The Complete, Original "Owl and Cat In Love" at H.A. Brown Elementary

 

This week I went to H.A. Brown Elementary School in the Philadelphia neighborhood of Kensington, where I spoke to about 100 K-5th grade students about creating my book Owl and Cat In Love. 

I published the book in 2015, and in 2018 an art collector named James Testa bought 80% of the original prints after seeing them displayed in an exhibition at Metropolitan Bakery in West Philly. (I highly recommend artists show in cafes, restaurants, and any other place where people will be hanging out and thus are likely to look at the work longer than they would in a gallery!)  A year later James contacted me and purchased the rest of the series. 

In the years since, I have sold or lost enough of the prints that I no longer have a complete set of the whole series. I only made 4-8 copies of each color reduction woodcut since it was very labor intensive and I didn't have a press at the time, so I printed them all by hand with a wooden spoon. Therefore I was quite happy that at least one entire set of the original prints existed together in one place. 

This year James contacted me to invite me to a little reception at his home to view and celebrate the collection. I was thrilled to see how beautifully they were framed and displayed in his dining room. At that reception, I found out that since he was down-sizing to a small home, he would be donating the entire collection of Owl and Cat prints to a Philly public elementary school where it would be displayed in the library. I couldn't have been more thrilled about this. 

This week the faculty and staff who welcomed me into the school were so kind and enthusiastic about my visit. The children were attentive and had many great questions about illustration, book-making, carving woodcuts, and Edward Lear. State Rep Joseph Hohenstein also stopped in for a visit to the school and offered some supportive words. It was such a lovely time. When I published the book 10 years ago I never imagined the whole series would be permanently installed where generations of school children could enjoy it. This might be the most gratifying event in my artistic career yet.