Description
About this piece:
This series was conceived during the COVID pandemic and developed over three years. It includes nine reduction prints, each depicting a moon phase paired with a native plant, connected by a thread of stars across the background. Printed using a three-color reduction process, the works were designed to hang together as a unified series. All three sets have been exhibited locally and sold to private collectors in handmade birch floating frames. Single-color impressions pulled earlier in the process preserved the block’s integrity before details were carved away. These prints were later bound into accordion-style books with laser-engraved luan covers, extending the imagery into a new form of storytelling. Created during a time of isolation, this ambitious project became both a grounding practice and a way to focus my hands and mind amid uncertainty.
Materials:
paper,wood, ink
About the artist:
Liz Urse (she/her) is an Appalachian artist, printmaker, and art professor from West Virginia. Her layered works on paper explore memory, fleeting moments, and the natural world. Extending her practice into repurposed textiles, she transforms familiar materials through hand-carved, block-printed patterns that become wearable narratives. She often incorporates prints into handmade books and collage, expanding how print can carry story and meaning. Her single-color moon prints elevate an intermediate step of the reduction process into finished works. Urse has also written an unpublished children’s book rooted in place, narrative, and Appalachia, reflecting her interest in storytelling across visual and written forms. Her art echoes the resilience of place and community, treating making as both remembrance and renewal. In an age of instant imagery, printmaking allows her to slow down, honor process, and create space for reflection within contemporary art.
