I learned about artist Ellen Heck on Blurb. Her book, Forty Fridas is currently featured in the Blurb Bookstore. I’m a huge fan of contemporary portraits as well as Frida Kahlo. This touching series is striking not just for its subject matter but also the technique. From Ellen Heck’s website:
Forty Fridas is a series of forty woodcut etchings depicting women and girls dressed up as painter/icon, Frida Kahlo. This project, while in some respects a very intimate collection of personal portraits, touches more broadly on themes of identity, the multiple, individuality and variation. With this portfolio, as with much of my current body of work, I am using the printmaking process to highlight these concepts, which are referenced both in the subject matter and the medium.
This is one of my favorite images from this project.
The subject is named Alice but somehow I see a bit of Brooklyn in her face, don’t you?