Nicola’s work is founded on techniques promoted by the family and its social and emotional constraints. It is not a record of place, but more a record of place as a transitory snapshot, a journey through a changing state of mind. One stroke leads to another, one step to the next. Who knows what chance discoveries and connections the mark might make between order and chaos. It all begins with a sketchbook, with doodles, stray thoughts, repetitive marks and private opaque notation.
The physicality of inking up the drawings made by acid burning into copper plates and then going through the press is just as important as the mark making. The process of etching completes the cycle of the intuitive, repetitive notations.