Collection: Flora McLachlan

In etching, the copper plate enters into the mordant as into a witch’s cauldron; working like this feels like weaving incantations and casting spells. I sense my way into what the image wants to be, using impermanent and chaotic etching grounds to let their unpredictable material metamorphoses steer my work. I then scry into these images with scraper and additional etching to bring the image into focus and evoke my shadowy, dreamlike stories.

I like to suggest and leave open rather than defining a subject. I think around things by using simple ritual and divination to provoke unexpected connections. Images from my everyday life and my memory are gathered and bound into a tentative mythology. In this way I enter into and express the stream of life.

I enjoy working with unexpected material traces, observing and responding to them, to dream my images into being. Through the alchemical portals of etching or lithography, I can enter different magical worlds and make my work in those fairytale atmospheres.