Mezzotints & Videos

"…in the tension between light and dark is the power of the universe."

—Peter Matthieseen, The Snow Leopard

…and, I would add, without the darkness of night, we would not see the stars.

I first discovered the sensuous blacks and subtle grays of the Mezzotint when I was in my early twenties. At the time, there were few people practicing this archaic engraving technique, which was invented in the 17th century, but was nearly lost with the advent of photography.

This extraordinarily time consuming process, while laborious to some, is meditative and highly satisfying to me. Using only the pressure of my hand on the scraping tool, I can imbue simple still life objects - drapery, tools, a shell - with a reserved strength and beauty that I obtain in no other medium. Light and shadow have the power to transform the seemingly immutable. Somewhere along the way psychological states of mind reveal themselves, and our outer and inner worlds connect.

*Six Fruiting Bodies, 9” x 14”, multi-plate mezzotint engraving with 6 mushrooms, 2023*

The following hand-colored mezzotints of insects are from a series of eleven images of federally listed as endangered insects, and are in the artist’s book Vanishing. They are part of the deeply disturbing “insect apocalypse”.

*Vanishing X: Monarch Butterfly, 3” x 7”, mezzotint w/ hand coloring, 2021*

Rusty Patched Bumblebee, 3"x 3"

Stag Beetle, 3" x 3"

Valley Elderberry Longhorn Beetle, 3" x 3"

Red-winged Grasshopper 3" x 3"

American Burying Beetle, 3"x 3"

Smith's Blue Butterfly, 3" x 3"

Delta Green Ground Beetle, 3" x 3"

Bay Checkerspot Butterfly, 3" x 3"

Hawaiian Sphinx Moth, 3" x 3"

In the following, Vanishing Gems series, ghost prints are stand-ins for the actual disappearing of these species, hence their federally listed Threatened status.

*Vanishing Gems I, 22” x 18”, multi-plate mezzotint w/ hand coloring, 2021*

*In Peril II, 22” x 18”, multi-plate mezzotint, 2020*

*The Sahara, Morocco, 10 1/2” 7 3/4”, 2019*

*Smoke Plume over Hood Mt., October 15, 2017, 10 1/2" x 7 3/4", 2018*

The following five images are from the artist's book A Kerosene Beauty a collaboration with the poet Jane Hirshfield, and publisher Nawakum Press.

*Inflamed, from A Kerosene Beauty, 4" x 5"*

*Empty Beauty, from A Kerosene Beauty, 4" x 6"*

*Frayed, from A Kerosene Beauty, 3 1/2" x 5"*

*Permeable, from A Kerosene Beauty, 3 1/2" x 5"*

I find passageways and arches, with their light and shadow shapes, visually beautiful and metaphorically rich in their associations, as in-between or transition states, filled with ambiguity and openness. The following seven images are from the artist's book Peruvian Portals, a collaboration with the poet David St. John.

Disappearing I from the series It’s All Connected: Threatened Endangered and Disappearing 2 ½” x 2 ½” — Disappearing I
from the series It’s All Connected: Threatened Endangered
and Disappearing 2 ½” x 2 ½”

Disappearing VII from the series It’s All Connected: Threatened Endangered and Disappearing 2 ½” x 2 ½” — Disappearing VII
from the series It’s All Connected: Threatened Endangered
and Disappearing 2 ½” x 2 ½”

Disappearing V from the series It’s All Connected: Threatened Endangered and Disappearing 2 ½” x 2 ½” — Disappearing V
from the series It’s All Connected: Threatened Endangered
and Disappearing 2 ½” x 2 ½”

Disappearing II from the series It’s All Connected: Threatened Endangered and Disappearing 2 ½” x 2 ½” — Disappearing II
from the series It’s All Connected: Threatened Endangered
and Disappearing 2 ½” x 2 ½”

The following five images are from the artist's book Arch, a collaboration with the printer Jack Stauffacher.

Beyond Series: Beyond Religiosity, Beyond Nationalism, Beyond Political Polemics 17-3/4" x 17-3/4" — Beyond Series: Beyond Religiosity, Beyond Nationalism,
Beyond Political Polemics 17-3/4" x 17-3/4"

*Knotted Drapery: Anguish and Grace 18" x 22"*

MORE ABOUT HOLLY DOWNING’S MEZZOTINT ENGRAVINGS

When I first saw a book reproduction of a mezzotint engraving in a printmaking class as a college senior, I was captivated by the rich blacks and subtle grays - the chiaroscuro of the Old Masters, who I revered. I wanted do that for myself. While I didn’t know what I was doing (mezzotint engravings were out of fashion and no one knew how to actually make them anymore), I persisted.

There were no text books to explain the method of plate rocking to prepare the copper plate for an image, and printmaking teachers didn’t know how to do this archaic technique. But while living in England, and with a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts to research mezzotints, I finally got invaluable help from an elderly mezzotint reproduction engraver, Lawrence Josset, who had learned from the famous English printmaker Frank Short. I began to find a meditative solace in preparing the copper plate, by roughing it with a mezzotint rocker over many weeks and hours of labor.

With only the pressure of my hand on a scraping tool, I found I could scrape light and out of the velvety black create an image, embedded with soul. Usually the images were of humble objects - a bowl, eggs, drapery, tools, mushrooms, a shell, a scallop squash, but also stars, sand dunes, a foggy sky). I found that only this particularly difficult and time-consuming technique gave me the result I wanted. I was totally seduced!