Collaborative Rara Avis, Part II

And here are more!

L to R:  Pat Cudd, Bess Birrell, Suzie Tuchman, Linda Parker

artist Patricia Cudd

artist Vasileki (Bess) Birrell

artist Suzie Tuchman

artist Linda Parker

L to R:  Randy Keenan, Benita Wolffe, Karen McDermott, Barbara Scharf Lehrhoff 

artist Randy Keenan

artist Benita Wolffe

But wait, there are more!  See Part III!



Photo credit: Janet Ducote

Booked 11 (part 11)

Ann Vollum, top two The Beastly Three, 

bottom two The Beastly Uncertainty...Uncertainty And estimation In Economics Vol. 3

Cynthia Weiss, Branches, with details 

Benita Wolffe, top two Unreasonable Expectations, bottom Some Of Us

Photo credit: Janet Ducote

ART TALK: CRAFT POWER with Miriam Schaer, 2014

Miriam Schaer presenting CRAFT POWER: Enhancing Women's Rights Through the Practice of Traditional Arts

Karen McDermott shares the photos and this:

Yesterday Miriam Schaer joined us for ART TALK.  We started with lunch, and because many of you asked, it was provided by Claudia’s Creative Catering in Maplewood. Wonderful. We than settled down to hear Mimi’s talk of her experiences working with groups of women in the Republic of Georgia. Mimi, it was informative, certainly enlightening , and it was a real pleasure to have you in our midst again.

Enjoy the photos everyone!

Karen, Benita, Zawadi, Miriam, and Shimoda

Picture credit: Karen McDermott

J, K, L...

Benita Wolffe's "J".  She also did letter "D".

"K" is for kelp, by Cynthia Weiss.

Cynthia describes her images of kelp:  On the front, the kelp appears as if it were tossed onto the beach by waves.  On the back, the kelp looks as if is were floating in the water while still attached to the sea bed.

Front & Back - images from trace monotypes transferred onto a Pronto Plate, plate is inked like a lithograph and printed with my etching press, when the ink has dried, color was added with thin semi transparent layers of acrylic gouache, letters are stamped with pigment ink.

  

Lynn Starun describes her letter "L".

“My letter was "L" and I wanted to letterpress the letter forms from a book by Frederick Goudy--sort of a history of "L".  I chose lilies as my nature theme for the other side.  These were some lovely day lilies I saw in Maine this summer.” 

Front & Back - letterpressed, printmaking paper Rives BFK or Canson Print Editions, with a geli-plate print glued center front, the back is a two plate linoleum reduction print using Caligo inks.  

Picture credit: Janet Ducote

D, E, F...

    

Benita Wolffe shows Bar her letter "D".

“I tried to make the background of both [my letters, D & J,] similar so they would appear to be from the same alphabet.  Painting was fun.”   

The images were computer generated, then hand painted.

Claire Simon took on letter "E".

“I was awed by viewing the earth from an airplane, and took some amazing pictures on a cross-country flight. When we arranged for the collaborative, I thought of the photos and how they would work for the  capital letter, "E". I chose black to represent outer space, and to create greater contrast with the images of the earth.”

Front - original photographs, printed on Canson paper coated with Golden digital ground, then cut in shape of “E” and pasted onto card.
Back - NASA stock photo of earth, pop-up construction,  the word "earth" is a linoleum cut, printed with white oil-base ink.

Susan Walkley Topper talks about her inspiration for letter "F".

"I immediately knew the Abecedarian collaborative was for me.  Being assigned the letter F was perfect...I already had many photographs of flowers!  As a photographer, I have always been drawn to the beauty and complexity of flowers. I am fascinated to be able to watch them come into being when they are growing in or around my home.  The big challenge was...how to do what I envisioned?  I know very little about Photoshop, so I had to enlist the help of a close friend to teach me to do what I had in mind.  So many choices...so many different decisions.  Fortunately, I had left myself enough time.  I am very pleased to have been a part of this collaborative."

Front & Back - computer printed, Hahnemule's Photo Rag Duo paper, with Ink Jet Printer Cleaning Sheets to help with "grabbing", along with "swearing, and cajoling!" 

Picture credit: Janet Ducote