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print became a challenge to see how I can push myself and the technique,” Souto said. Then, he got injured in 2005 and had to stop doing mezzotint and take a break. “That was really a ‘beautiful’ moment. It was a wake up call,” he said. “I realized I can’t keep pushing myself like that with that intensity for seven to eight hours a day. I have to do something else.” So he began doing other prints and drawings, not only to change his ergonomics, but also “as a way of expanding the vocabulary of my work.” He returned to mezzotint and has taught workshops on the method in Italy and in Mexico each of the last three years. The director of the Ekaterinburg Museum of Fine Arts contacted Souto and invited him to submit his work for this exhibition, in stage one of the competition. “I sent the print with no expectations,” Souto said. “I know I do it pretty good, but you never know.” Then, Souto’s work was selected for stage two of the exhibition to be judged by an international panel for the exhibition. He was notified in late August of his honorable mention status. Souto was born in Venezuela. He received his Master of Fine Arts degree from The Ohio State University. He received his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Herron School of Art and Design of Indiana University, and that is where he learned mezzotint. Souto had been using a traditional chemical process called aquatint in his printmaking and asked his professor to teach him mezzotint. The professor did not know the technique, but referred Souto to a book on the process by Wax, which Souto read and learned from. “In many ways, I’m self taught,” he said. He likes the slow process of mezzotint. “I think what I like is the indirectness in the way that you see the results so slowly,” Souto said. “You have to spend so much time with the plate, it’s like a meditation. I don’t watch TV or anything while I am working on the copper Francisco Souto, “After Uno y el Universo II.”
Hixson-Lied College of Fine and Performing Arts
arts MAGAZINE | 2012