Award winning artist and printmaker Shirley Bernstein will be an honored participant in a three year in the making collaboration with her contemporary group Printmakers Network of Southern New England. The show will open March 24, 2022 and run till January 23, 2023. Inspired by Twain’s writings and quotes and his connection to the many varying aspects of the human condition, the artists have sought to connect with his themes and commentary. In so doing, each artist has chosen a Twain quote as an inspiration for their work. Shirley choose the Twain quote, “The air there in the clouds is very pure and fine, bracing and delicious. And why shouldn’t it be?…
It is the same the angels breathe.” Understandable when one sees the ten 12” by12” woodcuts that celebrate the skies in all their magnificent variety that the artist will be offering in this show.
Shirley was a founding member of this group some 30 years ago and they have a well respected reputation for helping to manifest an understanding of printmaking through exhibits, demonstrations, and as a tool used in Physical Therapy. This collection includes a variety of printing creations that hope to challenge and inspire the audience to think and feel the many ways we connect, not just with Twain’s writings, but with each other. Bernstein’s reductive woodcuts are invitations to ponder the world above us. She has a colorful approach to her art, a moment’s glimpse into the richness found in the ever changing sky.
The reductive woodcut process requires not only talent, but patience as well. Starting with a wood block, the artist cuts away, using carving tools, the areas not to be printed. Each inked color requires the artist to eliminate more wood. The more colors, the more cuts. Each color is then registered on the same piece of paper and run through the hand press. It is a lengthy process and requires skillful forethought and patience. The end product is a rich homage to the ever presence of beauty often unnoticed and taken for granted. More information about Shirley is available in her bio and on her website, shirleybernstein.com.
Shirley Bernstein was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She earned her BFA at the University of the Arts (formerly Philadelphia College of Art) and earned her MFA from Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana. She majored in printmaking and minored in painting and drawing. She has been a Hampton resident since 1989.
Shirley has an extensive exhibition record that includes both her oil pastels and prints and has shown her work both nationally and internationally. Her work is in the collections of Pacific Rim International Print collection, The Newport Museum, Robert Blackburn Collection at the Library of Congress, Slater Museum, Indiana University Museum, National Museum of Women in the Arts, Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts, Union Carbide Corp., Neiman Marcus, Arjo Wiggins, Eastern Connecticut State University, Wheaton College Rare Books, Staubiz Design, Dodd Center, Fletcher Memorial Library, Special Collections at UCONN, Fairfield University, McNeese State University, The Newark Library and Syracuse University, as well as private collections in the U.S., Europe and the Middle East.
While keeping up with a busy exhibition schedule, Shirley was also a dedicated college art professor. She received the Teaching Excellence Award at Quinebaug Valley Community College where she retired from in 2013. She has also taught at the University of Connecticut, Eastern Connecticut State University, New York City’s Cooper Union and Fashion Institute, Indiana University, Kean University in New Jersey, Beaver College and University of the Arts in Pennsylvania, and Knoxville College in Tennessee.
Wayne Erskine
An upcoming issue will feature another artist, Lula Blocton, who will be exhibiting in New York.