CPC Small Print Show: Ruth Moscovitch

This blog is part of a series of interviews of participating artists / printmakers in the Chicago Printmakers Collaborative Small Print Show.

A life-long Chicagoan, Ruth Moscovitch recently moved with her husband to the New York metropolitan area. A founding member of the Chicago Printmakers Workshop in the early 1970s, a former attorney, and a printmaker, she currently works with two New York printmaking groups -- the Manhattan Graphics Center and the Robert Blackburn Printmaking Workshop. In her prints, she tries to capture the visual landscapes of Chicago and Manhattan, and the industrial landscapes of New Jersey. She uses traditional etching techniques, including intaglio, aquatint, chine-collé, soft and hard grounds, drypoint, and spit bite.

Ruth Moscovitch. Neighborhood Castles. 2008.

"I love vintage buildings and water towers. I use subtle colors and textures to express the feel of old bricks and stone including old lace curtains and other fabrics and even Bounty paper towels. I like the whimsy for example of a terracotta Greek temple sitting atop a dinghy old commercial building or the fanciful details that make an ordinary apartment building seem like a fortified castle. I also like buildings that have been recycled: the bank that is now a community ballroom; the elegant façade that now houses a currency exchange. The other landscapes that draw me are the vast open spaces near these cities. Riding the train into Manhattan from New Jersey, I am fascinated by the open wetlands, dotted with bridges, decaying factories and marching columns of towers carrying high tension power lines. In Illinois, there is the flat, flat prairie, where barns and silos, instead of tall buildings, dominate the view."

Ruth Moscovitch. Water Towers. 2008.

Ruth's exhibitions include prints on display at Café Selmarie in Lincoln Square, Chicago, 2008; solo shows at Harold Washington College, Chicago, and Manhattan Graphics Center, New York City, 2007 and 2008; groups shows at Chicago Printmakers Collaborative, Manhattan Graphics Center, Spring Street Studio in Manhattan, Siren's Song Gallery in Greenport, NY, and the Art Studio in Brookside, New Jersey.

For more information on Ruth and her art, go to http://www.ruthmoscovitch.com/.