Babette Katz linocut print I Have NO Role Models

Babette Katz relief print At the Beach

Babette Katz: Scarf City and Scarf City Woman are part of a series of prints I did on the subject of Manhattan. It was a tribute to the infinite variety of the city as reflected in its architecture and its emblematic women.

Babette Katz: Artists who've interested me have generally been strong draftsmen. I love line and came to an appreciation of color later in life.

Babette Katz: I've been influenced by and admire the work of Shiko Munakata, Antonio Frasconi, Fritz Eichenberg, Egon Schiele, Daumier, Durer, Van Gogh, Toulouse Lautrec and Picasso.

Babette Katz: When I first saw artists' books in museum exhibits many years ago, I was puzzled that they were limited to vituoso performances of beautiful printing & images whose subjects were often brief excerpts from classic literature. I wondered why no one made brief, beautiful books that were entire stories--worlds unto themselves. So I started to make linocut visual narratives. (I later discovered the work of Franz Masereel, a pioneer of the wordless black and white narrative.)

Babette Katz: A Winter's Tale is a story of the shifting emotional balance between people once they are engaged in any kind of contact. A wordless artists' book, relying solely on images as sequencing for its meaning, expands the emotional reach of the story.

Babette Katz: Another of my artists' books Yarn is about the illusion that you are making your own choices, when--in fact--choices are being made for you. That book is about being overcome by your own destiny.