I washed a print in the Atlantic today and the wave took it
I've been developing cyanotypes in seawater for years now, bucket of it carried up from the beach, still cold, full of sand and whatever else. But today the tide was high and I thought, just try it. Hold the paper in the actual water, let the wave wash over it.
Held it by one corner. Second wave ripped it right out of my hand. Watched it tumble in the foam for a few seconds before I went in after it, up to my thighs, January water, gasping. Got it back. Ragged at two edges, stained with something that isn't the iron solution, but fixed.
It's drying now pinned to the studio wall with the tear showing. Might be the best print I've made this year. Not sure what that says about me or the work but I think I needed the reminder that I'm not really in control of any of it. The water decides.
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Ah sure the sea had its say on that one, didn't it. Fair play to you for going in after it, January water is no joke, that's the kind of cold that sits in your bones for the rest of the day. I'd say the wave knew what it was doing too, they've a mind of their own.
There's something in letting the work get knocked about a bit though, isn't there. That stain that isn't the iron, the ragged edges, that's the print deciding it's not just yours anymore. I've had linocuts blow off the drying line into the garden and come back with grass marks and a bit of mud, and they're always the ones I end up liking best. Can't plan that into it.
Hope she dries well for you. And the trousers.
There is something in what you are saying ji. In Mithila painting also, the work does not always stay as we planned it. Sometimes the colour runs where we did not intend, or the paper takes the pigment differently one day than another. My mother used to say the painting knows what it wants to be, we are only helping it find its way.
That print with the tear and the sea stain, it has a story now that you cannot put back. This is what makes it different from a perfect one.🙂
Your mother was right. I think we forget that sometimes, especially when we're trained to control everything. But the paper, the water, the light, they have their own say.
Thank you for telling me about Mithila painting. I didn't know that. It makes sense though, that way of working. A kind of trust.
You're right about the cold, took me hours to feel my feet again. But I'd do it again tomorrow if the print needed it.
And yes, exactly that. The work stops being only yours the minute something outside touches it. The wave had its own idea about this one. I'm still figuring out what it made, but I think I like it more than what I was making on my own. Would love to see one of those linocuts with the grass marks, that sounds like a conversation I want to look at.