Adobe Gallery Blog

Of the totality of Helen Hardin's work in etching, three images stand as the pinnacle of her achievement-Changing Woman, Medicine Woman, and Listening Woman. These personal deity figures stand as eternal and personal revelators of the very character and essence of Hardin's work as an artist, as a Pueblo native, and as a woman.

Each of these etchings was created in etching/aquatint from copper plates, printed in ochre, English red, Midnight blue, Sepia, and alizarin crimson on various types of rag printmaking papers. Each work is characteristically precise and visually taut, reaching for a certain perfection of image and execution, with graphic contour lines, interior linear embellishments, and the finest of subtleties and nuances of color.

This etching-Medicine Woman-was completed in 1981 and coincided with Hardin being told by her doctor that the biopsy of the lump from her breast was malignant and a mastectomy would have to be done. To quote Hardin "I finished Medicine Woman just before he told me. It was almost as if I needed that person, that healing spirit. After I found out I had cancer, and we were doing the print at El Cerro, I felt I had her spirit with me."

The etching was executed in four-colors by El Cerro Graphics of New Mexico and issued in an edition of 65, of which this is number 53.

Condition: appears to be in original condition but has not been examined out of the frame.
Recommended Reading: Changing Woman: The Life and Art of Helen Hardin by Jay Scott

Title: Original Aquatint Etching "Medicine Woman"
Artist: Helen Hardin (1943-1984) Tsa-Sah-Wee-Eh - Little Standing Spruce
Category: Prints
Origin: Santa Clara Pueblo
Medium: aquatint etching
Size: 18" x 24" image; 35-1/2" x 28-3/4" framed
Item # C3356F