Lament

Harold Persico Paris

Harold Paris often approached his prints as he would his sculpture, using his hands to find solid, grounded shapes, coaxing forth life, and creating dimension where previously there was only empty space. There is also the imprint of the theater, where as a teen he’d been allowed to work as a make-up artist when his father was on the stage: dramatic mask-like visages of each person or creature surfaces from a shadowed environment as if emerging from a darkened stage.

In “Lament” we see a procession of beings under a watchful sun. They appear to sing or wail as they head toward their destination. Paris employs blunt-edged, heavy lines and pushes the ink outward almost as if with his fingers, giving the feel of “sculpting” the image on the stone. This allows the processional to feel anchored in dark earth while above them the sky is bright and empty, creating a powerful tension.