Euphorbe arboricole, (diptych) 2020, edition of 1
Reduction linocuts creating a conjoined print
Cloth bound artist’s book
Background prints 46 h x 58” w – open book 27 h x 48 w x 10” d
Inspired by a trip to southern France, this diptych was created in order to recapture the memory of a day beside the sea where Cleopatra butterflies floated beside huge tree Euphorbias.
It’s our pleasure to introduce NEBA’s Featured Member for December, Rebecca Goodale. This artist and educator has a stellar reputation in the field of book arts. Her impressive body of work includes unique and limited edition books, collaborative book projects and installations with other artists, as well as large printed wall pieces. She has had over two dozen solo exhibits and has participated in over sixty group shows. Additionally, she has been the recipient of numerous awards, grants, and fellowships, and has been awarded the title of Maine Master Craft Artist.
Calla palustris, 2020, 2/2
Dry point etchings
Cloth bound artist’s book
Open book 15 h x 50 w x 11” d – Closed Book 15 x 11 x ¾” d
Rebecca reflects, “walking in the woods this past spring at the onset of the Covid 19 pandemic was a contemplative part of each day. Although I had seen this wild plant before, it was not until April that I found it in a bog in a neighboring town, Harpswell. I went several times to draw the plant as it grew and then settled on this view of it in full bloom.”
Over the course of her four decades-long career, she has taught Book Arts and Design at the University of Southern Maine, playing a key role in the advancement and expansion of the book arts. She has also served as the program coordinator for the Kate Cheney Chappell ’83 Center for Book Arts at the University of Southern Maine in Portland and was the Faculty Director of the university’s Summer Book Arts Program. On the occasion of her retirement and in recognition of her exceptional contributions to the book arts at USM, the university has established The Rebecca Goodale Book Arts Scholarship in her honor.
Goodale majored in Printmaking at the Portland School of Art, Portland, ME and studied with Barbara Shawcroft at the Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts. She received her Bachelor’s of Fine Arts with a major in Textile Design from the Memphis College of Art in Memphis, TN. She did graduate studies at the Cranbrook Academy of Art, Bloomfield Hills, MI. At Parsons School of Design in Lake Placid, NY she studied Concepts in Clothing with Judith Shea. She also studied Book Arts with Keith Smith at the Visual Studies Workshop, Rochester, NY. Her work is housed in numerous, distinguished collections including: Bowdoin College Library, Brunswick, ME; Maine Women Writers Collection at UNE; Boston Athenaeum, New York Public Library; Herron Art Library, IN; Yale University, New Haven, CT; Harvard University, Cambridge, MA; Library of Congress, Washington, DC, and Portland Museum of Art in ME.
Nature is the leitmotif of her work. Exquisitely crafted, her books are made using various printmaking techniques including drypoint etchings, chine colle, silkscreen, linocuts and wood blocks. Her buoyant shapes and repeating forms, accentuated by beautiful hues, celebrate the plants and animals for which she has such love.
Day Lilies, 2019, set of 5
Hand-colored silkscreen prints on corrugated cardboard
5 interlocking books
variable sizes roughly 36 h x 72 w x 48″ d
For Rebecca, “these lilies in the summer are ubiquitous, often they remain at old foundations, or they have migrated to the edge of the road or the into the middle of a wild field. They are lovely and ordinary at once- like the warm color of cardboard and the material itself.”
Archilocus colubris, 2020, edition of 2
Reduction linocuts with chiné colle
Cloth bound artist’s book
Calligraphy by Jan Owen (Belfast, ME)
Poem by Lisa May Hibl (Woolwich, ME)
Open book 48 h x 24” w – closed book in clamshell box 11.5 h x 7.5 w x 1.5” d, wall hung
Rebecca’s friend Lisa Hibl wrote this beautiful poem about a hummingbird, and she gave her permission to integrate into an artist’s book. She created a view of her own garden and left the sky above blue- a perfect spot for the poem and the extraordinary calligraphy of Jan Owen.
One of these books is now part of the Hawthorne Longfellow Library’s Special Collections at Bowdoin College, Brunswick, ME
New England Book Artists is excited to have Rebecca as a member. Her comments about NEBA speaks to a hopeful future, “Often artists work alone in their studios, and now, during the pandemic we are isolated more than ever. There is comfort in the collegiality between members, and there is encouragement to carry on during these times of gallery, museum and institutional shutdowns.” Thank you, Rebecca!