Eduardo Fausti

Artist Statement

In 2015 I relocated my art studio from Brooklyn, NY, along with a very heavy Charles Brand etching press to Orcas Island, Washington.  From the very beginning I was overtaken by the beauty of the San Juan Islands.  That feeling hasn’t diminished and likely never will.  When I began working in my new studio, I wanted to do something related to my experiences of being in and around these magical Islands and immediately began exploring this environment through the monotype medium.

After many years working with a rather controlled and technically challenging process of intaglio, in particular mezzotint printing, I was moved to add a more painterly and colorful way of working through ideas given a new and direct relationship with the pristine environment that now surrounded me.  I found in monotype printing the perfect medium to portray these feelings in a spontaneous manner and began a series entitled “Reflections on Sound.” 

Monotypes are unique singular prints where the image is created by the application of inks and transferred to paper from the matrix (I use plexiglass) using the etching press.  Working in this medium is an exhilarating experience since I can’t anticipate the detailed outcome until the print is pulled.  This forces me to “let go” of the control maintained in the mezzotint medium, and instead appreciate how the original intention is transformed, sometimes adding new unexpected elements.  The outcome blurs the boundary between original intent and result.

Many days I’d take a trail walk and afterwards go back to the studio to pour my experiences into a one-of-a-kind monotype. I’d work spontaneously using a minimum amount of tools.  These walks in nature along with my observations of many natural wonders as well as the night sky on Orcas Island, and being surrounded as we are by the Salish Sea, have been my inspiration for this series of monotypes, as well as having greatly added to my appreciation for the natural world.

My new surroundings on Orcas island moved me to reflect in a deeper way about different sounds, their subtleties as compared to the harshness of more urban environments which led me to appreciate more acutely how refined we humans once were and can be but often aren’t now due to noise pollution.   

Along those lines, I was able to perceive more delicate sounds of trickling water in barely detectable creeks, the sounds of barely visible small song birds, the sounds of swaying Douglas firs, the wind as it rustles through our island habitat and much more. 

At the same time I was moved by the views of bodies of water including our island’s “East” and “West” sounds after which both are named.  

In all, their hues and tones, their movements and the refracted arrays of light reflecting off the waters surrounding and within Orcas Island turned nature into a painter as it delivered the most stunning visual productions, Sunsets over the Sound.

This lies behind my choosing the title “Reflections on Sound,” which embraces many feelings and sensations.

   – Eduardo Fausti

Biography

Argentine-born American artist, Eduardo Fausti, began his architectural studies at the University of Mendoza. After immigrating to the United States and settling in New York, he moved to California and resumed his studies at the San Francisco Art Institute (SFAI); he spent the last undergraduate semester at SACI (Studio Art Centers International, Florence, Italy) before receiving his BFA in 1993. An interest in Asian Philosophy and Aesthetics moved Fausti to continue his studies at the China National Academy of Fine Arts in Hangzhou, People’s Republic of China in 1995. In 1997, Fausti earned his MFA from Mason Gross School of the Arts, Rutgers University, and was a recipient of the Patricia Roberts Harris Fellowship in Visual Arts. He works in the printmaking media, mostly doing mezzotints, woodcuts and monotypes.
 
Fausti has been an artist-in-residence in Belgium, Italy and Morocco. He has participated in numerous national and international juried print exhibitions. Several public and private institutions count his work among their permanent collections including The Library of Congress, Washington DC; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY; The New York Public Library, New York, NY; The Achenbach Foundation for Graphic Arts, Fine Art Museums of San Francisco, CA and The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA. He currently lives and works in Manhattan and Orcas Island, WA. Fausti has been showing his work with Harris Harvey Gallery since 2022.