This print astounds me. Tara Donovan’s softly patterned etching was created using a ferric chloride solution (an etching corrosive), combined with liquid bubble soap. According to Greg Kucera gallery, which represents Donovan:
“[she] used a straw to blow air into this mixture, making different size bubbles that she carefully picked up with a plastic spoon and laid on the aquatinted plates. The bubbles were left on the plates until they popped or dissolved, allowing the ferric chloride to etch the surface of the plate.When Tara completed the process of applying bubbles to each plate, the acid residue and rosin were cleaned off the plate and then printed. The variety of dark to light bubble images was achieved by controlling the saturation of liquid in each bubble.”
Donovan’s process blows my mind, and I find the imagery to be very appealing as well. Learn more about her work at Pace Prints, or Greg Kucera Gallery.
