Watertower, Mendocino

 

Emmy Lou Packard

  1914 - 1998 (biography)

1973  

color woodcut 

36 11/16 x 11 3/16" image size 

pencil, lower right 

proof from archives 

pencil titled, dated, "archives -1973 edition"; see notes 

Natsoulas catalog, page 38, illustrated, b&w 

antique white Japanese hosho 

published 

artist 

STCH106 

SOLD

This impression, from Packard's archive, is annotated by Packard in the lower margin: “black was combination of job black from Calif Ink Co. printed by the Mendocino Beacon in 1970; The oil base ink has bled, creating a yellow border around black (in 3 years). The purple-brown overlay and the tan weeds and black clouds printed on the Wright Press in my studio with the assistance of Mary Colm. (Except for wood grain "clouds" - those done by hand by me. E.L.P.)” Emmy Lou Packard, born in 1914 in El Centro, Imperial Valley, California, was one of the most famous American fresco artists and printmaking pioneers of the 20th Century. Packard's visual expression and courageous voice earned her international recognition as an artist and activist for peace. Marked by an early encounter with Mexican muralist Diego Rivera, her trajectory evolved from assisting Rivera with mural painting, to her own painting and print exhibitions and fresco projects. This revolutionary influence allowed for her vocal and uncompromising disapproval of several issues, including human rights violations, WWII and the American-Soviet "Cold" and Vietnam wars. Before her formal art education, Packard studied under Rivera in Mexico, from 1927-1928. She received her B.A. from UC Berkeley in 1936, and went onto study at the California School of Fine Arts. In 1940 she assisted Rivera in creating the 1,650 square foot fresco at the GGIE, and returned with him to Mexico City, where she was a guest of Rivera and Frida Khalo. During WWII she worked for a Richmond, CA., newspaper as a writer and illustrator; during this time she also took on roles in human rights activism, fighting for the rights of women and children, and steadfastly supporting the leadership of Cesar Chavez. Meanwhile, Packard's studies of the Mendocino Headlands for her artwork eventually inspired her to become a key promoter in the establishment of the headlands as a National Park.