Gratefulness and admiration is what I feel towards the artists who visit me in my studio in Gran Canaria to learn or improve the processes of electro-etching. Especially since they usually come from countries that are quite far from the Canary Islands. But you can imagine how I felt when I received an email in April of this year by Bonnie Star Marsh from Hawaii to attend my classes in September. From the island of Maui, in Hawaii! Also a mythical archipelago located almost in the antipodes that ours.
Bonnie Star Marsh arrived after a long journey where she took a couple of days in Los Angeles and a week in Lisbon, which she became a little fed up by the bustle of the city and the smoke of smokers. In our study she felt as if she have arrived to an oasis within nature.
Bonnie Star is an expert naturopathic doctor, and knows more about plants than any other artist who has visited us (we are very fond of plants and we found it very interesting and fun to comment with her about the plants that are grown here and in Hawaii, its aesthetic or medicinal properties). Bonnie starts in art at her maturity, studied in several art academies and visited residences where she perfected the printmaking, and focus art with healthy creative habits, and affirms that she is useful for her practise as a doctor.
Tireless worker began in the processes of electro-etching with serene passion, practicing the basic techniques of etching lines on hard ground, applied tones of open-bite electrotint, also the graphite ink varnish, semi-dry and passive electro-etching, galvanized lines and galvanography. She even had time to make several blocks of woodcuts.
Bonnie Star Marsh is linked to the center of Maui Craft Guild and the Hui No’eau on the island of Maui, where she hopes to show the works she has done in this workshop and set up a small electro-etching unit to use and teach others.
Pictures from the workshop
Bonnie Star Marsh speaks about her experience in the workshop-residency
When I searched for a non-toxic printmaking residency, Alfonso's Electro-etching caught my eye. This was a totally different form of printmaking I had not encountered before.
Alfonso welcomed me into his home and workshop. He is an amazing teacher whose expertise in Electro-etching kept unfolding each day for me.
I loved being in his Desert Oasis by the sea.
I easily found a creative refuge here that planted many seeds that will blossom into future projects and teaching.
Mahalo Nui*, Alfonso and to your lovely Familia.
* Thank you very much in Hawaiian
Bonnie Star Marsh's electro-etchings
More information about Bonnie Star Marsh