My first attractions to the Etch a Sketch were the continuos moving line and the doodles friends would make playing on the toy. The line led me to think about Paul Klee's famous quote, "A line is a dot that went for a walk." I began to research Klee and the idea of automatic message. This type of drawing is one of the reasons I am an artist. I love the blank page, the mark of ink, and letting a story evolve without a plan. This is easy to accomplish on an Etch a Sketch, in fact I find it more fun to turn the knobs and see what happens than to try and render something exactly. Either way one uses an Etch a Sketch a temporary statement is made, many times regarding the present moment. I am interested in the Etch a Sketch as a tool for communication. My statements, thus far, are going to portray experiences and impressions of Columbus Ohio.
The etching process is going to make these statements permanent, opposite of the etch a sketch. Also etching gives me the opportunity to reproduce the images an unlimited amount of times. I am going to initially draw the images on the Etch a Sketch because I am interested in the shaky line quality and the difficulty of drawing circles and diagonals. Next I will draw the image on a 5" x 7" copper etching plate. The plates will be etched in ferric acid and printed on paper. The final product will be an etching with a screen-printed border, which mimics the Etch a Sketch red shell. These prints will be hung on the wall. I am also considering making frames out of wood and painting them red for the shell. A third idea would be to make a 3 dimensional replica of an etch a sketch out of foam board, or such, with an etching mounted in the center. The final product and the subject matter of the drawings have lots of room for growth and changing.
