Passing by Familiar Strings

Combining etching with monotype layers two intaglio processes that operate at different ends of the printmaking spectrum: etching produces a fixed, repeatable matrix in which acid bites lines drawn through a wax ground, while monotype is by definition unique, made by painting or wiping ink directly onto an unetched surface and pulling a single impression. Working both methods on the same sheet allows May to set a stable etched armature against passages of one-off tonal incident. The title suggests a musical reference — strings of an instrument heard in passing, perhaps overheard from a neighboring room or street — and the mixed technique mirrors that idea, with the etched lines functioning as the recurring melody and the monotype passages as variable, ambient color. The print belongs to a 2025 group in which May returns repeatedly to music as a structuring metaphor for memory and recognition, sitting alongside the earlier Music II and Chord as part of her continuing engagement with sound as a subject for a fundamentally silent medium.