The launch of the Two Dahlias edition coincides with the April 2010 issue of Lucky Magazine just now hitting stands - look for The Working Proof and Frances Pelzman Liscio's Two Dahlias print on page 44 of the magazine: "Art, Commerce and a Cause", featured in Lucky's new "Give Back" section. In celebration, and to thank you for your support since our launch back in October, we are offering FREE SHIPPING on all domestic orders placed now through noon (EST) on Wednesday, March 10th. Thank you for all of your support of The Working Proof!
Two Dahlias, by
Frances Pelzman Liscio.
15% of the gross sale of this print goes to
Puppies Behind Bars.
Frances Pelzman Liscio has had her work showcased in hundreds of group and solo shows. Her work has been published in fine art and design magazines including Traditional Home and Martha Stewart Living and is included in hundreds of private collections. A series of her images were selected by the teNeues fine art publishing company for featured boxed notecards available in their 2009/2010 catalogue. Ms. Liscio was recently commissioned to create a book cover for a Greywolf Publishing author in their Spring 2010 catalogue. She lives and works in Montclair, New Jersey.
Ms. Liscio holds a degree in printmaking, photography and illustration from Manhattanville College. She has studied printmaking with John Ross Sr., photography with Sean Kernan, Eva Rubenstein, Lisette Model, and John Loengard, digital darkroom and printing technologies with Jay Seldin, and botanical illustration with Deirdre Newman.
About the print:This piece is called
Two Dahlias. It incorporates bits of botanica that I saved until they became dry, curled, and mottled. It also uses fresh blooms– dahlias, kalanchoe, violas, and Christmas Cactus. The two large blooms are fresh, but softening and wilting. The viburnum leaf has already changed color and achieved a burnished look – all the detail and veining becomes more visible, and the oak leaf is quite dry. The bittersweet that crowns the image is an invasive non-native plant, but the berries are beautiful: almost incendiary in their hot coral.
I created this work on an Epson Perfection 4490 Photographic scanner. I originally started xeroxing and scanning images many years ago simply because I could not afford a good 8x10 view camera, and I wanted to get closer up to my images. But I also love the unique quality a good scanner brings to the final image. I do very little to the work once it is created, aside from cleaning up the cat hairs (I have four cats) and the pollen from the finished images. Most of the work is done before the image is scanned, with tweezers and manicure scissors, and the baskets and trays full of botanica and natura that fill my studio.
What has inspired you recently?Milkweed pods. I just love them. I have responded to botanicals since I was very young. I have always planted things, even as a toddler. I love plants and feel very close to them. When I walk in my garden I thank the plants for existing and for sharing their beauty with us. As plants age and rot I find them just as beautiful and just as fascinating.
Why did you choose to pair Puppies Behind Bars with your print?When prisoners work with dogs, training the dogs to help others, a transformation can take place that benefits the world and can help to process and transform some of the pain and despair around us. This is true for botanicals. They bloom, they go to seed, they become desiccated, they are consumed with mold, and then they transform – new life starts over and over.
How have you seen art transform the world around you?In 1992 Vedran Smajlović played Albinoni's Adagio in G minor on his cello among the shattered buildings of Sarajevo at various times throughout the day, to honor the twenty-two people who had been killed while lining up for bread at 10:00am. He wasn't afraid. He defied the god of war by honoring the power and the beauty of music.
If you could pick one artist to mentor you, who would it be?Sally Mann. Her images of her children in their environment, enrobed with nightblooming cereus, asleep and awake or sprawled in a channel of mud, erase the window between the photographer and the subject. She understands the natural world. Her images are beautiful, she has a fine eye – she is a superb artist.
Who are some artists you think people should know about?Stefanie Nagorka creates biomorphic ceramic pieces that suggest disembodied, moving, startling life. She also creates cast and gilded pieces that ask us to notice and contemplate the forgotten detritus of our culture; in the same way I examine the wilted and shriveled botanicals with the same enthusiasm we usually reserve only for fresh blossoms.
