Print of the Day!! Thurs, Mar. 28, 2024 is by Sylvia Solochek Walters (born 1938): "Corona Spring"; color reduction woodcut, 2021, 5/12.

Print of the Day!! Thursday, March 28, 2024 is by American printmaker Sylvia Solochek Walters (born 1938).

"Corona Spring" is a color relief print, a reduction color woodcut with stencils, done in 2021 by printmaker - teacher Sylvia Solochek Walters (born 1938). The image measures 12-3/4 x 16-15/16 inches. This impression is pencil signed, titled, dated, and editioned "5/12", by the artist in the lower margin. It was printed by the artist on a sheet of soft ivory laid Japanese paper that measures 18-1/2 x 22 inches. The gallery inventory number for this work is SYWA105.

Shipping costs will be discussed. California residents will have sales tax added. Out of state residents may be responsible for use tax, depending on state law. Sylvia Solochek Walters learned the technique of color reduction woodcut while studying at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, from printmaker Alfred Sessler, considered by many to be the originator of the reduction woodcut in the U.S.

Walters' work began in the late 1950s with strong black and white figurative compositions, and gradually became incorporated more subtle narratives. She developed an inventive technique with stencils, which allowed her to use a full color palette in her prints using a single block of wood.

Walters commented on "Corona Spring": "Flowers have been a recurring motif in much of my work, and over the years have served as metaphors for the good life, for joy and celebration, as well as for death, and all of the passages in-between. In Coronoa Spring the central black and gray roses were meant to underline the despair of the pandemic year. Surrounding them, the cumulative horrors of the time are suggested: the spiraling spread of infection, masking, daily death statistics, lockdowns, turbulent politics and threats to democracy, racial injustice, global warming and in the end - total breakdown of daily life. A small, but thriving pink rose near the lower margin, and bustling garden activity above and around the central Capitol building imply the ebb and flow of life. The print proposes that these horrors may subside in time and give way to healing -- and to life."

"Corona Spring" was conceived in spring of 2020 and took about 15 months to complete. The Coronavirus continues to mutate and wreak its destruction of human life worldwide.

Sylvia Solochek Walters (née Solochek), printmaker, educator,?and administrator, was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on 24 August 1938. She completed her undergraduate and graduate degrees (B.S., M.S., M.F.A.) at the University of Wisconsin at Madison and began her teaching career in 1963. She taught painting, printmaking, and art history for several years at public and private colleges in Wisconsin, Nebraska, and New York State.

Walters moved to St. Louis, Missouri in 1967 eventually joining the staff at the University of Missouri where she founded and chaired the art department, and, for ten years served as gallery director. In that capacity she developed public panel discussions and exhibitions such as American Women Printmakers (1975) which included work by Louise Nevelson, Judy Chicago, and Pat Steir. In 1984, Walters was invited to join the faculty and to chair the art department at San Francisco State University. She was chairwoman until 2004 and was awarded Professor Emerita status in 2009.?

While she taught relief printmaking at San Francisco State University, Walters produced a body of highly detailed reductive woodcuts. Her work, which began in the late 1950s with strong black and white figurative compositions, gradually incorporated more subtle narratives. She developed an inventive technique combining stencil and wood that allowed her to use a full color palette in her prints while using a single block of wood.

Walters is a member of and has exhibited with the California Society of Printmakers and her work has been featured in over 300 exhibitions. She received awards from the Southern Graphics Council International, Northern California Print Competition, Colorprint USA, Vermillion, and the St. Louis Artists' Guild. Walters was also the recipient of two grants from the National Endowment for the Arts.

To purchase this work, see other works, or read a biography for Sylvia Solochek Walters use this link to our website: https://www.annexgalleries.com/inventory/artist/2475/Walters/Sylvia

Use this link to view our complete inventory on our website: https://www.annexgalleries.com/inventory?