29 November 2007

Edna Boies Hopkins

HopkinsHomeward

Edna Boies Hopkins (1872-1937), a protege of Arthur Wesley Dow, created a large body of woodblock prints until her career was cut short by severe arthritis when she reached her early 50s. Although she is best known for her prints of flowers, I'm smitten with some of her figural works like the white line print above. It's so easy to overwork lines in a woodcut, so I like the way Hopkins' line retains the quirkiness and character of a hand drawn line. I've been thinking that I'd like to try using the white line method in some of my commercial work.

The Columbus Museum of Art (OH) will be showing fifty of Hopkins' color woodblock prints, from December 14, 2007 - March 2, 2008. The exhibition will travel to the Springfield (OH) Museum of Art March 15 - June 1, 2008 and to the Provincetown (MA) Art Association and Museum June - August, 2008.

8 comments:

Marissa L. Swinghammer said...

I lived in Columbus for five years and the museum was always horrible, never had an interesting show the entire time I was there.

And now that I am halfway across the country they have this! Figures.

Bette Norcross Wappner -- said...

I enjoy you sharing other artists' prints. That's nice of you and I learn from it :)

Have you seen the new Starbucks t.v. ads that look like animated woodblock prints? I thought of you immediately and wouldn't be surprised if you were the creator :) HUGS

http://www.starbucks.com/flash/externalShell/sbux_holidaySpots.html

Bette Norcross Wappner -- said...

ooops...that link didn't show in its entirety.

here it is broken up:

http://www.starbucks.com/flash/extrnalShell/

sbux_holidaySpots.html

Bette Norcross Wappner -- said...

'course I should have spelled 'external' correctly that last time!

garsh. (blushing at this point :)

take care!

Annie B said...

Hi marissa,
ain't that always the way.

b'oki, I'm flattered that you identified me with that new Starbucks campaign. It caught my eye right away, too. It's actually done by one of my favorite Japanese illustrators, Tatsuro Kiuchi. I love his work.

Bette Norcross Wappner -- said...

Wow, I just took a very quick peek at Tatsuro Kiuchi's link. That's cool you knew the artist right away :) I'll go browse his website in detail.

Nicole Raisin Stern said...

今日は、アニーさん、お元気ですか。久しぶりですね。The man and the mule have the same head tilt and expression.

Annie B said...

Hi Nicole, nice to see you. Yes, the man and mule do look alike, don't they? Both look kind of exhausted to me -- maybe my projection here in mid December as the holiday crunch is upon us!