words + pictures from the studio of Joan Colbert
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The Crow Show is a national exhibition produced by The Studio Door and curated by Roxana Velásquez Maruja Baldwin, Executive Director, The San Diego Museum of Art. This would be a marvelous exhibit to see in person, but, because it’s in San Diego, perusing the catalog is an enjoyable alternative. Click on the cover image for the link.
Among all of the remarkable artwork is this little print – the mistletoe crow continues to bide his time and I couldn’t be more pleased!
Tags: corvid, crow, linocut, mistletoe, printmaking, relief print, Viscum album
. . . a partridge!
Letterpress holiday cards; pear tree not included.
Tags: Christmas, letterpress, linocut, partridge, relief print
relief print by Betty Curtice Taylor
c. 1940 while at Central High School, Akron, Ohio
included in Thanks, Betty! at Summit Artspace, now in my collection
It is fairly certain that Betty’s inspiration was her father, a printer by trade. I am enamored with the details of this letterpress scene: the light, the platen, the rollers and the stack of paper.
Tags: letterpress, linocut, print shop, relief print
The circle of herbs has been cut for weeks, but there’s one slight hold-up. Actually, not one, but four, as in four corners, one per block and, realistically, it’s not been a slight hold-up either. Normally I would have an idea of the overall design of a piece before I even start carving. This time I focused on the circular portion and, for a brief time, considered stopping with the round layout. Apparently I wasn’t really committed to a parsley family mandala, hence the four blocks sat in the studio waiting. And then along came the corner crows, ready to preside over what is now officially titled Herbal Roulette!
Tags: apiaceae, as potent as a charm, crow, crows, hemlock, herbal roulette, linocut, parsley family, printmaking, umbelliferae
So far, so good, but still decisions to make. Herbal Roulette.
Tags: apiaceae, as potent as a charm, herbal roulette, linocut, linoleum block, parsley family, relief print, umbelliferae
Hemlock, Conium maculatum, and several of its nefarious relatives, are members of the Apiaceae (or Umbelliferae) family of plants, commonly called the parsley or carrot family. This is a large family of more than 3700 plants and deciding how to represent it in the As Potent as a Charm series has been a bit overwhelming at times. Inspiration arrived in a remark in a Peterson Field Guide, Easten/Central Medicinal Plants by Steven Foster and James A. Duke. In describing Golden Alexanders (also among the Apiaceaes), the author stated, “Amateurs fooling with plants in the parsley family are playing herbal roulette.” Aha! A wheel it is! This time the format will be circular, rather than the narrow rectangle of previous prints. A dozen sketches have been chosen, four of which are poisonous; further decisions are pending, but soon the fun will begin!
Tags: apiaceae, as potent as a charm, hemlock, linocut, linoleum block, poison, relief print, umbelliferae
A recent addition to the As Potent as a Charm series of poisonous botanicals, Suspects, is inspired by Castor Bean, Ricinus communis, with a nod to the 1978 ‘umbrella murder’ of Bulgarian dissident, Georgi Markov, in London. Neurotoxins found in the seeds are 500 times more poisonous than cyanide.
Tags: as potent as a charm, castor bean, Georgi Markov, linocut, linoleum block, poison, relief print, ricinus communis
Evolving Landscapes
Summit Artspace
March 3 – April 8, 2017
As noted in a past blog post, Landscape Perils, the yew is one of those “plantings that add a hint of danger to the structure of the garden.” In Pleasant Valley appearances deceive: the ubiquitous landscape/foundation plant of suburbia, the Yew, seems ordinary, but all parts of Taxus baccata are poisonous.
Pleasant Valley (detail)
Yew, Taxus baccata
relief print
Tags: as potent as a charm, linocut, relief print, summit artspace, Taxus baccata, yew
New additions to the notecards for book lovers series: Happy Endings and Cook Books. Cook Books, as yet uncolored, will be trimmed with red and yellow ribbons.
Tags: books, linocut, linoleum block, notecards, printmaking, relief print
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
