Derelict 

Hazel Fulton McGraw created this somber print, ‘Derelict,’ using etching and engraving techniques on paper. McGraw worked with an intaglio process, meaning that she incised lines into a metal plate. The plate would then be inked, and the surface wiped clean, leaving ink only in the recessed lines. The plate is then pressed onto paper, transferring the image. Here, the linear hatching and cross-hatching give the whole image a strong sense of texture. You can really feel the rough canvas of the truck cover, and the scrubby ground all around it. There is something tragic about McGraw’s subject here. This broken-down truck, apparently abandoned in a field, speaks to the harsh realities of rural life. The labor and industry it once represented are now still, overcome by nature. McGraw is reminding us that all things, even machines, must eventually return to the earth.