Animales by Jeff Tocci

This portfolio comprises a series of ninety original etching and aquatint prints.

All prints were hand-pulled from the original copper plates in editions of ten

under master printer Marco Velasco at Espacio Pino Suárez in Oaxaca, Mexico.

Each of the original etchings are numbered and signed by the artist.

“…He began to bring sketches of cows in the field, of birds, rodents, and horses, but also disasters, floods, the coffin of a fallen soldier carried by ants, a monkey on a mountain of rubble holding a crowbar. The series has continued to grow over the years, as has the studio and our friendship. His eyes and his artistic practice have gone from being a draftsman and painter who approaches graphics to that of an artist who adopted printmaking as a language from which he now creates and imagines and navigates. …”

 “…Many emergencies lie in wait for us, problems that do not allow us to live a life closer to the earth, to some kind of origin, perhaps an origin that we now have to fictionalize; nothing is clear—violence, acceleration, virtuality, anxiety, racism, even when we have overpopulated the planet. There is a feeling of loneliness, but we continue drawing, perhaps because the drawing alludes to memory—there is something we want to remember or document. I think of the line as part of that something that allows us to reinvent and imagine. The person I meet here is one sensitive to life who, despite feeling the sorrows of the contemporary world, is searching in the history of the animal for a return to the essential, to our nature; that is where we understood each other from the very beginning. Drawing is that channel; it is the place to share, to return to the beautiful, to the natural, to the animal.”  —Marco Velasco, excerpts from the introduction to Animales

Traditional Printmaking

Tocci has dedicated much of his recent work to the traditional printmaking techniques of etching and lithography by working with some of the world’s best print houses, using centuries-old printing techniques to create limited edition prints. Oaxaca, Mexico is well know regarded as one of the printmaking capitals of the world, with centuries of artists from Tamayo to Toledo creating a long legacy for the graphic arts. The Animales portfolio has been a six year collaboration with print master Marco Velasco at his Espacio Pino Suarez, focusing on the dual techniques of etching and aquatint.

Etching

Etching is the process of using strong acid or mordant to cut into the unprotected parts of a metal surface to create a design in intaglio (incised) in the metal. As a method of printmaking, it is, along with engraving, the most important technique for old master prints, and remains in wide use today.

Aquatint

Aquatint finished prints often resemble watercolor drawings or ink washes. The technique consists of exposing a copperplate to acid through a layer of melted granulated resin which is adhered to the plate through heating over a flame. The acid bites away the plate only in the interstices between the resin grains, leaving an evenly pitted surface that yields broad areas of tone when the grains are removed and the plate is printed. An endless number of tones can be achieved by exposing various parts of the plate to acid baths of different strengths for different periods of time. Tones can also be altered by scraping and burnishing. Etched or engraved lines are often used with aquatint to achieve greater definition of form.