Technically Invisible

Arts Alive

On the recent field trip to the Cotuit Center for the Arts, students saw some wonderful works from over 50 Cape Cod artists. In our Arts Alive presentation, we learned about one of those artists—Bill Evaul, whose white-line woodcut print of the Pilgrim Monument was one of the pieces on display.

White-line woodcut printmaking is a technique that originated in the United States—in Provincetown, in fact! In 1915, a group of six artists (Ethel Mars, Maude Squire, Mildred McMillen, Ada Gilmore, J.O. Nordfeldt, and Juliette Nichols) created this technique. What made their technique unique was that their prints were made from a single block of wood. They would carve their designs into a block of soft wood. The lines that they carved into the wood would show up as white lines on the print, thus giving the technique its name. The paper was tacked to the edge of the woodblock. Paint was applied to one section at a time. That color then had to dry before another color could be painted. This type of printmaking took a long time!

In our Arts Alive project, students carved a design into a piece of thin Styrofoam with a dull pencil tip. Students then used markers to color in areas of their design, one color at a time. Their Styrofoam was attached to their paper, so that the design would transfer intact! After each color, students laid their paper over the Styrofoam and rubbed with a spoon to transfer the color to the paper. The result–an amazing array of beautiful white-line prints! Once again, the students were super to work with—be sure to ask them about their creative designs!

Sincerely,

Kerri Evans