Nuit americaine, Eureka, CA

Judith Rothchild

Probably best known for her intimate, detailed mezzotint still lifes and images of flora, Judith Rothchild extends the sense of intimacy into “Nuit Americaine: Eureka, CA,” an atmospheric image of nocturnal city life captured in a quiet street corner in northern coastal California. Her medium - mezzotint - proves to be the ideal form of communication for the play of light on a darkened, foggy street, allowing for tonal gradation that lends a softness to the lamp’s and storefront’s soft glow. A scene that might otherwise be mundane to the casual observer becomes a story in the capable hands of Rothchild.

Eureka, California, is situated 100 miles south of the Oregon border along the Humboldt Bay, and is the largest coastal city between San Francisco and Portland, OR. It’s storied past includes the history of the Wiyot indigenous people, who named the area Jaroujiji - “the place where you sit and rest.”