Year:

Medium:

Printmaking Etching

Size - (USA):

19 W x 26 H x 1 D (inches)

Size - (metric):

48.3 W x 66.0 H x 2.5 D (centimeters)

Theme:

Cityscape

Edition:

Original

Artwork ID:

610691

PDF Copy:

Artwork Info Sheet (PDF)

Artwork Description:   Di Falco’s original etching was inspired by a 1937 photograph by Francis Benjamin Johnson, born in 1864 and died in 1952, one of the first US women to gain success as a photographer. Johnson’s original negative is catalogued in the US Library of Congress, in Washington DC. It is a part of The Carnegie Survey of the Architecture of the South, Call Number LC-J7-LA- 1056P P. The scene features an 1835 building in New Orleans. The French Quarter house, located at 716 Dauphine Street, is supposedly haunted by ghosts and is known as THE HOUSE OF THE TURK. DiFalco executed his etching with a blend of metallic and colored oil base, French inks printed on RivesBFK white paper. A mulberry bark paper from Thailand was employed in DiFalco’s Chine colle process. The zinc plate measured fourteen inches high by eleven inches wide, or 28cm x 35.5cm and required five separate baths in nitric acid. THE PRICE INCLUDES BOTH A FRAME THAT MEASURES 26 INCHES HIGH BY 19 INCHES WIDE, AND AN ARCHIVAL MAT. The Artist’s Notes on His Chine Colle Process – “Chine Colle, which translates from the French as Chinese pasting, is a TECHNIQUE in which colored and treated paper is attached to the etching plate before the printing press is activated. I mix Methylcellulose with spring water and paint the substance onto Unryu brand mulberry bark paper from Thailand. In Japan, Unryu translates as CLOUD DRAGON paper, because it has long swirling threads of kozo fibers integrated in it, thereby giving the texture and visual effect of clouds. Kozo fibers come the branches of the kozo bush, specifically the innermost of three layers of bark, which must be removed, cooked, and beaten before the sheets are formed. Kozo is harvested annually. The treated Thai paper is then allowed to dry overnight and I cut it to fit the plate areas where I want color to exist in the print. These stenciled mulberry bark papers are first dampened or misted with water and placed upon the already inked and wiped etching plate. The printing process continues, and a multi colored image on paper resulting. This hand done process is a difficult and laborious one.