Torpedo Factory Artist, Samantha Lee Shelton, shows a collection of her hand printed variable edition etchings made with soft ground texture transfer utilizing lace, applique, thread, netting, tulle, fiber, embossed and cut paper and other elements of craft.  Shelton’s work explores remnants of the past by upcycling antique hand knotted lace, white work, and other tattered and worn textural objects into her etching compositions.

Highlighted in this exhibition are two etchings made from an 1820’s era white work remnant of a Griffen salvaged from a dress long lost to time.  She gave her Griffen a whole new world after transferring and etching it’s essence to the metal plate with nitric acid.

Samantha Shelton has been a printmaking for more than a decade, with the major body of her work using the etching medium.  With 2 degrees in computer science, Shelton delved into the world of analog artforms, from a desire to learn about how the world communicated before the third industrial revolution also know as the digital age.  Shelton views traditional printmaking as predecessor legacy technology that over centuries evolved to become today’s modern communications and computing ecosystems.

https://www.mcleantextilegallery.org/current-exhibition

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