Fun with Spears

         Ethel Spears (USA, 1903-1974) was primarily known for her whimsical paintings and murals usually featuring lots of people doing lots of activities.  But she also made quite a few linoleum block prints, and these too tend to have a gently humorous charm.  I’ve picked three to share today that have a little bit of range of subject matter and style.  First up is one that’s a little more in keeping with the paintings that made her famous: an urban or suburban scene of people busy about their daily lives, in this case walking along the sidewalk in front of a tall house.  The people don’t have a lot of detail, but they’ve got personality, and the house has all kinds of little textural details.  One thing I find interesting is that while the borders across the top and bottom have a tidy geometric pattern, the borders on the sides seem to be almost as rough and random as the texture carving out the background.  I can’t help wondering whether this is one of those instances where Spears made an error in what she intended to carve, and had to make a virtue of necessity and change her design.  If so, it goes to show what I always tell students, which is that it can still end up fine even if it’s not

what you originally intended, and most people won’t even notice that it was a “mistake.”  But there is another definite mistake in this piece: the address is backwards above the front door!  I especially love the tree and the tall front steps.

        These delightful fish are a lot of fun, with their bold outlines, geometric textures, and funky forms.  I love the surprise of the starbursts in the background, and the curly organic form in front of the lower fish.  Given that the title indicates Spears saw these fish in the Field Museum, Chicago’s natural history museum, I wonder whether she was making sketches during a visit, or whether this was based on memory.

        And finally we have an interior scene, once again characterized by bold outlines, strong forms, and lots of rough patterns.  The small credenza has lots of knick-knacks, as well as a vase of flowers and a bowl of fruit, and it looks like there are venetian blinds in the background.  It feels like a cozy and comfortable home.  Wouldn’t it be fun if it were inside the house in the first piece?  But it was made 14 years later, so there’s no reason to think there’s any connection at all.  I especially like the big insect on the top shelf.  Is it a praying mantis?

        Spears is one of those artists whose style is so different from mine, much rougher and more stylized, and I admire how natural it obviously is for her.  What she and I seem to have in common is a delight in the world around us.  I enjoy these very much.

[Pictures: 654 N. Michigan, linocut by Ethel Spears, 1947;

Field Museum Fish, linocut by Spears, 1959;

Interior, linocut by Spears, 1961 (all images from Foltz Fine Art).]