words + pictures from the studio of Joan Colbert
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After several months it’s time to play around with the slice of pear tree. The photo above, which links to a previous post, marked the end of a year of drying. The plan is to eventually carve into it for a relief print, but for now it is being used as the matrix for a monotype. Using colors and lines inspired by the artist, Hundertwasser, and Createx monotype ink, the print, Hundertwasser’s Cookie, was pulled on Rising Stonehenge paper. The process was a bit unwieldy, but enjoyable nonetheless.
As Potent as a Charm is now online! Web site updates, at the top of the to-do list following the close of December’s exhibit in the BOX gallery, have been completed. A new section, As Potent as a Charm continues, contains background information, images of prints and photos of the gallery.
Each year Academy Graphic Communication, Inc., produces a 52weeks/52works calendar featuring the work of Northeast Ohio Artists. The variety of artwork and attractive layout make this my favorite weekly calendar. I was quite pleased to be included on the Notes page in this year’s calendar, but dismayed that I completely missed the entry deadline for the 2016 version – and unhappy that there will be an empty spot on my desk throughout the coming year.
Meet Phoebe, a little sweetie who was memorialized in a mixed media commission just in time for the holidays. If there were tears I hope they were happy ones.
image: Phoebe, mixed media/watercolor + pastel
Tags: artwork, commission, dog, pet portrait
As Potent as a Charm also included some holiday beauties whose good will might be suspect:
Black Hellebore
Christmas Rose, Helleborus niger
[holly]
Biding Time
Mistletoe, Viscum album
a riddle
I lived my life between the worlds
Neither earth nor sky would call me child
The birds were my companions
The wind and rain my mentors
Daily I grew in power and strength
‘Til snatched out of time by the trickster
answer: mistletoe
Tags: as potent as a charm, crow, hellebore, holly, linocut, mistletoe, printmaking, raven, relief print, riddle
There have been many surprises in the ongoing research on poisonous plants for the As Potent as a Charm series. Not the least is the number of common landscape/foundation plantings that add a hint of danger to the structure of the garden, such as this threesome of familiar shrubs:
A Deceptive Welcome
Rhododendron, Rhododendron
Pleasant Valley
Yew, Taxus baccata
Be Still
Oleander, Nerium oleander
Tags: as potent as a charm, botanicals, linocut, oleander, poison, printmaking, relief print, rhododendron, yew
Part of the fun in researching botanical poisons for As Potent as a Charm, was coming across bits and pieces of information, quotes and symbols. Tiny prints and commentary are gathered here in a collection of nine little pieces. There’s a crown for the Queen of Poisons (Aconitum) and a dagger to mark a botanical poison; Belladonna for dark, alluring eyes or castor oil to brighten the whites a la Cleopatra; the atropine dose from my hound’s recent surgery and intriguing quotes from disparate sources, including Agatha Christie’s comment on her frequent method of (fictional) murder: “I prefer to poison them.”
Tags: as potent as a charm, belladonna, castor bean, linocut, printmaking, relief print
Black sheep and skeletons in the closet . . .
even the plant world has its share of family secrets, eccentrics and deviants.
Consider the family Solanaceae, commonly referred to as either the nightshade or potato family: members of this unwieldy clan run the gamut from the meek to the murderous. In each of the six Solanaceae prints the virtuous shares space with the disreputable.
Look for mandrake (Mandragora officinarum) and the potato (Solanum tuberosa), deadly nightshade (Atropa belladonna) and Petunia, henbane (Hyoscyamus niger) and eggplant (Solanum melongena), bittersweet (Solanum dulcamara) and tomato (Solanum lycopersicum), along with tobacco (Nicotiana) and chili pepper (Capsicum). With about 2,690 additional species, the history of the Solanaceae family’s interaction with humans is one of dramatic trial and error, malevolence and goodwill.
left to right:
Loves Me Not
Deadly Nightshade, Atropa belladonna
Petunia
Deceitful Charm
Jimson Weed, Datura stramonium
Chinese Lantern, Physalis alkekengi
Bittersweet
Woody Nightshade, Solanum dulcamara
Tomato, Solanum lycopersicum
Scuttle
Mandrake, Mandragora officinarum
Potato, Solanum tuberosa
Best Laid Plans
Henbane, Hyoscyamus niger
Eggplant, Solanum melongena
Smokin’ Hot
Tobacco, Nicotiana tabacum
Chili pepper, Capsicum
Tags: as potent as a charm, botanicals, linocut, printmaking, relief print, Solanaceae
The Castor Bean plant from this year’s garden found multiple uses in the As Potent as a Charm exhibit. The framed artwork is a print of a fresh leaf on mulberry hosho using oil based ink; the display leaves were overlapped, coiled in newspaper and dried.
Tags: as potent as a charm, castor bean, leaf print, printmaking, ricinus communis
As Potent as a Charm
BOTANICAL
bad seeds
black sheep
& skeletons
in the closet
While there is little that is whimsical about poisoning, there is definitely plenty of drama and mystery in horticultural mishaps and misdeeds. Lovely plants may be leading double lives; happy blooms and tasty vegetables have cousins that are downright deadly. Herbalists differ on the merits and dangers of various herbs. The fascinating stories from botanical history, folklore and science invite and inspire imagery.
The ongoing series, As Potent as a Charm, explores the malevolent side of familiar plants in a collection of black and white linoleum block prints. Although the concept is botanical, allusions to dark tales and malfeasance hint at a narrative within each visual representation.
The series title, As Potent as a Charm, is a phrase taken from Nathaniel Hawthorne’s story, Rappaccini’s Daughter. The title character, Beatrice, tends her father’s botanical collection of lovely, yet lethal plants. While ‘as potent as a charm’ refers to the specimens, it could just as well describe Beatrice who, as the story progresses, becomes just as lovely and lethal as the flowers she nurtures.
Tags: as potent as a charm, botanicals, linocut, Nathaniel Hawthorne, poison, printmaking, relief print
