LJI Minor+ 3: Ways of Seeing

This is my entry for Week 3 of LJ Minor Plus (http://therealljidol.dreamwidth.org). The topic this week is "Intaglio." There will be no voting. You can read the other entries here: https://therealljidol.dreamwidth.org/1105950.html

Cabin with Mountains, print by Vivian Starr

Ways of Seeing
(for Vivian Starr)

Six years ago, my Mom collapsed
and woke in the spirit world. She left behind
her dreams, etched and inked, drawn
in chalky pastels, brushed in paint
across canvas and paper. I became
her art historian, cataloging
her work. She spoke to me
through process. Her sketches,
studies, and tests. Trying out
material, techniques.

Her lifelong love expanded
into print making. Block prints,
linocuts, monotypes. A lonely cabin,
carved into linoleum, used to create
both black and white
and full-color prints.

The black one, deep and pensive. White
flecks of grass, angled
and orderly fields, a massive
mountain range, rising ominously
behind a mysterious cabin, its uneven
walls, falling into its secrets.

The color print, lively
and inviting. The cabin walls,
violet as the mountain, ridged
against a triumphant cerulean sky.
Green fields behind a dried brown
expanse of grass. A violet
creek, with red highlights,
pulling reflection
from a red tiled roof.

Studying this linocut, I can see
her hands stained with tint, biting
her lip in concentration. In these moments,
she returns to me.

- November 15, 2021

My mother passed away on November 15, 2015, about a week and a half before Thanksgiving, still my hardest holiday.

Cabin with Mountains, in color, print by Vivian Starr