Chaos in the Blue (version 4), 2024, etching and aquatint on printmaking paper, 9 x 14 inches

The print was made from an etching and aquatint I made on a copper plate of me and my sister. The inspiration was from a photo my mother took of me and my sister on Christmas morning of 2012, about a month after we moved to Connecticut from New Jersey. I was 8 years old, my sister was 12 years old. While creating this piece I was drawn to remember that precious memory of my sister and I and our close relationship to one another. I also was able to remember the state of my family at that time and how we were essentially homeless and living with my grandma and great-grandma in their senior living apartment. The time period was a rough patch for my family and I, and the turmoil we were feeling that day with my father’s alcoholism. That Christmas was pure white, covering every area of sight. I wanted the print to be blue and show the changes I made in the aquatint process. The print, however, was a happy accident of too much blue ink absorbed to the paper. Chaos during a blue Christmas.