Process / Reflection

Cosmic Intervention became one of my most experimental experiences with printmaking and, in many ways, the beginning of my desire to continue working with the medium. What began as a relatively small work became a months-long process of learning, frustration, uncertainty, and unexpected discovery.

I had become interested in mezzotint because I understood it to be one of the most difficult printmaking techniques. I wanted to experience that difficulty for myself. At Central Saint Martins, I spent weeks working into the plate, repeatedly using the mezzotint rocker to build the surface before beginning the etching process. The process was physically demanding and incredibly time-consuming. I even found old, rusted mezzotint rockers in the printmaking studio and became fascinated by the tools themselves and by the history embedded in the process.

Paul Dewis, the printmaker working in the department, was almost shocked when I told him I wanted to make a mezzotint. He told me that it was very rare for someone at Central Saint Martins to undertake this process, particularly because of the amount of time and labour it requires. His encouragement became an important part of the experience.

After months of working on the plate, I finally made the first few prints. I printed the image in black, expecting to see something close to what I had imagined. Instead, I immediately realised how much I disliked the work. It was uncomfortable to arrive at that feeling after so many hours, weeks, and months of making. I had imagined the work as something entirely different.

But that discomfort became the point of departure for another experiment.

I began thinking about colour, and red was the colour I felt most instinctively connected to. I made a red monoprint plate of the same size and printed the red ground before printing the mezzotint and etching plate over it. Suddenly, the work transformed. It became something new, something I could finally recognise and resonate with.

It reminded me that making art is not always about immediately understanding or loving what you have made. Sometimes, you have to make the work you don’t resonate with in order to reach the work that you do.

That experience changed the way I think about process. Printmaking, particularly etching, contains a kind of uncertainty that I find incredibly compelling. You can work on a plate for months and still not know what the final image will look like until you print it. Sometimes the result is disappointing. Sometimes it is unexpected. And sometimes, through that disappointment, another possibility appears.

Cosmic Intervention became that possibility for me. It gave me the confidence to experiment further with the combination of monoprinting and etching on a larger scale, eventually leading me towards the Sahan Shakti print. In that sense, this small work became an important beginning.

I would not change the process that brought me here, not the failed prints, the frustration, the uncertainty, or the months spent working into the plate. They became part of the work itself, and part of how I learned to trust the possibility of arriving somewhere I had not originally imagined.

Acknowledgements: With profound gratitude to Paul Dewis from the Printmaking Workshop team at Central Saint Martins.