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. 

In My Yard (Finished Book)

I finished the second of three single-sheet, 8-page books which I plan to  submit it to the exhibition Ritual. 

The whole sheet of paper measures 11" x 15", so when it is folded each page measures 3.75" x 5.5". It is printed on 120 lb watercolor paper. Each image is printed from a carved wood block with oil-based black ink and then hand colored with watercolors (see below for what it looks like before being colored.) It took me 2 hours to print 2 books and another 2 hours to hand paint one of those books. 

In My Yard is also for sale on my Etsy store for $75. (Same price it will be at the exhibit.) 

In My Yard: "Ladybug"

Woodcut
Black ink with hand coloring with watercolors
3" x 4" (image)
For sale here. 

This is the seventh in a series for a single sheet handmade book called In My Yard. This book will be submitted to the exhibition Ritual taking place in December in Philadelphia. 

My four-year-old daughter stopped to point out a little ladybug on a pumpkin on our porch this past October. I love the combination of the warm colors of autumn in this image. Again I played with the scale a bit to make it work, increasing the size of the ladybug. This will be the cover for the book; I deliberately left room at the bottom for the title. 

In My Yard: "Cabbage White"

Woodcut
Black ink with hand coloring with watercolors
3" x 4" (image)
For sale here. 

This is the seventh in a series for a single sheet handmade book called In My Yard. This book will be submitted to the exhibition Ritual taking place in December in Philadelphia. 

Nobody seems to get all that excited about these butterflies, I suppose because they are everywhere (at least in Philadelphia) and just plain white. But they are lovely, especially when they land on a brightly-colored flower that sets off their delicate, white wings. 

In My Yard: "Bumble Bee"

Woodcut
Black ink with hand coloring with watercolors
3" x 4" (image) 
For sale here. 

This is the sixth in a series for a single sheet handmade book called In My Yard. This book will be submitted to the exhibition Ritual taking place in December in Philadelphia. 

I love the bees that the flowers in my garden attract. In addition to helping pollination, they keep the riffraff away. 

In My Yard: "Painted Lady"

Woodcut
Black ink with hand coloring with watercolors
3" x 4" (image)
For sale here. 

This is the fifth in a series for a single sheet handmade book called In My Yard. This book will be submitted to the exhibition Ritual taking place in December in Philadelphia. 

This is my second print of one of the painted lady butterflies that graced our garden all summer long. (Here's the first.) I like the more dramatic, sunburst composition and bright color of this one. I played with the scale a bit and made the butterfly a little bigger relative to the flower, and I enjoy how its placement in the center makes it almost seem as if the flower pedals are an extension of the butterfly's body 

In My Yard: "Leopard Slug"

Woodcut
Black ink with hand coloring with watercolors
3" x 4" (image)
For sale here. 

This is the fourth in a series for a single sheet handmade book called In My Yard. This book will be submitted to the exhibition Ritual taking place in December in Philadelphia. 

We find leopard slugs all over our neighborhood. These slugs are really quite pretty (you know, for slugs). But they are an invasive species in this part of the country, so at one of the nature centers we go to we enjoy catching them and feeding them to the turtles. 

In My Yard: "Summer Finch"

Woodcut
Black ink with hand coloring with watercolors
3" x 4" (image)
For sale here. 

This is the third in a series for a single sheet handmade book called In My Yard. This book will be submitted to the exhibition Ritual taking place in December in Philadelphia. 

The first summer after we bought our current home I planted a forest of sunflowers in the front yard (see below photo.) I wanted to make my mark on the block. The result was that finches who resided in the large tree across the street began regularly feeding on the sunflower seeds. It was delightful to hang out on my front porch and watch these brightly-colored birds (American goldfinches turn yellow during the summer) fly back and forth and nimbly perch on the thick stems of my ten foot high flower garden. 

In My Yard: "Garden Spider"

Woodcut
Black ink with hand coloring with watercolors
3" x 4" (image)

This is the second in a series for a single sheet handmade book called In My Yard. The idea is to submit it to the exhibition Ritual taking place in December in Philadelphia. 

I think I found a nice balance between light and dark in this one. A bit busy and lots of chaotic texture to give the sense of having to focus and squint to see the spider and web, but she is still clearly there, being highlighted by her yellow, striped legs. My favorite part is how the silhouette of leaves in the bottom left quadrant suggest a shadow cast by the spider. 

Happy Halloween! 

In My Yard: "Millipede in Hand"

Woodcut
Black ink with hand coloring with watercolors
3" x 4" (image)

This is the first in a series for a single sheet handmade book called In My Yard. The idea is to submit it (and hopefully 2 others) to the exhibition Ritual taking place in December in Philadelphia.

I like that it looks like a child's hand, not only in relation to the size of the millipede, but in the finger proportions. And I mostly like that the lines to mark certain shadows in the fingers mirror the segments of the millipede. The color here is too orange. Needs more pink. But this was just a tester. In fact, some of the black ink bled because I printed this proof in water-based ink and then watercolored over it. I'll do the final version with oil based ink.