My Uncle Mort Passes While We Were Living In Paris, France Back In 1970's / My First Real Death In Family/My Etchings @ Atelier 17 William S. Hayter

This loss in our family of my mother's brother was quite traumatic for me at my age then. My family was living in Paris, France at the time at 93 Avenue Paul Doumer on one of the upper floors ( ? can't remember the number now ? ) and this touched me hard as it was the first real dearth that I had ever had to deal with. I liked my uncle. He and his wife lived in California and it represented another part of our lives that was undiscovered and fun and a touch mysterious? I liked all of this, I liked them. I liked their son, too - Sean or is it Shawn. Memory fades. He was an excellent polo player. You see : it was all one big fantasy for me of a part of our family that we saw infrequently, that always sent us cool things and that I wanted to get to know better.





Anyway, my uncle Mort passed while we were living in Paris, France, my father was working for the American Embassy as either the Consul of Visas or the Consul of Passports, my father and I were learning about wine visiting the Hediard and the Nicolas and the Cave De La Madeleine stores , my two younger brothers were going to the American School of Paris : and we were all falling in love with Paris, France. Wow, exciting times!





Here is one of my artist's proofs done from two etchings I did one smaller zinc plates at the Atelier 17 of William Stanley Hayter at 10, Rue Didot. It was a tremendously creative period for me and I wanted to reflect in my own humble way the passing of my uncle. Just as if he had died in a small village with dirt roads and open fields in France or Holland? I was very taken then ( as I still am ) by the work of Rembrandt, Van Gogh and the later works of Monet painted at Giverny where one has to walk back away from the canvas for it to come into focus.





I have done a whole series of these etchings and I will include them here as time permits and share them with you all. I worked at the time with one of those thick red crayon-type pencils that would leave broad and rough and undefined markings on my shiny zinc plate as I worked. O loved this : a bit nebulous : a bit undefined. It gave me lots of room to play with as I printed the plate in many experiments. I love to experiment. I love to have options. I love to push the boundaries and always have one foot securely placed and one dangling over, past an edge, precarious and free and a bit wild and taken by the elements and ready to go wherever both mentally and physically!





So, enjoy these two prints above and stay-tuned for more. I will add more as I have time. Cheers, TONY