Raptor Rapture

Janet Turner

Chico, California printmaker/teacher Janet Turner began combining printmaking techniques in the mid 1950s and by the 1960s was making it integral to her images, as with this composition, done in 1976 in a variant edition of 160. She used both color linocut, a relief process, and screenprinting (serigraphy), a stencil process. She signed this adding the abbreviations "NA" indicating her membership in the National Academy, and "imp" which indicates that she printed the impression herself.

A pair of bald eagles have scored a meal, a large fish, and are perched in a tree as they prepare to dine. Their always intense stares do not indicate if the meal will be shared or fought over.

Turner's subjects were often informed by the world of nature and wild creatures, especially the avian members. Turner commented about her work: "...My work comes from my evolving knowledge of social, biological and ecological relationships. My observations through my art have led to new awareness and have increased my sense of amazement, wonder, my concern about man's impact on the world, a feeling perhaps imperfectly conveyed to others. I am awed by the richness of nature, interested in details of fur and feathers, which have meaning because they evolved from the relationship of one thing to another..."