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joanc.bsky.social
Joan Colbert
@joanc.bsky.social
280 followers 280 following 190 posts
artist • reader • gardener • progressive
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joanc.bsky.social
True, and not surprising to readers of @sarahkendzior@bsky.social
A stack of books necessary for (re)reading in these times, including Sarah Kendzior’s The View from Flyover Country, Hiding in Plain Sight, They Knew, and The Last American Road Trip, along with Timothy Snyder’s On Tyranny
November 8, 2025 at 3:02 PM
joanc.bsky.social
Deco
2-color linocut, hand embellished

Created for the Summit Artspace Still Serving Artists Campaign, Deco was inspired by one of the subtle, yet lovely details from the building’s art deco facade.
#printmaking #linocut #art #artdeco
Series of relief print process images: linoleum carving, inking, and printing 2-color relief print linocut inspired by an art deco floral design; printed in black and grey, the symmetrical image is divided along a curve with added flower petals.
November 5, 2025 at 5:25 PM
joanc.bsky.social
Trick. . . or treat? Though it appears to be a Shaggy Parasol Mushroom, Chlorophyllum rhacodes, in the garden, some deception might be afoot. C. molybdites, the False Parasol, is a look alike. AKA the Vomiter Mushroom - not fatal, but victims can expect to feel like death.
Happy Halloween! 🌱🍄‍🟫💀
Brown and tan mushroom. It has a shaggy cap with dark brown flecks, mainly in the center. Trick. . . or treat? Even though it appears to be a Shaggy Parasol Mushroom, Chlorophyllum rhacodes, that recently popped up in the garden, some deception might be afoot. Chlorophyllum molybdites, the False Parasol, is a look alike, so common in yards and gardens that it’s the most eaten poisonous mushroom in North America. Also called the Vomiter Mushroom, it’s generally not fatal, though victims can expect to feel like death. Happy Halloween!
October 31, 2025 at 12:42 PM
joanc.bsky.social
moments to savor ~ mid-day on the towpath 🍃🍂
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#bassethound #SummitMetroParks #CuyahogaValleyNationalPark #OhioErieCanalTowpathTrail #prettyPenny
Penny, the basset hound, pauses during a walk on the Towpath Trail alongside the Cuyahoga/Little Cuyahoga Rivers. The clear blue of the September sky is gorgeous; there's a hint of autumn even though leaves are still green.
September 13, 2025 at 2:58 PM
joanc.bsky.social
rabbit rabbit . . .
drawing by Nick Price, UK artist and illustrator
The Wind in the Willows, 2009 Dalmatian Press
(thanks @cherylatownsend)
Black and white line drawing of rabbits watching a horse-drawn cart, followed by Toad, Rat, and Mole, pass by on a lovely spring day. 'Waving rabbits said, "Oh, my! Oh, my!"'
May 1, 2025 at 2:57 PM
joanc.bsky.social
Poke.Salad
Pokeweed, Phytolacca americana
relief print

A new addition to my ongoing series of poisonous plants, As Potent as a Charm: really, why resist the connection to Tony Joe White’s late 60s hit song, Polk Salad Annie?!
#linocut #printmaking #art
Black and white relief print of pokeweed with an alligator lurking below. Freshly carved linoleum for a print of pokeweed and an alligator.
April 23, 2025 at 8:22 PM
joanc.bsky.social
Hey, Akron, that was inspiring!
Well over a thousand people came out for HandsOff and the drive-by support on West Market Street was astounding.
Thanks to Susan H. and Colleen, wearing her superb hat, for the photos.
. . .
#handsoff
People and signs line the street for the HandsOff rally HandsOff: voting rights, free speech, immigrants, LGBTQ+, our democracy, and our future sign HandsOff hat - tiny hand with hands off the constitution! tops a red, white, and blue straw fedora
April 6, 2025 at 3:03 AM
joanc.bsky.social
rabbit rabbit
Penny's bunny friend is back! It's becoming a spring tradition: same spot, same odd choice - right under the nose of a basset hound. Yesterday the area she was excavating up against the house was visible; now it's nearly impossible to see any sign of a nest. Good job!
Eastern cottontail rabbit gathering and carrying dried grasses for her nest.
April 1, 2025 at 1:17 PM
joanc.bsky.social
Slava Ukraini 🇺🇦
PAX
Stanley Donwood screenprint
(Fundraiser for Ukraine) 2022
PAX screenprint by Stanley Donwood from a 2022 fundraiser for Ukraine - a blue and yellow version of the earlier CNUT/Canute linocut, matted and framed.
March 1, 2025 at 9:19 PM
joanc.bsky.social
Slava Ukraini 🇺🇦
PAX
Stanley Donwood screenprint
(Fundraiser for Ukraine) 2022
PAX, a blue and yellow screenprint by Stanley Donwood, inspired by King Cnut the great (Canute) ordering the waters to recede.
March 1, 2025 at 9:16 PM
joanc.bsky.social
rabbit rabbit

image: Spirit Animal ~ Rabbit
Susan Seddon Boulet (1941 - 1997)
magical rabbit as a spirit animal within its own spherical landscape with rising sun and orbs; fanciful palette of greens, golds, and earth tones
March 1, 2025 at 4:41 PM
joanc.bsky.social
February 26, 2025 at 1:22 PM
joanc.bsky.social
RIP Tom Robbins
1932 - 2025
". . . it's fraught, simply fraught, with significance."
#tomrobbins #skinnylegsandall 💙📚
They did, however, chatter about another piece of Boomer's, something the museum apparently had purchased out of the Sommervell show. It was, as they described it, a huge, welded steel coathanger, maybe six feet long. Folded over its bar was a flat, deflated skyscraper, sewn out of canvas, its windows, entranceways, and other architectural features painted on. The piece was hanging from the ceiling, and there was a card on the wall that listed Boomer's name, the materials he had used, and the title. The title was Donald Trump's Pants Come Back From the Cleaners. "Obviously," said Ellen Cherry, in a mock Ultima accent, "it's fraught, simply fraught, with significance."
February 10, 2025 at 11:25 PM
joanc.bsky.social
RIP Tom Robbins
1932 - 2025
The denizens of the grate are sad as can be. 💙📚
#tomrobbins #skinnylegsandall
Painted Stick, Dirty Sock, Can o' Beans, Conch Shell, and Spoon - characters in Tom Robbins' Skinny Legs and All
February 10, 2025 at 10:07 PM
joanc.bsky.social
Cheeto, happy to strike a pose, even while napping
#caturday #catnap
Cheeto, the orange tabby cat, curled up with front paws over his tail for a little catnap
February 1, 2025 at 4:28 PM
joanc.bsky.social
Late for the holidays, but just in time for
Winter Greetings amid a January thaw!
Dulce Domum
relief print
inspired by The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame
#printmaking #reliefprint #linocut #thewindinthewillows #dulcedomum #KennethGrahame
A black and white relief print of a little black mole, dressed in a herringbone vest and muffler, happy to be 'home sweet home'
January 30, 2025 at 2:48 AM
joanc.bsky.social
Part of my series of poisonous botanicals, Suspects, is inspired by Castor Bean, Ricinus communis, with a nod to the 1978 'umbrella murder' of Bulgarian dissident, Georgi Markov, in London. Neurotoxins found in the seeds are 500 times more poisonous than cyanide.
🌱 #art #woodblock&linocut
Three relief prints (linocut) of large castor bean leaves and background umbrellas and raindrops; mainly black & white with red accents
November 12, 2024 at 12:56 AM
joanc.bsky.social
🌱It’s November in northeast Ohio and the castor bean plant, Ricinus communis, is still towering over the garden, though at first frost its giant leaves will droop and fold up like umbrellas. The contrast between planting directly in the garden with the container plant in foreground is remarkable.
A castor bean that is nearly 12 feet tall with umbrella-size palmate leaves. Looking up in a 12 foot castor bean plant; seeds are along the center stalk and the palmate leaves appear in various green hues.
November 12, 2024 at 12:56 AM
joanc.bsky.social
Penny with a perfect autumn backdrop
Basset hound with a background of autumn trees, a river, and blue sky
November 7, 2024 at 12:08 AM
joanc.bsky.social
Penny’s perfect backdrop ~ mid-day on the towpath 🍂
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#bassethound #SummitMetroParks #CuyahogaValleyNationalPark
#OhioErieCanalTowpathTrail #prettypenny
a basset hound next to the Cuyahoga River on a lovely autumn day
October 30, 2024 at 6:52 PM
joanc.bsky.social
Magical, even when the view north is minimal!

#northernlights #aurora #auroraborealis
northern lights in northeast Ohio
October 11, 2024 at 11:10 AM
joanc.bsky.social
Noooooo!
darling baby basset hound
August 29, 2024 at 8:21 PM
joanc.bsky.social
from Let America Be America Again, Langston Hughes, 1938

Langston Hughes (1902 - 1967)
woodcut by
Antonio Frasconi (1919 - 2013)
Woodcut of mother and children with urban background by Antonio Frasconi to accompany Langston Hughes' poem, Let America Be America Again
July 4, 2024 at 3:36 PM
joanc.bsky.social
". . . Let America be the dream the dreamers dreamed—
Let it be that great strong land of love
Where never kings connive nor tyrants scheme
That any man be crushed by one above.

(It never was America to me.) . . ."

from Let America Be America Again, Langston Hughes
Woodcuts by Antonio Frasconi
Woodcut images and type by Antonio Frasconi Woodcut images and type by Antonio Frasconi Woodcut images and type by Antonio Frasconi Woodcut images and type by Antonio Frasconi
July 4, 2024 at 3:31 PM
joanc.bsky.social
rabbit rabbit
Hot as a Hare
relief print (detail)
from the As Potent as a Charm series

#rabbitrabbit #reliefprint
May 1, 2024 at 1:43 PM