that reproduction of beauty

"...artworks are embodied meanings." Arthur Danto

IN an attempt to produce a beautiful image, the meaning of which is an intention of desired beauty, i managed to create a blur, a disillusioned idea: it is the most frustrating thing to fuck up a copper plate. it is not b/c i do not know what i am doing, but it is b/c the print shop where i work is chaotic and disorganized. it is as though i am learning how to etch all over again. whenever i think i have made progress, something in the shop is fucked up and it messes up my work. DAM! (i needed to vent).

art production, in particular print making, is a delicate process in which time is of the essence. any factors that go against this process, delay the end results. there is a certain duality, which demarcates the process itself from the inspired idea. furthermore, this duality articulates the end results by given preference to intention rather than experimentation. in doing so, you are able to explore with intention, enabling the plate to unfold before your eyes. if other "things" happen during this process, things which you did not intend to happen, the plate loses purpose and the image is no longer pure. what i mean by pure is that the image is tainted with unexpected nuisances of which you knew nothing about, and their appearance on the plate negates precisely the very essence of the intended image. so then you need to solve those problems that you were not counting on and it complicates the process. then the original idea is no longer solid; the interpretation of the image becomes a process of 'trying to salvage the image,' which has lost its original direction. if you are a perfectionist like me, you start all over again. i want the purest image to surface, if that is too much, then so be it. one good thing comes out of this, however, and that is that your skills become enhanced, and you learn to problem solve with creativity. i love print-making: it is what i was born to do.

"... there are conditions necessary and sufficient for something to be an artwork, regardless of time and place." Arthur Danto.