Stephanie Mahan Stigliano~ Massachusetts

By the Wayside
By Stephanie Mahan Stigliano
2005. Edition of 10.

5 x 6.5 x 3.2" closed; extends to 32". Accordion book of five wood blocks hinged with book cloth. Two wood pages glued together to form the each block. Three-color woodcut print and photocopy transfer.

Stigliano: "While at the residency at Round Top Center for the Arts in Damariscotta, Maine, I drew pictures of plants growing by the side of the road. I worked each of these into a three-color woodcut print for the images on one side (darker, I think of this side as dusk). The other side has the poem (photocopy transfer). These prints (dawn) have the inked side down; glued to the wood panel — the back side of the print is what is visible. This gives the prints a softness and different color saturation distinct from the other side. The poem is about what is passed by unnoticed."
$500

Your Zoo at Two
By Stephanie Mahan Stigliano
2004. Edition of 10.

5 x 5 x 4" closed; 36" extended. Double-sided accordion hinged with bookbinder's cloth. 16 woodcuts of animals on 8 pages.

Stigliano: "I think of it as sort of a chunk of book. It's very block-like and sturdy. I took some of the children's blocks which my husband and I made for them. We used scraps of wood and drew pictures of their animals on them. The kids, Angela and Raphael, actually drew on blocks, too. We saved them. The children are a little older now and no longer playing with blocks. I turned them into woodcut blocks which I used to carve the images into. I used the actual blocks for making the prints. I glued two pieces of wood then hinged them with binder's cloth."
$300

Clap Your Hands
By Stephanie Mahan Stigliano
1991. One-of-a-Kind.

Six 2.75 x 4.25" mahogany panels carved and painted to construct a Jacob's ladder.

This Jacob's Ladder has images of hands carved in the Egyptian fashion, recessed below a flat surface. Each panel has familiar sayings about hands: living from hand to mouth, I have him eating out of my hand. When the ladder is unfolded it makes a clapping sound.
$350

Click image to enlarge

City Sights and Sounds
By Stephanie Mahan Stigliano
2004. Edition of 5.

4.25 x 3.5 x 2.75"lidded box. Slot in lift off lid. Bottle caps serve as pages. Collographs and hand painted. Handmade paper applied to sides.

This is one in a series of memory banks with bottle cap coins as 'pages.' Stigliano wrote the accompanying poem then dissected and included parts of it on the sides of the caps. The box is carved in low relief with collographs and hand painting. The handmade paper is from reeds collected near her house.
$500 (Last two copies)

Winter Windows
By Stephanie Mahan Stigliano
2005. Edition of 10.

5 x 6.4" accordion book with five panels/pages showing the progression from winter morning to winter evening in Massachusetts. Digital photographs and mulberry paper on wood panels.

One of two books Stigliano created to capture the winter contrasts: warm and cold, inside and out, dark and light. Stigliano: "I took pictures through the windows last winter; looking through layers of frost, fog and snow into the night. These are digital photographs that are attached to wood panels and layered under mulberry paper. The long fiber of the paper creates snowy patterns over the photographs. The layers have been coated with a water resistant protective seal."

A day's worth of worthy winter windows.
$200

Winter Book
By Stephanie Mahan Stigliano
2004. Edition of 10.

6.5 x 5" double-sided accordion hinged by bookcloth. Digital photographs and mulberry paper on wood panels. Poem printed on the hinges.

Stigliano: "I took pictures through the windows last winter; looking through layers of frost, fog and snow into the night. These are digital photographs that are attached to wood panels and layered under mulberry paper. The long fiber of the paper creates snowy patterns over the photographs. The layers have been coated with a water resistant protective seal."

If you've lived through a cold, snowy winter, Stigliano's images — the muted colors, the world mediated by frost-covered windows — will strike home.
$200