Harriet Merry

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HARRIET MERRY

Baby Boy I & II
Acrylic Resist Etching w/ Aquatints

SUCH STUFF

This series of prints have been created from ink and biro sketches drawn of my kids late at night whilst they sleep (and I don't!). They are not portraits, more a depiction of a child’s total abandonment to deep sleep using the delicate and introspective line of intaglio etching and the atmospheric tones of aquatint.

As I create these drawings and subsequent prints, I wonder what they see, whether the images of Marvel, Star Wars and Roald Dahl books on their duvets infiltrate their dreams, or that the doll or soft toy they hold plays a starring role. I like to think that my presence, often depicted by a fragment of my own duvet, may help them have a calm and happy sleep.

Stripy
Tetrapak Print

OF SELF

Now in my late 40s I have recently been thinking a lot about ageing, about how I have changed visually as well as physically, and about my own mortality and what I will leave behind. I am also contemplating the state of the planet we leave for the next generation and the potentially irreversible damage we have done. Whilst I work, I often think about the materials I use, whether they will end up in landfill or be recycled and how can I minimise or reuse what I use.

My tetrapak printing method uses recycled Oatly milk cartons as plates. Every version of the self portrait I create leaves the plate a little more damaged and frayed, rendering each print slightly different from the one before, its decay reflecting my own demise as well as that of our beautiful planet.

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Green Door Printmaking Studio

Déda