Place Setting

Nona Hershey

Master printmaker Nona Hershey uses pure aquatint to achieve the gradations in this simple composition, a "Place Setting". Like a mezzotint she uses a range of tones that run from almost white, through subtle grays to intense black while creating a soft glow to the whole image.

Nona Hershey was born in New York, NY, in 1946. After graduating from Music and Art High School (now known as LaGuardia High School), during which time she attended Saturday Sculpture classes at the Pratt Institute, she enrolled atTemple University's Tyler School of Art in Philadelphia. Intending at first to become a sculptor, printmaking courses in her junior year changed her trajectory. She majored in printmaking and upon graduation was awarded a teaching assistantship at Tyler's program in Rome. She would continue to divide her time in Italy for two decades, returning to the US to work as a Master Printer and as an artist-in-residence at various institutions.

Meanwhile she exhibited broadly in both Europe and the US, and taught art in Europe and Japan. Hershey returned to the US in the 1993 after accepting a position as professor and director of the Massachusetts College of Art and Design's printmaking department. She retired in 2018 and continues to work and exhibit.