Boxed Loose Sheets
2019 · Palm Beach Gardens, FL
by Prusa, Carol
Palm Beach Gardens, FL: Ground Printmaking, 2019. Limited Edition. Boxed Loose Sheets. Fine in Fine Acrylic Box. Limited Edition. Boxed Loose Sheets. Dedicated to the women who take measure of the stars, she created an etching for seven unsung women of astronomy, beginning with Ourania-the goddess of astronomy. The other six are Maria Mitchell, Henrietta Swan Leavitt, Annie Jump Cannon, Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin, Vera Rubin and Jocelyn Bell Burnell.
"Carol Prusa traveled to experience the totality of the eclipse, August 21, 2017, following in the footsteps of American astronomer Maria Mitchel. Her story, combined with those of other astronomers such as Vera Rubin who provided early evidence of dark matter, fed this body work Prusa calls Galaxias Kyklos (Milky Way).
Mitchell stated in her diary, "We reach forth and strain every nerve, but we seize only a bit of the curtain that hides the infinite from us" so these etchings honor the brilliance of women who look to the heavens and into the unknown.
Prusa researched the women computers of the Harvard Observatory, wonderfully detailed in The Glass Universe; How the Ladies of the Harvard Observatory Took the Measure of the Stars by Dava Sobel, to create a focused body of work, exhibited at the Boca Raton Museum of Art (2019). Her research resulted in a suite of seven prints honoring the American women of astronomy with each print comprised of 3 etched copper plates, printed on top of each other.
The first, a soft-ground plate, activates the center area Prusa views as the "unknown". The second printed layer is a hard-ground plate that asserts the location around the perimeter - the location that is known, creating a threshold and a portal to the unknown. The third plate is printed on top of the center "unknown" and references, abstractly, the research of each selected astronomer that Prusa researched - their map of our universe. Each of these women Prusa honors with a print have changed how we view our world and our place in it, beginning with Ourania - the goddess of astronomy." [artist statement]. Bright and clean. Hard ground and soap ground etching, each suite contains 7 etchings and 1 letterpress colophon on Magnani Pescia Paper, clear acrylic box. fo. np. Illus. (b/w plates). Numbered limited edition of 14. Signed by the artist. (Inventory #: 12342)
"Carol Prusa traveled to experience the totality of the eclipse, August 21, 2017, following in the footsteps of American astronomer Maria Mitchel. Her story, combined with those of other astronomers such as Vera Rubin who provided early evidence of dark matter, fed this body work Prusa calls Galaxias Kyklos (Milky Way).
Mitchell stated in her diary, "We reach forth and strain every nerve, but we seize only a bit of the curtain that hides the infinite from us" so these etchings honor the brilliance of women who look to the heavens and into the unknown.
Prusa researched the women computers of the Harvard Observatory, wonderfully detailed in The Glass Universe; How the Ladies of the Harvard Observatory Took the Measure of the Stars by Dava Sobel, to create a focused body of work, exhibited at the Boca Raton Museum of Art (2019). Her research resulted in a suite of seven prints honoring the American women of astronomy with each print comprised of 3 etched copper plates, printed on top of each other.
The first, a soft-ground plate, activates the center area Prusa views as the "unknown". The second printed layer is a hard-ground plate that asserts the location around the perimeter - the location that is known, creating a threshold and a portal to the unknown. The third plate is printed on top of the center "unknown" and references, abstractly, the research of each selected astronomer that Prusa researched - their map of our universe. Each of these women Prusa honors with a print have changed how we view our world and our place in it, beginning with Ourania - the goddess of astronomy." [artist statement]. Bright and clean. Hard ground and soap ground etching, each suite contains 7 etchings and 1 letterpress colophon on Magnani Pescia Paper, clear acrylic box. fo. np. Illus. (b/w plates). Numbered limited edition of 14. Signed by the artist. (Inventory #: 12342)
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