Rocky Road

In 2019 I started experimenting with etching, really this is the first print done is this technique. Although by that time I had quite a bit of experience working with lino, tried drypoint prints and got my printing technique to be very consistent between print sessions, this work was essentially an experiment. At that point I had just rough teorethical knowledge as to “what, how and in what order”to do…

Of course I could just make some test lines of varying thicknesses or geometric patterns but that would be too simple… and besides, why “waste” metal on something that is not a complete scene by itself? My approach is to make the thing and learn in the process, so, understandably, I made a relatively simple scene: mountains with clouds gathering above them, hills and low wooden fence, which is here just to mark the area, no more. Stone walls hug it all from the sides and the only footpath is going up the mountain and, maybe, just maybe, it diverges somewhere behind right hill and goes somewhere.

Where does it go? What lies behind that hill? Who knows. Maybe there’s a tiny village of 5 huts or maybe river, forest or a giant flower field… Or maybe this trail does not diverge and there is no other path except up the mountain.

All this is for the viewer to decide. Let your fantasy run free. Imagine wildest sceneries that do not and simply can’t exist in real world. And I as an author and creator of this world may make continuation of this little story.

That is if I want to. And seems like I do.