Relics

Two-color etching with aquatint. Image size: 4.375” high x 2.75” wide. Paper size: 15” high x 11” wide.

Exhibited in Simple Pleasures, Paso Robles Art Association exhibit, January 6 – February 27, 2024. Exhibited at Paso Robles Public Library, July and August 2023 (solo exhibit). Juried into Pressing Matters 2016, San Luis Obispo Museum of Art. Second place, Intaglio Etching, California Mid-State Fair fine arts exhibit, 2015.

A study in the ephemeral and the permanent. These pop tops were collected by David in the last 20 years. On a trip to Lake Tahoe in the late 1990s, at a turnout north of Zephyr Cove, David looked down and saw an old discarded pop top in the dirt. He thought, “This has just been sitting here for almost 25 years, and no one has picked it up!” After that he found them from Yosemite Valley to San Diego, and his collection now numbers near 50. Fascinated by the practically endless variation of form and condition, he decided they were worthy of being the subject of an etching.

Pop tops, pull tabs, ring tabs… whatever you call them, they’re a piece of indestructible litter. And a free souvenir. And now an artifact! Blake De Pastino of WesternDigs.org makes the case in his article At 50, Ring-Tab Beer Cans Are Now Officially Historic Artifacts from April 13, 2015 (updated January 15, 2017).

The lines were laid in as a soft ground etching, followed by aquatint that was then burnished to achieve the variation in tone. (Note the cast shadows with soft burnished edges.) The second color was a solid aquatint to fill the shapes with the light gray. Printed on warm gray paper.

Edition of three. Two available. Please contact David to purchase or for more information. Prices do not include sales tax and shipping.

• Edition Print - Framed - $275.00

Copyright watermark is not part of print.