Pacific Giant Octopus - dark hand tinted version (one of a kind)
Hand pulled etching of a Giant Pacific Octopus in sepia ink base with an overlay of reddish orange ink added via the a la poupée method of gently hand tapping and rubbing additional ink on top of an already charged plate. (Fun art fact: sepia was originally made from the ink sac of another cephalopod, the cuttlefish. Though the current ink I used to make the print is not, so no actual mollusks were harmed in the making of this print.) Thanks to the mercurial nature of the human hand (well, mine at least), each one of the a la poupée method prints is really one of a kind and will be part of a variant edition. The image size is 12" x 14" (30 cm x 35.5 cm) on acid-free BFK Rives cotton rag paper that is 14" x 16" (35.5 cm x 40.5 cm). The Giant Pacific Octopus, which lives in the Puget Sound near my home in Seattle, is one of my favorite animals. It's the largest of the octopus branch of the family of cephalopods and is an intelligent, sensitive creature capable of using tools and solving puzzles. In my fantasy world where I can print under the sea, I think an octopus would be a fantastic studio mate who could ink and print a plate in record time with all those arms. I'm a bit jealous, to be honest.