Recent Work On Display at Briar Bush Nature Center

I hung my work up at the Treetops Art Gallery at Briar Bush Nature Center's Dede Long Nature Museum. On the walls are small woodcuts from the artist's books I made last November: Scarlett and In My Yard. Downstairs behind the desk at the main entrance are two prints of a Great Horned Owl, from my current book project, Cat and Owl In Love. 
The common thread in all these woodcuts is that they are inspired by fauna local to the area. 
The book In My Yard depicts scenes of plants and small animals seen in my yard in Philadelphia. The small scale and subject of these works connects with an artist residency I'm fullfilling this year with the Wagner Free Institute for Science. In that position I've been teaching woodcut printmaking inspired by insects to middle schoolers enrolled in after school programs. My art curriculum compliments a science curriculum taught by other educators and which focuses on insect lifecycles. 

The book Scarlett was specifically inspired by a rescued screech owl who now resides at Briar Bush (as seen in this photograph.) The real Scarlett is regularly featured in Briar Bush's nature education programs for children. 

All of the woodcuts in the exhibition plus more from my Cats A-Z book will be for sale in the gift shop. All woodcuts on exhibition and for sale are original art (not reproductions), which is to say hand-carved and hand-printed with a wooden spoon by me. 

The Dede Long Nature Museum is open Monday-Saturday from 9-5 and Sunday from 1-5. The Treetops Art Gallery is located on the second floor of the museum. Admission is free for Friends of Briar Bush members and Abington Township residents, and for all others, $3 for adults. $2 for ages 2-17, and free for children under 2. The address is 1212 Edgehill Road, Abington, PA. 

"Scarlett" (Finished Book)

I finished the first of three single-sheet, 8-page books which I plan to  submit it to the exhibition Ritual taking place in December in Philadelphia. I have some from this limited edition of only 6 for sale also on my Etsy Store, click here. I'm definitely going to keep one with the idea that I might scan it in the future and make high quality reproductions which could be sold much cheaper. 

The whole sheet of paper measures 10" x 17", so when it is folded each page measures 4.25" x 5". It is printed on white Subi paper. The images are created entirely of hand-carved, hand-printed woodblock prints. The whole thing took about 32 hours of work over 9 days. 

Front Cover

Pages 2 and 3

Pages 4 and 5

Pages 6 and 7

Back Cover

Proof of "Scarlett"

This is a little 4" x 4" color woodcut I made using four blocks. My intention is to make a small book with 6 different versions (using the same blocks but different colors) and submit it to the exhibition Ritual taking place in December in Philadelphia. I printed this proof so I could get a better sense of what I have and can decide what colors I should use for the 6 different versions. The title is because this is meant to depict a little screech owl named "Scarlett" who was rescued (she is blind in one eye) and is kept and used for educational shows at the Briar Bush Nature Center.