A KITCHEN OF ONE'S OWN

A recent post by my friend Brenda in Australia (of Rinkly Rimes fame) had seen this tea-towel at a friend's house and couldn't resist poking 'me' (devoted to the writer) with some of her thoughts about what Virginia might think about what is said and done in her name today.

So, dear Woolfians,

go to BryAntics for her take and leave a comment!

MINTA'S GLOW

... and the lost brooch

Enlarge for detail

Media: Multicolour woodcut

Size:

Series: IMPRESSIONS of TO THE LIGHTHOUSE

To quote: '... it might be true that she minded losing her brooch, but she wasn't crying only for that. She was crying for something else. We might all sit down and cry, she felt, but she didn't know what for.'

(Possibly for the loss of not only her grandmother's brooch but for her loss of innocence while on that walk). Mrs. Ramsay is satisfied that an engagement has taken place.

SEPTEMBER

THE PORTRAIT and the PAINTER

Media: Multicolour woodcut

Size: 9" x 13" approx.

Series: IMPRESSIONS of TO THE LIGHTHOUSE

MRS. RAMSAY "....that woman in grey..."

Media: Multicolour woodcut
Size: 11 1/4" x 14"

Series: IMPRESSIONS of TO THE LIGHTHOUSE

TIME PASSES

Image size:

Paper: rice

Edition: None 1/5 artist's proofs

Inspired by reading TO THE LIGHTHOUSE, I used the drift wood found on the beach of our backyard to make this first interpretation of the novel, combining a matrix made by impressing leaves and dried weeds into a layer of modeling paste. When dried, the surface was then painted with a coat of clear polyeurothane varnish for hardening, then printing. It was an experimental piece. Later, an alternative approach was chosen to make a new series, which I called impressions of TO THE LIGHTHOUSE.

I have lately come across the recorded voice of Virginia Woolf reading 'Craftsmanship' on YouTube, with other related recordings and videos, which may be of interest to those who tried earlier to source this material.

WOOLF'S LIGHTHOUSE - BREAKING NEWS!

THE LIGHTHOUSE has been sold!

Go to the BBC story for the announcement of sale.

Auctioned off: 80,000 pounds sterling - more to come

My friend, Stuart Clarke, Editor of VWSGB, quotes from the novel:

"on the quay, (with) the whole bay spread before them...Mrs Ramsay could not help exclaiming, "Oh, how beautiful!" For the great plateful of blue was was before her; the hoary Lighthouse, distant, austere, in the midst; and on the right, as far as the eye could see, fading and failing, in soft low pleats, the green sand dunes with the wild flowing grasses on them, which always seemed to be running away into some moon country, uninhibited of men."

Thank you Stuart!

UPDATE: It has been sold to a private buyer, see the BBC news for the 'SOLD to' story

IMPRESSIONS of TO THE LIGHTHOUSE

TITLE: 'ON, THEN, ON TO R..."

TFrom a series of multicolour wo0dcuts

Image size: 28" x 20"

Media: Multicolour woodcut

Paper: Rives BFK

Edition: 4 monoprints

Impressions of TO THE LIGHTHOUSE, a series of 20 prints, in varying sizes, limited editions executed as a Tribute to Virginia Woolf (1882-1941) in the 1980s This project began as an experimental series in which I wanted to show the traditional b/w woodcut transitioning to a multicolour format that picked up the patterns and rhythms of Woolf's vision of making shape out of the chaos of perceptions. At the time Woolf was experimenting with changing the structure of the traditional novel form. More prints will follow from time to time.

The original question was, 'Is this an "impressionist" or a "post impressionist" novel. My written paper on the subject didn't pass muster, but my prints did. By the time I got to college, I was already a printmaker and that was an acceptable communications skill at UWW, New College of Hofstra, NY. Alas, New College, at the time Directed by the innovative Dean Christman, has long since been discontinued and, in my opinion, to the great loss of the student population, faculty, and to the stature of the university itself!