All things Maud and Manet, 2012

Reductive woodcut with stencils

Image size: 15" x 20"

Framed size: 23.5" x 28"

Maple wood frame

All Things Maud and Manet is a tribute to a wildly intelligent, playful, cunning, affectionate and demanding cat who lived with my husband and me for over twenty years until she could no longer see and lost her joy in life. It broke our hearts to lose her.

In making this print, I began by looking at other artists and poets who found the cat to be a source of interest, Among them, I found Rembrandt, Durer, Kiki Smith, Felix Valloton, William Kentridge, Warhol, and many others who celebrated or explored the subject of cats. Among them, Pablo Neruda's words in "Cat's Dream" and Edouard Manet's etching of a cat nosing a flowering plant (Le Chat et Les Fleurs) both rang a bell for me. As in many of my other prints where images from art history are referenced, I used the Manet to link this print of our cat, Maud, to the continuum and - not to be too Maudlin - to keep her memory alive.

Like most of the prints I've made in the last sixty or so years, All Things Maud and Manet is a reductive woodcut that relies on a build-up of translucent colors, surface detail and woody textures. I fell in love with this medium early on and haven't found anything to compare with it's potential for expression.

Courtesy of the Artist