Elaine
Rothwell: Master Etcher
Encountering the art of Elaine Rothwell
is like getting a four course meal with
all kinds of surprises hidden in the
various dishes. West Valley Art Museum
is fortunate to own several series by
Elaine. “Spiritus Loci”, a puzzle series
involving characters from early American
history; “Art History Mysteries”,
another puzzle-like series involving
references to Art History; “Chess”, a
series on the game of chess; “Steps”, a
series that contains some kind of
stairway in each image; and a color
series based on Elaine’s memories of
family.
To call some of the series “puzzles” or
puzzle related is not to demean their
value or seriousness as art. Even master
artists from the Renaissance created
pictures that contained puzzles or
visual puns. Many of Rothwell’s etchings
contain hidden images that rely on
ambiguous figure-ground relationships.
Others utilize the negative spaces
between forms or the boundaries of forms
to convey other images that relate to
the subject of the original shapes.
There is a restless desire to fill up
the pictorial space practically without
relief in order to take us on the
journey she designs for us.
The color etchings on her family ring a
familiar bell in all of us. If it wasn’t
“Mama” making her entrance for the
benefit of friends and family, it may
have been another relative with the same
sense of drama.
Elaine says of this series: “These
etchings are remembered places from my
childhood, peopled by family and
characters from other times. The scene
for “Here’s Mama” is an imaginary party
I’ve dreamed up for my mother, who died
in 1980. She could never afford to give
parties, but we had those threadbare
oriental rugs and a grand piano in the
1930s living room of my childhood home.
I have invited her favorite people:
Chopin, Rhett Butler, Heathcliff, Lily
Pons, and a couple of Galsworthy’s
Forsytes. My dad, always ready to rise
when mama entered a room, is seated with
his back to us. Mama never entered a
room quietly. Here she makes a flying
entrance, interrupting the music,
wearing her pink nightie; as usual, a
delightful embarrassment.”
How many great works of art can you
identify in the “Art History Mysteries”
series? Can you name the artists as
well? Notice the clever placement of
each of the figures. Even though they
are from wildly different periods and
styles, somehow Elaine makes them all
work together to challenge and delight
us.
"Bridgeheads" takes liberties with the
forms of the Union Railway Bridge in
Glasgow, Scotland to turn the negative
spaces into helmeted soldiers.
The “Steps” series engages Elaine’s
childhood memories of stairways. In 1996
Ms Rothwell had an exhibit here at the
Museum. Back then, I wrote:
“A 1966 graduate of San Jose State
University, Elaine Rothwell subsequently
studied printmaking at Woodbury Graphic
Studio and Amaranth Intaglio Workshop of
Los Altos. This retrospective exhibit
includes work from her chess series
(1976-1980), “Art History Mysteries”
(1981-1991), “Steps” (1992-1993), and
“Mad Meg Amok” (1995) plus miscellaneous
color etchings. These works are
characterized by visual puns, illusions,
satires and enigmatic images, reflecting
the playful spirit of the artist. Zinc
plates are etched with nitric acid with
traditional techniques of etching and
aquatint. Ink is applied to the plate
and then the plate is put through a
press with dampened paper. When the
print is a color one, these plates are
used in multiples to carry the separate
colors. Other more modern methods of
color printing are also used.
As Fine Art prints, they represent the
best that this medium can aspire to. The
artist is in control of the process from
conception to the final pull of the
printed image and the “editions” are
limited to a relatively small number,
usually 50. In this particular case, the
development of the plates, inking and
printing are all done in the artist’s
studio.
Rothwell’s use of the double image
brings to mind the work of M. C. Escher
who also engaged in visual puns and
brought a sense of the mysterious to his
imagery. Her references to great art of
the past provide a wonderful
intellectual exercise of association and
recall. As food for the brain this
collection represents a veritable feast.
George Palovich, curator, written 1996
and 2007 |
 Ethnographic Artifacts
John Dawson
Dorothy Knop
Thomas Moran
George Resler
Henry Varnum Poor
Fine Art Prints
Elaine Rothwell
Fritz Scholder
Arthur Secunda
Japanese Woodcuts
Fire Ball Lillie
Momma Herself Etching
Sunroom Friends Etching |
