I’ve been etching since about 1985 when I was expected to teach the medium. I stumble upon less technical and more makeshift approaches to etching. I start out broadly, a little uncontrolled, but with a clear geometric underpinning. I don’t really want to know how the image will look beforehand — too many unexpectedly and potentially satisfying things may happen to exclude the accidental or the momentarily inspired ahead of time. I work on as many as 30 or more etchings at once. The process of etching is physical and elemental, requiring force and pressure, inviting aggression and then delicacy, conjoining fire, water, earth, and air. There is something about setting an image into metal that implies permanence, duration, and enduring presence, and I hope my images mirror the medium in that sense.