master printer’s collection
Etching: The Practice of Alchemy and the Art of Collaboration
PART 5
Following the summer holidays of 2001, my apprenticeship began at Atelier René Tazé in September. Prior to my time in Paris I had taken just one French course in college and René’s few words of English were gleaned from Johnny Cash songs. Despite the language barrier and my daily blunders, René was amused by my presence and we became friends.
Our days often began with a coffee at the corner café between the metro station and his atelier. From there we would walk to the studio and prepare our materials. We warmed up our inking stations, mine with a lit candle under the metal tabletop surface. We would tear paper, wet the sheets and place them between panes of thick glass. He would turn on loud music to accompany our choreography around the presses.
CATHERINE BROOKS PROJECTS aims to catalog and make available artist’s and printer’s proofs produced through collaborations between master printer Catherine Brooks and numerous eminent artists during her decade-long career as a printmaker. Read more…