Tornado, 1998
Etching, 12 x 18 inches
I made a series of etchings of disasters, each embodying a raging natural, elemental force (earth, air, fire, water). This print emerged from the smaller set of plates I made in preparation for a set of very large images.

Burning Building, 1998
Etching, 24 x 36 inches
This is among the set of the largest plates I have done. The theme of fire has intrigued me. In recent years, I have set many of the images I’ve worked with on fire in subsequent plates.

Landscapes

Temagami, 1998
Etching, 4 x 4 inches
This small etching is a view from the porch of a friend’s house on an island in Lake Temagami, in northern Ontario.

Tsunami, 1998
Etching, 12 x 18 inches
The tsunami began as the water disaster, and led to several explorations of the overwhelming force of water (with credit due to Hokusai’s famous wave and the many surfing magazines I looked at).

Connecticut Field, 1997
Etching, 10 x 12 inches
I spent a wonderful week as a resident artist at the Loomis-Chaffee School in Connecticut, where I spent many hours gazing at a much flatter landscape.

Afternoon Landscape, 1995
Drypoint, 5 x 7 inches
I often do drypoints from the landscape while traveling or vacationing. This drypoint was done of a field in Guilford, Vermont, in late afternoon.

Studio View, Plovdiv, 1993
Etching, 12 x 9 inches
I traveled in Eastern Europe in 1993, staying in Plovdiv, Bulgaria, where I had use of a printmaking shop. Not knowing where to start, I looked out the window.

Tree, 1987
Etching, 12 x 6 inches
This was among the first etchings I made at the time of my fairly abrupt transition from painting to etching.

Ships

Shipwreck, 1998
Etching, 18 x 24 inches
The theme of a distressed ship at sea belongs to a rich iconography, I learned. I enjoyed contrasting an ordered, man-made vehicle with the roiling indifference of nature.

Sea, 1998
Etching, 6 x 18 inches
This plate emerged after the desperate act of chopping a recalcitrant plate in half. No more ship, just sea.

Sail, 1998
Etching, 6 x 8 inches
Sails filled with wind take on beautiful curves, especially opposed to the straight mast and horizon.

Ship at Sea, 1998
Etching, 14 x 17 inches
This etching was done on an especially damaged, used plate, and is an overt homage to the American painter Albert Pinkham Ryder.

Steamboat, 1998
Etching, 7 x 15 inches
Steam and smoke, clouds and water, light and reflection, suggested this image to me.

Ship in Fog, 1998
Etching, 9 x 12 inches
I have become more interested in obscuring or eluding the images I also reveal.

Burning Ship, 1998
Etching, 12 x 18 inches
This image was transformed from a burning building done as one of my disaster studies, superimposing a later interest on an earlier one.

Hull, 1998
Etching, 7 x 9 inches
I like the looming shape of the prow of a ship.

Catboat, 1998
Etching, 12 x 9 inches
The catboat has a uniquely appealing sail plan and hull shape.

Schooner, 1998
Etching, 16 x 11 inches
This schooner strikes an almost ungainly silhouette.

Titanic with Tugs, 1995
Etching, 12 x 24 inches
I take some pride in having completed this apocryphal scene from the first and last journey of the Titanic before the big movie came out. The etching was done as a gift to my daughter Caitlin, who was devouring every bit of information she could find on the disaster.

Others

Luna Park, 1999
Etching, 6 x 9 inches
I began a series of etchings of amusement parks, expecting to join them in a book with Ferlinghetti’s Coney Island of the Mind. The project suggested a broadside with a single image of the Steeplechase, rather than a book, so I made small editions of the other plates.

Child's Skull, 1997
Etching, 5 x 5 inches
A friend lent me the skull of a child, which I studied closely in several etchings during a residency at the Loomis-Chaffee School in Connecticut.

American Express, 1997
Etching, 12 x 24 inches
This etching was modeled on a lithograph by Fanny Palmer for Currier & Ives.

Biplane, 1995
Etching, 16 x 20 inches
This etching is a personal reference to my father, Gilbert B. Cohen, a noted aviation illustrator.