Love Affair with Native Plants

Several years ago, I became obsessed with watching song birds. So in order to attract as many birds as possible to my postage stamp size city back yard, I started to plant only native species.  The image of the young lady hanging bird drawings on a wash line is a promotional card for an installation I created that was shown at the University of the Arts' Window on Broad.  A photo of the actual installation is below.  The purpose of the project was to bring awareness to the importance of planting native species to preserve wildlife and to demonstrate that, no matter where you live or how small your outdoor space, you can do this.  Aside from the clothesline and basket lined with bird drawings, names of species native to where I live were written on the walls and floor of the installation space.

Now installation art does not exist until, well, it is actually installed so for my promotional postcard I had to stage something that went along with the exhbition, and also provided information.  The back of the card, besides having the pertinent details of when, where, etc. has a message about planting native species and provides the names of some plants native to Southeaster PA.

The lovely model is my daughter, then a college student who, like all college students tried to capatalize on anything asked of them.  So after begging her all summer to dress like me and pose for this photo, she agreed to do so if I paid her twenty bucks! 

 

 

Art Futures Project - Arts Academy at Benjamin Rush High School

These banners were made as part of the Philadelphia Museum of Art's Art Futures Program.  The photo to the left is the final project as it was installed at the very fabulous Philadlephia Museum of Art. 

The students did a fantastic job creating multicolor reduction linocut prints using objects from natural history as inspiration.

This is a very technical process and I am delighted and amazed at  how quickly the fine students at the Arts Academy at Benjamin Rush High School (in Philadelphia) caught on to, and mastered this process.  When the banners come down from the museum, they will be displayed for a brief period at the Reliance Standard Life Insurance Company, whose foundation provides support for this project. Then the banners will be permanently installed at the school for all to enjoy. Below are some of the individual prints that are part of the banner.  They are by: Jackie,  Mike, Patricia, Jesus, Eric, Inez, Shane, Tom, and Lebron. 

 

 

 

More Marvelous Miniatures

I love the small format, and being barely five feet tall, "small" has become a natural way of life for me. When you have a very small space, you have to make use of it...every mark, shape, line matters. Here are more of my miniature works, each one on paper that is 5 x 7 inches, which means the image itself is slightly smaller. They are mainly original linocuts with handcoloring with watercolor pencil, though there are a few that are linocut with chine colle or multicolor linocuts.  (Pictured - Rooftop Garden, The Herd, Old Faithful, Life Lessons, Dream Big)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 








Fabulous Felines

Cozy, Original Linocut with Colle, 9 x 12 in.

One look at my display at a craft fair will tell you that I am a cat owner.  It seems that cats show up in many of my linocuts.  No images of dogs?  Well, I like dogs too, though I currently am not a dog owner.  But why so many cats and only one dog image can easily be answered by reading a post I wrote a few years ago  How a Dog is like a Wine Glass   In the mean time, have fun viewing these fuzzy felines....

(Note- Click on image to see larger view. All works are original, handmade works of art.)





 

 

 



Astronomy Lesson, Original Linocut, 8 x 10 in.


 



 

Dinner Date, Original Linocut, 8 x 10 in.


 

 

Neighborhood Watch, Original Linocut, 5 x 7 in.



On Top of the World, Original Multicolor Linocut, 12 x 12 in.


 

Dream Big, Original Linocut, 5 x 7 in.

 

Unlikely Friendship, Original Multicolor Linocut, 11 x 14 in.



 

 

Create a Variety of Prints with a few Linoblocks

Inspired by a technique demonstrated by Mariann Johansen-Ellis, I made this linocut.  It is an overlay technique where numerous unique prints can be created using just a few interchangable pattern and key blocks.  Below are some images of the process for the above artwork. 

After drawing and cutting the linoblocks, a pattern block of clouds (light blue) and a pattern block of trees (grey) were inked (see image to the right). The image to the left below shows how the cloud block looks printed alone, followed by an image of the clouds being overprinted with the grey tree block.

 

The final block shows the birds (the key block) printed in black ink on top.

Below is an example where the trees are used as the key block:

Currently I am in the process of making additional pattern blocks and will post as they are completed.

Food & Beverage Miniatures

Sunny Side Up

Lemonade

These wonderful miniature original works of art make great hostess gifts, stocking stuffers, wedding party gifts, and gifts for yourself!   Each artwork is an original linocut (designed and carved by yours truly) then hand inked, hand printed, and hand colored. I have very messy hands! The overall paper size measures 5 x 7 inches (fits store bought frame).



5 P. M.

Note - click on image to see larger view. 


Cold One!

Happy Hour (Margarita)




Cake & Coffee (Orange)



 



Red Wine



White Wine




Yellow Cake


 

Double Dip



Autumn is Here

Many of my customers enjoy this piece for the seasonal colors.  This particular piece "Harvest Moon" is a  multicolor reduction linocut with a limited edition of 20.  You can see how this exact piece was made by clicking here    

Harvest Moon
Original Multicolor Linocut by Diane Podolsky
Edition:  20,  Overall Size:  8 x 10 inches

More Visions of Summer....as it winds down

Please note - the copyright text you see on the web image does not appear on the actual artwork.

Life on the Island by Diane Podolsky
Original Color Etching with Aquatint; 9 x 12 in.

The etchings above were two plates I made this summer using a variety of printmaking methods:  aquatint, hard ground, and soft ground etching.  The plates were worked some more with scraping and burnishing.  It takes awhile to make an etching plate, but when it is finally done, the results  are very satisfying and the variety of images are endless depending on how the plate is inked, wiped, paper(s) used, and so on....

After making these plates, I inked them A la Poupee, which means they were inked and printed in color from the same plate (as opposed to different plates for each color).  Never satisfied to leave well enough alone, I added a bit of hand coloring here and there because, well why not?? 



Summer Bloom by Diane Podolsky
Original Soft Ground Color Etching; 9 x 12 in.

In Bloom this Season...

In Bloom, original linocut by Diane Podolsky

The main thing I have to say about this piece is that I am glad I did not hurry to get it done. After I drew it onto the linoleum block, I waited a very long time before I started to cut because something didn't seem right.  Originally it filled a rectangular shape, and it dawned on me that the image seemed squished and confined.  Eventually, I decided that it should not be confined by a geometric shape.  It was a bit tricky register the linoleum piece as I had no clean place to hold the image during the registration process, but alas, here it is.   Also pictured are some photographs as the block was being printed in different colors.  This is a five color reduction block print; edition of 10.  If you want to know more about how reduction prints are made, click here.
 

First pull in yellow ink

Ink in pink!

Pink over yellow