Portfolio · 1996
Santa Cruz
Blue etchings and a line from an Urdu poem by Faiz Ahmad Faiz hold the coastal light of Santa Cruz beside an enduring sense of inner emptiness.
Date1996
MediumFour blue etchings and an Urdu poem line on Lana Gravure paper
SheetFamily record: 18 × 14 in.; Saffronart lists approximately 17¾ × 13¾ in.
Edition20, plus two artist’s proofs
ProductionBaskin Art Studios, University of California, Santa Cruz
Zarina taught printmaking at the University of California, Santa Cruz, from 1992 to 1997. She connected the portfolio to twilight over Monterey Bay and to a verse by Faiz Ahmad Faiz whose beauty, in her account, did not erase the emptiness carried within.
The closing line—“magar dil hai ki us ki khana virani nahin jaati”—sets the beauty of different worlds against an inner emptiness that remains.
Printed in blue, the portfolio joins the coastal light of California with the cadence and emotional depth of Urdu poetry.
Archive sequence
Individual sheets
The photographed family sheets are numbered 9/20. The separately documented Saffronart impression is 18/20; their measurements should not be silently merged.
