This selection of works from the Art Special Collection in the Sherman Art Library will be on display through March 12, 2023. Each item focuses on a different aspect of winter, starting with the simplicity of the Japanese woodblock print by Hiroshige. The beautiful line and colors depicted help to accent the feel of the falling snow.
By contrast, the etching Winter Evening by Henry Farrer celebrates the homeliness of a rural winter evening. Celebrating a Thoreau like version of simple country life, the etching highlights the ‘lacework’ of trees visible during the winter months.
Book artist and photographer Jill Timm also celebrates the wonder of winter in three very different books. Winter White is a jewel like miniature book that features detail photographed of frost and ice on the winter landscape, a different kind of lacework than that depicted by Henry Farrar. The small book accordion fold book also can be pulled out to display snowflake cutouts on the interior.
Winter Elk highlights a different book structure, a 3D tunnel book, along with panoramic style photographs on an elk herd in winter. Tunnel books were popular in the 19th and 20th century as a way to give a sense of space and movement to photographs and Jill Timm’s version of is beautifully constructed.
Lastly, Nature’s Verses is a one of kind book Timm created, inspired by beautiful handmade papers. She augmented these papers with collage and other media and paired the pages with poems by various author’s that celebrated the seasons and beauty of nature, including the Snow Fairy by Claude McKay.