Vanishing Viano

         Welcome to the April A to Z Blog Challenge!  My theme this year is Relief Printed Alphabet Squared, an alphabet of alphabets illustrated with relief block prints.  You can find the master list of participating blogs here, and see what other alphabetized themes people are blogging about.

        Just a little late for Earth Day, I’m starting today with a hand-colored linocut alphabet of Vanishing Wildlife by Leslie Evans.  Sadly, picking only endangered species doesn’t constrain the choice too much, and many of the same creatures that appear in other animal alphabets are here, too.  Also sadly, many of the pictures posted on-line are far too small to appreciate the details.  V (Vicuña) is one of those.  It also made it a little hard to pick favorites when I can’t really see them very well.  So I give you D (Komodo Dragon), N (Numbat), and also L (Lemur), which is one of the few posted large enough to enjoy.

        The alphabet by Hanah Viano is another for which I’m bending the rules.  These illustrations are not relief block prints, but papercuts.  Although obviously it’s a very different medium, like scratchboard it shares with relief printing some of the approach: you have to think about your design subtractively.  Instead of putting in the lines and shapes you want, as you do with drawing, painting, and most other media, you have to cut away everything that isn’t the lines and shapes you want.  This similarity of approach gives papercut a certain similarity in appearance to block printing, and therefore I sometimes let it sneak into this blog.  (As, for 

example, in this previous post.)  Viano’s Natural Alphabet has Violet for V, but for my favorite letter I’ve picked P for Pebble.  I love pebbles.  Lots of people love pebbles.  And yet, how often do we celebrate them by giving them a whole letter in an alphabet?

        Finally, today’s bonus alphabet is by Dione Verulam.  Her alphabet features activities which, presumably, are part of her everyday life.  Of course, since she’s a countess her everyday life doesn’t always look much like mine!  I have previously shared I and P from this linocut alphabet, and today I have V for Visiting.  However, my favorites are N for Needlework and R for Reading.  I like the layering of patterns, and the series of noble portraits on the library wall.

        The moral of V is to get serious about conservation.  We do not want to lose these animals!  After all, variety is the spice of life (and of healthy ecosystems, so actually life itself).

        And also, never forget to notice and appreciate the pebbles of joy.

        So, what’s your favorite hobby or activity?

[Pictures: Vicuña, Dragon, Numbat, Lemur, hand-colored linocuts by Leslie Evans (Images from Etsy shop SeaDogPress);

Violet, Pebble, papercuts by Hanah Viano from B is for Bear: A Natural Alphabet, 2015;

Visiting, Needlework, Reading, linocuts by Dione Verulam, before 2010 (Images from dioneverulam.com).]