In the spring of 2015, Spencer Finch came to Paulson Bott Press to sign the edition of Back To Kansas, a large print based on the Wizard of Oz movie. Back to Kansas was a print done primarily through the mail, so to have him working in the studio was a treat. We spent a large portion of the three-day project working on a portfolio of six small color aquatints he called In-Between Colors.
BACK TO KANSAS, 2015 Aquatint etching 43” x 60” Edition of 35
In much of his work, Spencer is interested in juxtaposing intellectual and physical perceptions of light with words and meaning. He is a master at creating and naming works that touch on all of those concepts. The technique for creating his works is equally ingenious.
Spencer Finch’s color swatches for his large print: BACK TO KANSAS, 2015.
At one point during our short project, Spencer disappeared for a few minutes. He explained that he wanted to sit in our storage closet under the stairs to contemplate the light. The storage closet was a cluttered space, filled with shipping tubes, cardboard, books, and piles of odds and ends. There are no windows.
Finch entered, turned off the light, and closed the door. Five minutes later, he emerged and claimed he wanted to make three prints based on the light he saw in the closet.
California Darkness is a series of three “black” aquatints. Each print consists of a solid aquatint of color—orange, purple, and sepia—concealed beneath a layer of dense black. Save for a tiny thin line of rich color that hangs just below the bottom edge of the image, these prints read as three subtle shades of black.
A saturated line of color extends below each black aquatint for Finch’s: CALIFORNIA DARKNESS, 2015
I love the title, California Darkness, because most of us know California for its light. But if you wander into a closet in California and shut off the lights, you may want to take a look around. You may just see what Spencer Finch saw that day.
Spencer Finch: CALIFORNIA DARKNESS, 2015 Set of three aquatints 22” x 28.5” each, edition of 15