Mary Azarian is a Vermont woodcut artist who has become relatively famous for her beautiful pastoral prints and charming depiction of Vermont country life. I would love to own an oversized version of one of her prints someday...
When I tuned into VPR on my lunch break today (I was driving to the post office to get a stamp for the electric bill), I heard this interview with the artist and instantly thought of the alphabet prints that had lined the walls of my Kindergarten classroom. Even though I didn't know her by name, I knew exactly who she was (which is usually how I know things--I'm so bad with names!) and decided that I had to mention her work. The scenes are so quintessentially Vermont, and the images are like little anchors laid down throughout my childhood--little barbs that pull me back to a time & place in the quasi-distant past when my youthful eyes first recognized these rural scenes as something significant.
I love the rough imperfection of a woodcut print. At first I thought I preferred the stark simplicity of black and white, but the splash of color in the Winter print might be even better--that's how winter feels around here: monocromatic, with a dash of color in coats and the lights in windows. The image (and especially the accompanying Thoreau quote) makes me smile--it reminds me of my father & all other hardy Vermont men up in the woods who really do have something to be proud of when they heat their homes with wood split by their own hands.
No comments:
Post a Comment