Franklin Feldman: Printmaker

Artist Statement

Printmaking has always challenged me. It is a unique vehicle for expressing the explosion of conscious and subconscious forces, making images that are both recognizable and mysterious.

Most of my printmaking work has been executed in intaglio, that is, etchings, dry points, aquatints, and engraver prints. In addition to many hundreds of etchings, I have also produced hundreds of prints using other techniques, for example, lithography, woodcuts, wood engravings, linoleum cuts, collographs, silk screens, transfer prints, and silhouette cutouts.

Some of my work is in black and white, some of the images are in color. In most instances the color has been attached to the plate by the process of chine colle or by transferring the color image to the paper with a solvent. Very often the color is derived from an abstract photograph, usually taken by my wife. As the color prints with combined photographic images are difficult to replicate, many of them are one of a kind.

Over the years I have studied and enjoyed the work of a number of artists who have employed a wide range of techniques to produce images combining the recognizable and certainly the mysterious. Among these are Paul Klee, Max Ernst, Joan Miro, and, of course, Picasso. While I assuredly have been inspired by them, I believe my work to be unique, a style which reflects energy, love of line, content of special meaning, a desire to explore and experiment, variety, and finally, perhaps, a dose of whimsy.