Lily S. May–Life with Art
The most recent origami booklet I've made is from a woodcut I carved and printed in 1973. It's called Forth Form Variation and is from a series I did playing around with several shapes. I used two pine boards that I lined up to make the whole image. I have loved trees since childhood and… Continue reading Reading Old Prints, 3
Yesterday the high in Toronto was 36 C, that's just shy of 97 F. Our air conditioner, which we are fortunate to normally have, was out of commission because of massive reconstruction in our building. I needed to go somewhere to counteract not only the heat but some of the terrible news of various forms of hatred that is… Continue reading When It’s 36 C
I continue turning some of my old prints into origami booklets. And, as so often happens, I've been changing the work in ways I didn't first set out to do. I tried a few booklets with simple collages of some poetry I've written. Then, this morphed into bits of writing about the weather or a… Continue reading Reading Old Prints, 2
I'll be showing you more photos from my trip to Spain, but meanwhile I've begun a project to transform many of my old prints into origami books. I first did this when I sent some prints as mail art, but haven't continued sending them out. Here's the plan which may change over time. I'm going… Continue reading Reading Old Prints
Here's a woodcut I made in 1973 from 2 planks of pine. I loved the knots and wood grain and made them part of the print. The image draws, once again, on my love of trees.
In the 1970s, I visited The Virgin Islands several times to see my parents who had moved there. Trees have always given me great solace and joy. There was an enormous kapok tree on the island. I loved that tree and used to go see it and photograph it whenever I travelled there. I often walked between… Continue reading Kapok Tree at Cinnamon Bay
Here's another woodcut--this time it's one of the first I made. Some of the earliest prints I made began as scribbled drawings. In "Orange Girl," I included some the lines from the drawing in the print, showing its origins. I recall that I experimented with carving a hard wood--either maple or oak. It wasn't easy,… Continue reading Orange Girl Woodcut
I've often included images of nature in my artwork. Recently, I came across these two photos of woodcuts from the 1970s, one of which I've sold out. So it's great to have a record of it. When I began printmaking, I became interested in depicting trees showing both their branches and roots as in these… Continue reading Grain
I have two blogs--this and a nature blog that I've hardly posted on in a while. So far I've divided these two parts of my life in my blogs but I've decided to merge them. After all, being in nature goes hand in hand with my being able to create. So I'm including a new heading of nature photography in… Continue reading Merger
Last week while looking through the sketchbook in which I found the artwork for my previous post, I came upon a drawing I had forgotten. A few years ago I used the drawing as a starting point for an oil painting. The painting was, in its style, unlike other work I had done. In the painting,… Continue reading The Road
Arts of May 