Before my new studio was built I was working on a series of prints about insects, called "Wee Beasties". While searching for a new subject in "bug books", I turned a page and there it was, in the entomology text . . . SPANISH FLY . . . It really existed! Wonder-Of-Wonders! A substance I had long ago written off as a myth actually existed! I learned, in the "bug book" that the SPANISH FLY is called Lytta Vesicatoria and it lives in Europe (including Spain). I also learned there's a preparation of juice from this insect called cantharides, which is said to act as an aphrodisiac! ("That has to be the stuff we were obsessed with in high school", I thought.) There's only one small problem: according to the book, as little as 0.03 gr. is a lethal dose! Fortunately, we never found any.

I produced a few prints of Spanish Flies . . . or what I thought the Spanish Fly should look like (go to "Spanish Flies" to see these). When my 30 year old Vandercook SP 15 proofing press was moved from storage, into the new studio, I figured it ought to have a name. People give cars names and they give ships names. This machine was an important part of the new studio and it needed a name.

Since I was in the middle of printing these Spanish Fly prints and the insect series was on my mind, it seemed natural to give this old piece of machinery that name.

A WORD ABOUT PRINTS . . . The prints I make are original prints, not reproductions of a drawing or a painting. That is to say, the prints are images printed from a block, metal plate or stone, which has been engraved, etched or drawn upon by me. The editions (multiples of the same image) are limited . . . very limited; numbered and signed.