgeon who’s invented a template for facial beauty based on the special
balance of the features. By special permission, Dr. Stephen Marquart has allowed me to use his diagram as one
element in this print.
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| Here you can see the simple beginning of a rather complex print. I often start with a basic composition sketch, to layout
the primary elements that will give the print structure. From this structure embellishments can be added to enrich the
surface and meaning of the work. At this stage, “Eye of the Beholder” has had one wood block printing for the vertical
band on the left, a photo lithographic printing for the Dial circle and 4 plates from traditional lithographic stone to create
the passion fruit flower or in Hawaiian, Liliko’i, band on the right. This impression exists as a separate print consisting
of 4 color printings and is in an edition of 36 impressions. It and can be seen being printed below. |
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| With the first simple elements printed the image begins to have an immediate structure to build upon. Often I’ll begin a
print with a drawn lithographic wash plate to “muck-up” the surface , giving me an organic color and texture that will
hopefully moderate the sharp cold look of the photographic images. To make this image lithographically I have to first
start by prepping the stone I’m going to use. For a large print like this one it means selecting a stone of a suitable size,
grinding off the previous image using carborundum grit, another stone for weight and allot of elbow grease. the whole
process from erasing to polishing the surface of a large stone can take up half a day. |
 Once the stone is prepared, I can draw or paint the next layer or “plate” for the print. In this case it’s a reticulated wash and crayon drawing of an anatomical head printed in yellow ochre to give tone and texture to the background of the print.
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To the left you can see
the large lithographic stone
being used for the wash plate.
The image is hand drawn or
painted directly on to the
freshly ground stone, then
processed and stabilized with
an etch before being printed
by hand, in registration, onto
the entire print edition. |
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