Engraving

Shout of Tender (2001-02)

Inspired by the same name Carlos Duarte's poem

Y proclamé más dichosos a los muertos que a los vivos,
Y más que a todos ellos a los que aún no han nacido.
Eclesiastés, 4.2

Aquel que aún no ha nacido,
no ha vivido ni el dolor ni la palabra,
ni el crecimiento ni el cansancio de los días,
ni lo ha herido la avidez de los cuerpos
o el tacto de la luz sobre las manos,
y no conoce la agilidad del puma
ni el plumaje vistoso de guacamayo;
ni ha sufrido tampoco el frío inhóspito
ni la humedad agobiante
que detiene las horas;
no se ha probado el viejo vestido de la mar
ni han tocado el árbol ni la roca
ni conoce el trayecto de la muerte.

Tal vez sea feliz
quien no ha nacido aún,
pero no lleva
ni en la piel ni en la memoria
el gusto de los años,
la textura del viento;
no lo habita la sangre
ni ha dado fruto entre sus labios
el grito de la ternura.

Quizás sea feliz
sin el olor del te
y el sabor de la naranja.

Yo no podría serlo.

Carlos Duarte.
Libro: "Tríptico hebreo", págs. 31-32. Ed. El Juglar y la Luna

Every plastic language derives or is attached to a technique, which is the vehicle for its personal and differentiating expression.

But more than any other technique, the engraver's technique, incidit, offers the artist the possibility of apprehending the pleasure of craft work, in the pre-Raphaelite sense of the term.

From the first moment, the working tools become allies of the artist. The malleability of coppers allows the awl and the burin to plough paths and sketch ideas that will remain there, waiting for the lacquer, the acid or perhaps the resins to share their protagonism.

Later, the engraver must lay the ink knowledgeably on the plate, rubbing and caressing the polished surface until it is ready for the roller to pass over it in search of the finished work, as if it were pressing oil out of olives.

	I think that knowing this process, even if slightly, is essential to understand the pleasure of watching the fruit of this artistic imbrication under the layers of felt and paper; something more than a creative fusion or a brief rendezvous. That is the reason why the poetic quality of engraving has the virtue of being like a well-aimed arrow in our sensibility.
*Tini Hervás* (from "En torno al grabado") Translation: J. M. Fontana