PUBLICATIONS

A newly updated Second Edition of THE MEZZOTINT: HISTORY AND TECHNIQUE has just been published. It includes many new artists working in the medium, revised technical explanations with additional illustrations, use of non-toxic materials, and much much more. Copies may be ordered through customercare@schifferbooks.com, amazon.com, or thriftbooks.com.

PODCASTS, WEBINARS, and INTERVIEWS

Please listen to the conversation as Ann Shafer, host of the PLATEMARK series of podcasts about all things related to printmaking, and Tru Ludwig interview me about my newly published Second Edition of THE MEZZOTINT, the history of mezzotint as both an artiorm and industry, and my work. The first of this two-part series can be heard at either www.platemarkpodcast.com/s3e52-carol-wax or on YouTube https://youtu.be/VT_Pl5amizc. The second part is available starting March 26th at www.platemarkpodcast.com/s3e53-carol-wax or https://youtu.be/fCHEDDayuVw

For those of you who missed my interview with Alex Davis at Childs Gallery, you can still watch it on YouTube using this link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A6gvo_QQ0xA&t=1s

CURRENT and UPCOMING EXHIBITIONS

The exhibition CAROL WAX: EXTRAORDINARY OBJECTS at Childs Gallery was favorably received and reviewed and, although it’s now over, you can still see my work and purchase copies of my book, THE MEZZOTINT: HISTORY AND TECHNIQUE at the gallery at 168 Newbury Street in Boston. My interview with Alex Davis at Childs Gallery is still available for viewing on YouTube. (See link above.) For more information, contact childsgallery.com. To read the Press Release, click on Carol Wax_Press Release.pdf

UPCOMING WORKSHOPS

The next workshop is scheduled for October 5-6 at the Center for Contemporary Printmaking in Norwalk, CT. The focus will be on the use of drypoint and carborundum to create alternative mezzotint grounds (no rocking!). Please check back for more information this summer.

RECENTLY PUBLISHED MEZZOTINTS

Telecommunications have come a long way but these days the crazy things said using this technology make me think everything’s gone haywire. In response, here’s my newest mezzotint engraving, Hey Wire.

I love sumptuously designed textiles in both real life and art. Patterns metamorphosing over fabric folds appeal to my interest in modulating rhythmic forms, particularly the swells and swirls of calligraphic stripes. I’m also fascinated by articulated wooden hand models, which appear in many of my paintings. Combining these passions with sewing paraphernalia from my seamstress days provided inspiration for my color mezzotint engraving Sew What.

If current events have taught us anything, it’s that small, seemingly inconsequential things may contain very large and grave dangers. A single lie loosed from even an innocuous source can grow and grow. Once its talons show, there’s no containing it or its consequences.

NEW PAINTINGS and DRAWINGS

Another work featuring the clown puppet. One can only hope when a ship of fools sails, it sinks.

There are dream boats, and then there are boatloads full of dreams. I prefer the latter.

It’s boxes, it’s wood, it’s a box turtle made of wood, it’s Box Wood.

Trilling reflects my continued fascination with articulated hand models, automatons and player pianos, and the use of repeated patterns to suggest movement and sound.

I have a huge collection of binder clips that are indispensable for taming the mounds of papers on my desk and organizing my life in general. Their sculptural possibilities also fascinate and inspire me.

I love early 17th century Spanish still life images, especially trompe l’oeil paintings containing food delicacies hanging from strings (a common preservation method at the time) by Juan Sanchez Cotan. Inspired by this work, I assembled objects in my studio associated with different meanings of light or lightness (feathers found on walks in the woods, an antique lightbulb from a Broadway marquee, a blimp Christmas ornament, a paper airplane, and my grandmother’s tortoise shell lorgnette), and framed them within an imaginary box to create this gouache painting titled “Light Box.”

Two rocking horses rescued from the street sat idle for years on a high shelf in my studio, waiting to be used as models for an image. Having never found an interesting way to use them, I finally decided to return them to the street whence they came. But, when I attempted to move them, it seems one of the horses was made of a material that literally disintegrated when touched, causing it to break into many pieces. Seeing the shapes of the shards strewn across my studio floor, I exclaimed, IT JUST GOT INTERESTING!!