Christopher Wormell's "Fifteen Leopard Rosettes"

I've promoted Christopher Wormell's linocuts for children on this blog once before. But such gorgeously illustrated picture books deserve repeated mention.

Just this week I stumbled a rather well-loved copy of his counting book Teeth, Tails, & Tentacles in the library at my daughter's preschool. One of my favorite things about this book was the use of unexpected vocabulary. For example, for the number 15, Wormell features fifteen leopard rosettes. I've never before encountered the use of that term to describe the large, two-toned spots on a cat, but it's lovely and fitting. So often books for the very young avoid using big words, which is a shame, since how else are children to learn such words if they aren't exposed to them in a memorable context?

Wormell's bold linocuts are definitely memorable. I encourage readers to peruse the entire collection of his illustrated children's books on his website, here.

Relief Prints from the Community Arts Center (Part 2 of 2)

This is the continuation of this post about The Printmakers of The CAC in the Stairwell Gallery of the Community Arts Center in Wallingford, PA. 

Both of these color woodcuts are by Lisa Burder Lentz. The titles, from top to bottom, are Bermuda, and Trucks. There is a third lovely woodcut by Lentz in the exhibition, but the glare on the photo I took was so bad I didn't include it in this post. 

Bermuda feels rather ghostly to me, and I find this due mostly to the color choices - a sort of muted grey that weighs down the ship and dock and turns the water to concrete, and salmon in the sky that is reminiscent of sunset, but a little more opaque. While palm trees and cruise ships are often associated with exotic intrigue and sunny, colorful vacation spots, this image is distant and eerie. I feel it's a far off memory, and of a place to which one cannot return. 

In Trucks I first feel a strong breeze blow across the picture plane, in contrast to the solid blocks of trucks, that though they have wheels, are set as firmly in the landscape as boulders. The woodgrain and sometimes jaggedly-carved, sometimes delicately-carved lines bring the entire setting alive with movement. Leaves and grasses quiver, murky clouds float, and a river or creek moves at a steady pace, carrying with it the reflections of the still and silent crates. 

Relief Prints from the Community Arts Center (Part 1 of 2)

 For another couple weeks the Community Arts Center in Wallingford is exhibiting a huge group show of work by members and faculty. I taught a summer camp there this summer and was very interested in the handful of relief prints by The Printmakers of The CAC in the Stairwell Gallery.

The first two shown here are Rabbit 1(soft block print) and Squirrel 1 (woodcut), both by Jean K. Kristie.

I wouldn't have thought these were by the same artist, despite the general similarities of featuring the whole animal in profile on a dark ground and light backdrop.  The rabbit is more spontaneously rendered, He seems a little nervous and crouched, poised to escape. The squirrel on the other hand is more neat and controlled, just waiting to be stamped onto a greeting card. This rather makes sense to me given that in my experience, wild squirrels tend to be much more comfortable with human presence than are wild rabbits.










The third print featured here is Snow Robbins, a block print by Beth Camagna. This was actually my favorite of the three, but unfortunately I wasn't able to get a good close-up photograph because the glass caught too much glare. This reminded me a bit of Felix Vollotton's prints that often feature an array of patterns that push the eye all around the composition, and then into little pools of both solid black and solid white for the patterns to flow into and the eye to rest.

Click here to read Part 2. 

Collographs by Summer Camp Kids

 More prints from the elementary school students I taught this summer at the Community Arts Center. This time collographs.

I had the kids cut and draw into scratch-foam (they can use a pencil since the scratch foam is so soft, just about anything hard will make a permanent impression) and then glue their designs onto pieces of stiff foam core. The next day (after the glue was dry) I showed them different ways to ink up their plates. We used water-based block printing inks (super easy cleanup and non-toxic) and they tried rolling the ink on in both solid colors and gradations, and also tried making up a palette of different colored inks and painting it on (thus adding the texture of brushstrokes.)

I've done this and a variation of this project with kids many times and it is always a big hit. It is quick, easy, and a great introduction to relief printmaking.

Linocuts by Summer Camp Kids

 I've been teaching at an art-based summer camp at the Community Arts Center in Wallingford, PA. Last week I had 4th and 5th graders do 3" x 4" linocuts. These are my four favorite prints they produced.

Monkey by Jane
Giraffe by Nathan
Ship by Anthony
Fish by Dean

"New Hat"

This is my last carry-over from Naked July (I ran a couple days behind deadline.) It is a 4 layer reduction woodcut. Image is 8" x 10", oil-based inks on white, sulphite block printing paper. 

Desert Hound
Martian Cowboy
Let me hold your hand
Down the freeway rolls a wayward beer can
And a desert hound
Carries decaying memories away
For the dogs to sense another day

Lyrics from Martian Cowboy 

"Climbing Into the Crib"

4 layer reduction woodcut. Image is 8" x 10", oil-based inks on white, sulphite block printing paper. 

When she was a baby I made several prints of her from behind, such as this, and they often seemed to symbolize her move to the next plateau as something effortless and inevitable. In one I even gave her wings. Even when she wasn't moving onto the next, grand thing, the chosen colors often made her seem to happily glow, such as here. 

Now she's older. Her legs are longer, and while sometimes they are graceful, often they are unfamiliar and get in the way. She doesn't fit in places she used to fit. These colors signal alarm, as now she is increasingly aware of the dangers around her. Her wings are also gone, and now she must climb.