Prints       Why I like printing I once had a discussion with another artist, who was proud, that he only etches his plates and then gave the dirty work of printing to a company. I couldn’t agree. The entire process is so exciting, that I won’t miss any part of it in spite of having black fingernails for a longer time! Rarely the first result is so satisfying, that there isn’t any effect you could increase. Etching is thrilling! I prefer the aquatint technique, as it has a very painting like effect with the possibility to create some different grey values until the deepest black. Whereas a common aquatint shows about five different values, I came up to 12 -15. The acid has to be thinned for that purpose so much, that it nearly has the quality of drink water – kidding! When I made the plates for Memento Mori, I combined aquatint with normal etching and began with an open etching with a very strong acid, which deepened the entire figure, before I went to the details. By this way the contours got a stronger black border. Linocuts and woodcuts have a totally different effect, so I like to use these techniques for motives, which are more expressive than lyrical, especially in greater sizes.