The Here and The Now
Erick Jantzen
See it On Campus: Level 2
Visitor InfoMOEC near the RBC Gallery
A multi-plate etching made of handmade inks on handmade paper
Etcher’s Verdigris
The verdigris pigment for this green ink was created from scraps of copper etching plates. Verdigris is the natural oxidization of copper metal. Verdigris powder from copper scraps oxidized in vinegar was ground to a fine powder and combined with pine varnish.
Wildfire Black
The charcoal pigment for this black ink was collected from remains of the 2017 Sprague Fire, a devastating wildfire in Montana. Charcoal fragments ground to a fine powder were combined with pine varnish.
Plateau Ochre
The ochre pigment for this brown ink was collected from Forbidden Plateau, BC. Ochre is a natural clay earth pigment, usually rich in iron oxide. The dried earth was ground to a fine powder and combined with pine varnish.
Cotton Duck Waterleaf
Cotton duck is raw woven canvas made of cotton and used for painting. Waterleaf paper has no sizing– no additives that bind paper fibers together. This paper was made from discarded canvas scraps from ECU’s painting studio.
Pine Varnish
Varnish is a vehicle or binder that holds pigment in a printmaker’s ink. Pine resin and vegetable oil were heated and reconstituted to form a thick varnish. This varnish is mixed thoroughly with pigments using a glass muller.
‘The Here and Now’ depicts a bird’s-eye view of the Chilliwack region of the Fraser River. The area now used for agriculture is at risk of extreme flooding as climate change intensifies. The floods in this region in 2021 are an indication of things to come. The hydrology of the basin has been drastically change over the last 150 years, including the total disappearance of the Sumas Lake.
This print is made of three separate copper plate etchings, each one using a handmade ink.
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