In this print, I tried to get at a sense of portraying something solid in a soft edged way. In one sense (without getting too deeply into 'arty' concepts) to de-construct the nature of a bench and render its parts as a loose collection of elements. I wanted to have a level of symmetry and consequent horizontal reflection of left and right sides as another formal element. I was particularly interested in forming the legs or supports in such a way that they seem solid and at the same time are graphic elements on the page. I'd thought I might use carborundum to create a smoky or smudged mark in contrast to the rest. I like the idea that the eye can fix on one element in the print and then has to re-adjust to 'read' the other parts of what the intellect insists is a composite structure.

As well as the graphic marks which delineate a form, the expression of colour and the way colour reacts together in the retina is another area which is rich in meaning. Colour has such associations for the viewer (for everyone) and sometimes the rendering of familiar things in unusual colours can help to release our own memories of the named or indicated object. I was recalling a comment on Christo's work, in wrapping familiar buildings.
“ Christo's wrapped objects, landscapes, and buildings are quite the opposite of what even the assemblagists attempted. While the latter made the psychologically invisible common objects in their environment once against visible by putting them in a new environment, Christo, in both three-dimensional and printed works, wrapped and made familiar things obscure, so that it was necessary to activate memories of the concealed objects.”¹