Exquisite Corpse 2 - The Seething Medusa

Exquisite Corpse 2 - The Seething Medusa
© Natalie Schorr 2023

I actually think this is a pretty amusing piece. What woman has not felt this way at some time in her life? Medusas are great images to work with, and who doesn’t love a head full of snakes.

I have it in mind to make some pieces to enter in this show, and they all need to be 12”x121”, so I trotted down to Jerry’s and bought some more cradled wood panels and got to work.

I thought I would break down the components of this piece. Down the left hand side is a very old vintage wallpaper in dark green with a pseudo-woven pattern. I can only imagine how dark a room would be covered in that.

The head is a linocut of Mona Lisa, which is also the basis of the head on Exquisite Corpse 1, and will likely be a recurring feature of this series. The snakes are also linocuts that were further embellished with colored pencil.

The sky on the right behind the city is actually the surface of Mars which I toned down quite a bit with marker and pen. It was from a book on, of all things, Mars.

The city was an art piece I found in a book about the Machine Age in America which has many cool pictures and photos.

The delightful cowboy boots are from a book on shoes. Don’t ask me which one, I have destroyed many shoe books in the past few years.

The torso is from a 1970s era Playboy. Playboys are cheap and easy to find and they have a ton of great pictures and mod typography from the time. Don’t look at them under black lights. though.

The eyes and mouth are from some fairly modern ad, and I kind of love the attitude they convey. This piece took a really long time to find and assemble all the parts, but I’m pleased with the result.

Mixed Breed 5 - Collage in Black and White

Mixed Breed 5
© Natalie Schorr 2023

Following the discomfort of my previous Mixed Breed piece, I decided to step back a bit and work in some very minimal colors.

Actually, that’s not entirely true. It just sort of happened that way but I decided not to add anything bright.

I used to draw 12 hours a day, 6 days a week when I was working in motion pictures and television. Granted, it was drafting, but that’s back when we still did everything with pencils on paper. A very different time. But I still connect on an emotional level with the feeling of black and white with the occasional coffee ring. This piece evokes that time for me.

Also, this piece uses a lot of linocut elements, much more than I have used in a single piece for awhile. There’s a level of comfort in that, too.

Mixed Breed 3 - Multiple Identities

Mixed Breed 3
© Natalie Schorr 2023

I’m kind of fond of this piece, maybe because it feels like all the different identities come together in a really cohesive way even as the body seems to be a tumbling cascade of blocks and flowers.

The head, blocks, flowers, and one of the hands is from a library of linocuts I have made over the years that I use again and again. It makes the pieces feel related even though each part is an individual print and inherently unique.

Sort of like all of us.

Her aura is blue. I don’t consciously see auras, but I do use them in a great deal of my work so the possibility exists that I’m aware of them on an unconscious level. They seem to be expanding in my recent work, whereas they were very slight and color shifting in my earlier pieces, so maybe there’s something there.

Or not. Hard to say.

In any case, she seems confident and at peace with her many identities, as we all should be.

Medusa Manifesting a New Destiny

What better way to get out a bit of rage than with a Medusa?

Medusa Manifesting a New Destiny, © Natalie Schorr 2021

It took me awhile on this one, as I needed to carve both feet and a whole plate full of snakes, which took a considerable amount of time.

Why the snaky hair? Medusa was raped by Poseidon in Athena’s temple. This ticked off Athena, who turned Medusa’s beautiful hair to snakes. Of course, it’s much more nuanced than that, with lots of layers, but that’s sort of the gist of it. Medusa is raped, and then punished for being the victim. Sound familiar?

Medusae are usually depicted looking directly at the viewer, which is a show of their strength, but is also a bit uncomfortable for some viewers. To them I say, get over it. There are more of these to come.

Medusa Manifesting a New Destiny uses a variety of linocuts, colored pencil, and acrylic along with metallic spray paint, old wallpapers, magazine scraps, and, you know, general stuff.

Hitting the Big Reset Button

It would be great to take you through all the stuff that it took to do this piece, but the story took a turn.

The Echo Chamber, © Natalie Schorr 2021

My husband of 27 years decided that he no longer wanted to be married. I lost my home and my awesome studio space. I purchased a house in Augusta, GA, near my daughter, packed up and moved. The day after I moved in, she was transferred to Colorado Springs.

It was a really big blow. Not exactly ideal, but I am working through the reality.

I finally got things set up enough to pull out this piece and get it finished. I had originally planned to make it square, but it got very heavy and sculptural, and I began to like it better as its own heptagon, so I left it that way. It is, of course, inspired by the horrific political climate in which we find ourselves.

So, it’s on to new work and new possibilities.

Playing with Body Parts

Playing with body parts

I don’t know what it is like for other artists, ones who paint or compose music. For me personally, I like the flexibility of collage; moving bits around, adding and subtracting things. Now that I have all this stuff printed, that’s the thing that happens next.

I cut out a lot of stuff, and developed a head shape I liked. The heads are from these brown paper scrapbook pages I bought at Goodwill. The rest of the elements are from linocuts I’ve made over the past several months.

I like where this is going, but because of the nature of the piece as I am envisioning it, each piece will need to be cut out, mounted on kraft paper, and re-cut. The layers of separation are going to be an important part of the overall theme.

Plotting My Next Piece

I sometimes ruminate for awhile over several pieces before I get into them. Once I’ve settled on something, I will edit and revise it many times in my head before I actually get into it.

Printing elements for a piece is usually not a precision activity. It’s more like a whirlwind of paper scraps and inks mixed haphazardly, printed with wild abandon, and stacked on the rack to dry. In this case, I knew I wanted to work with shades of brown and deep red, so I pulled out some inks and plates and began printing on stuff from sheets of construction paper from Goodwill to kraft paper from Lowes Home Improvement to scraps of stuff off the floor. This will give me plenty to work with I think.

Road to Nowhere

I’m sure I’m not the only person that feels like they are on a road to nowhere. Especially now, because you know, Covid and all. I suppose this piece is more about the “and all” part of my life. Nevertheless, I am pressing forward each day.

Road to Nowhere

I am working like a fiend, which passes the time, and I am on a sabbatical from the news because I’ve had too many 3 AM panic attacks. I never in a million years thought my country would become the corrupt nightmare that it is today. It’s simply horrifying. Another road to nowhere.

I am also applying to several residencies, thinking that going somewhere, anywhere, could only help. There are some really wonderful options out there, but it would seem like getting one is a little remote. However, I don’t suppose someone is going to knock on my door with a bunch of balloons and offer me a residency without my actually applying, so I’m applying to the best ones I can find.

So, Road to Nowhere. A lot of linocuts, including the relief printed background / border, which is printed on old map pages from a vintage atlas I picked up at Goodwill.

Learn more about this piece at its gallery page

A Linocut with New Collage Images

Prints in dark blue and rust red of linocut collage elements

I really wanted some new collage elements, so I did this rather elaborate plate with lots of different elements to add to my growing collection of linocut body parts and backgrounds. There are hands, mouths, flowers, dots, beaks, oversized eyebrows, an ear and a leaf. I’m pleased because I can print up a bunch of things at once, although it takes a larger sheet of paper and it’s a nightmare to cut out.

Song to the Sanguine Moon

While I am very early in the process of developing a library of interchangeable parts, each new piece gets some old and some new elements

The Sanguine Moon

I used several elements from this plate in this piece, Song to the Sanguine Moon. I added background elements from other linocut plates, along with colored pencils and markers.

The Sanguine Moon is a full moon in October. Sanguine, in its literal translation, means blood red, and there are many wonderful drawings by old masters in sanguine chalk, which is actually more of a terracotta shade than blood red.

I really like all the names of the full moons. There are scads of them, bringing up all kinds of possibilities. I’m not sure which one will be next.