Poetry and Putti: Elizabeth Barrett Browning in Florence. Part I.

 

I recently joined a small group of local artisans and artists in a small cooperative with the aim of looking for ways to bring our work out of our studios and into the public eye. This group was then invited to participate in a Florence initiative dedicated to exploring the work and influence of women artists and creatives in Florence from the past-- pairing contemporary artists with these influential historical figures.

Our group selected British poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning who lived with her husband Robert Browning in Florence from 1848 until her death in 1861, writing her epic poem of Florence, Casa Guidi Windows, and her semi-autobiographical, feminist, verse-novel Aurora Leigh during these years in Florence.
She is buried in the English Cemetery on the other side of the city,  and her grave there and the Casa Guidi where she lived and wrote, are pilgramage sites for those who fell in love with her Sonnets from the Portuguese or her remarkable life as an independent writer or who wish to pay homage to one of the most influential poets and early feminists of the 19th Century.

Casa Guidi is not far from where I live, but somehow,  although I've passed it hundreds of times in the 25 years I've lived in Florence,  but somehow, I had never gone inside,  despite often stopping to read the memorial placque on the facade and say, "I really should go visit".  Our project was vague in concept, but was meant to be to create something based on the life or work of the artist we had chosen, in some way related to the Villa and residence where they resided.

 

So with that idea in mind, to find something to work with would require that I would finally go past the plaque over the door and see the inside.  As it turns out, Casa Guidi is part of the English National Trust, a non-profit that maintains the property, and it is open to visitors M/W/F from 3pm-6pm. 

 

 

 

Go Figure: Bad Kitty

Oooooooh! I LOVE this.....Is it for sale?

"BAD" Kitty

 

 

 

I was curious about the traditional way of printing white-line prints, using a wooden spoon rather than a baren and printing on dry paper, tacked along one edge to the board. 

So during a short wait between other commitments, I hastily cut a cat doodle I had done earlier onto a small 4 x 7" block of a poor-quality, scrap plywood. 

It's a funny process: flip up the paper, paint a small area of the block (the lines have been excised away) and fold the paper down and burnish it with a wooden spoon. Each area USUALLY needs to be printed at least twice and the ultimate effect is a little like a coloring book, with the drawing in white.

Being hastily done, everything went as you'd expect. The cheap plywood's grain would suck the paint across the borders, the paper was thick and hard to print on, and my ink drawing bled a bit into the paper during printing. 

BUT,  since I didn't really care how it came out,  I worked fast and loosely with the colors, ignoring the smudges and pale areas. 

The First visitor to my studio while I was working made a beeline to my workstation.
"Oooooh! I love this, Is it for Sale?" and I replied, "Um, well No, it's not finished yet, and its really just an exersize to see if I like this method......", I replied replied rather clumsily..

The Second visitor to my studio (and I rarely get visitors). ALSO immediately asked if the little ugly print was for sale? or could they buy the block!!!

 My son stopped by with some friends from the UK....."I LOVE this, can I have it!?!"

???? Is it a cat person thing?!?!

 Here's the more carefully printed version. This one is a little too dark in the brown areas (which i do like better in the first version). 

"Good" Kitty

 

 I THINK I'll try to redraw and recut this and start again.   I'm fond of Siamese cats, I've always wanted to do a print of one, and I guess there's a niche to fill.

Not on Speaking Terms-Amaryllis

 

Not on Speaking Terms, White-line Woodblock print, 8 1/4" x 11 3/4"

I buy an Amaryllis bulb/plant almost every year. I love how dramatic they are, the rising bud is just interesting enough without being threatening or too obscene and I like the fact that the budding and bloom last quite a long time.

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This particular plant was one of the few that survived from last year to bloom again. I didn't give it the attention it deserved, so it wasn't as vigorous or as energetic as the first year, and it made only 2 buds, instead of the usual 3-4.

And with just two blooms--Siamese-twins joined at the shoulders--they must have had quarrelled, as they grew with their flowers facing in opposite directions. And they kept this haughty posture, neither really accepting nor acknowledging the other's face or presence.
Despite being nearer and more alike than perhaps they'd have liked to admit, and despite sharing the single stem and bulb, they budded, bloomed, and then withered away next to each other, but alone. 

 

Who knows what they were mad about, maybe even they don't remember.

This fall, I'll pot them again with some new soil and a bigger pot and the hope that next year they will not simply flower, but wake with enough vigor to shed their grudges and ready to grow.

 

 

 

Fast Enough-Year of the (water) rabbit

 

Fast Enought, 2023, 7" X 8"  E.V.-edition size is 60 on sized Japanese machine-made washi.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Are you fast enough?

I wasn't planning on making a Chinese zodiac card this year.

But I started drawing rabbits, and hares, and more rabbits, until I filled a few pages of sketchbooks with running, jumping, grazing and flying "Thumpers".  I had wanted to create a busy background full of jerky marks of grass or reeds whizzing by-but the rabbits couldn't decide if they wanted to be white rabbits on a dark ground, or brown rabbits on a green field- and each time I tried to go one way, the rabbits would run back in the other direction. So my white rabbits kept getting beige fur and black ear and tail highlights, and the brown rabbit was never really dark or real enough.  

But then I remembered it was the year of the WATER rabbit.  And that sort of made the background obvious.  

When almost every other animal you meet wants to eat or hurt you,  it's no surprise that running away is the most natural response to almost any stimulus.   But the hares of our fields first do their best not to get noticed.  They blend in to the tall grass and branches, and hunker down, immobile, and are almost impossible to see.  But if you get too close, or startle them with a brusque movement or noise, they will explode from almost underfoot, and rocket away, zig-zagging across the field and will cross a long distance before they will glance back to make sure they're not being followed.  I will never walk on water, but trying not to be noticed, or running away at the first sign from real or imagined conflict, are habits I recognize.

The format was driven by my participation in the BarenForums latest exchange (91).  The paper size is 7" X 8" and 20 copies went to that print exchange. 

 

The streaking at the top, is from a little too much size-the glue and alum that I added to the paper.