I have always loved the idea of things being reused. Either reincorporated into something different and given a new meaning and context or coming to life again as something very different.
With this body of new work, in particular the digital compositions such as "An Angels Palimpsest" above (click on it) or "A Cautionary Tale", I have revisited work form a couple of years back that was as "finished" as could be at the time but with which I was not very convinced and was never published. Both of these new pieces are a substantial reworking of older images much of which was erased but with traces of some original elements surviving...in the manner of a palimpsest.
The mezzotints, "Babble-On" being the first in this series, come from new composition ideas again following the "reason or revelation" theme mentioned in previous blog posts below (June and also way back in September 2010). However today I found a proof of a large scale mezzotint that I ditched in 2010 for being poorly drawn and realised that the idea was sound enough to rework...again in the manner of a palimpsest!
palimpsest. 2. n. Monumental brass turned and re-engraved on the reverse side
I've been doing this on the backs of my old etching plates for decades!!...again in the manner of...yeah, yeah, we know.
