On Mordants And Design

The process that puts mordant acids to copperplate and eventually becomes inked to produce a printed image emphasizes the fall to ruin of the skulls. The bite of the plate. The “bite” of the plate becomes the “sign”. The bite of the plate =social “bite”. The “bite” of the acid on the copperplate, the number of baths. Multiple bites, false bites, and stopouts are all

used to create the textural effects and desired tone of the image. “On Mordants and Design” as a series, deals with skulls, primarily deer and moose, their many constituent bones, and vacuities of these corrosive techniques. The word “mordant” comes from the Old French mors, or Latin, mort means death. It is also the sound on a horn when the quarry is killed.