The Sun's Comin' Up, I Got Cakes on the Griddle

There are some printing techniques that I never get to use. I am desperate to use scratch ‘n sniff, but when? There are limited needs for this. Color etching on Mylar is another dream yet to be realized. But, in this instance, as I’ve said before the world is in a good taste phase. This collection of color-etch prints by Paul Detlefsen is nostalgic, sappy, sentimental, cloying, and marvelously cheesy. The color etch technique printed in a metallic surface adds a layer of garishness that I didn’t believe possible. I’m quite taken with the cover of the folder, especially the fancy frame and ochre. The scenes depicted are filled with symbols and iconography about a simpler, kinder time: the riverboat and boys fishing, the farmer and his helpful children, the boy with a straw hat and a barn. Printed on a nice sheet of white paper, these would feel like Courier and Ives prints. But when they are hyper-saturated and printed on the shiny silver, they take on an air of desperation. They seem to scream, “Life was better. Life was better. Look now, Life was better.”