PATTERN - SCAPES

Cape Ann artists Julia Garrison and Mary Rhinelander explore the virtuosity of the linoleum block print with a focus on Cape Ann in a show they call Pattern-scapes. Building on the art form and tradition of Cape Ann's Folly Cove Designers, both women are creating work on fabric and framed work to be hung on the wall made specfically for this show. Their single and multiple color block prints feature patterns and landscapes in various shapes and sizes. They will also display tools and some of the blocks themselves, so visitors get a sense of what is involved in the often meticulous craft of carving.

Julia Garrison has a background in textile design with a degree from Massachusetts College of Art. Julia has kept the art and sensibility of the Folly Cove Designers alive by continuing to operate the Sarah Elizabeth Shop in Rockport, MA. Started in 1974 by Sarah Elizabeth, who joined the Folly Cove Designers in 1942, the shop acquired its 150-year old Acorn press from Eino Natti, another Folly Cove Designer, who used it to print his linoleum blocks and for printing demonstrations at the Folly Cove Designers barn until they disbanded in 1969. When Sarah Elizabeth retired in 2002 she left her shop in the hands of Isabel Natti, Eino's neice. Julia Garrison now prints her own work on the historic Acorn Press along with the designs of Isabel Natti and Sarah Elizabeth Holloran (1917-2009).

Mary Rhinelander comes to lino-cut via traditional printmaking training and an MFA from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston and a BA in Visual and Environmental Studies from Harvard College in Cambridge. She has exhibited in several solo shows in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia and Cambridge MA. Her most recent exhibition in July 2013 was a contemporary art installation called Collection/Reflection at the Cape Ann Museum's White Elery House in Gloucester.