Black Bears 12 Holiday Card Boxed Set by Artists to Watch
Each set of 12 holiday greeting cards comes with 12 red envelopes. They are packed in a recycled, Kraft colored box, with a die-cut window displaying the front image. Each card is printed on an uncoated, recycled paper with soy-based inks.
Inside message:
Celebrate the season!
This card features an image from an original woodcut by Betsy Bowen of Grand Marais, Minnesota. Printed by Artists to Watch in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Crayons were my first love; I remember the smell of the cardboard box with all the colorful specks on the inside. Growing up in Chicago, I made a lot of drawings that my parents dated and filed in the important place where grownups kept their things. I won a costume contest at Girl Scout camp because I remembered and drew the shape of the label of the Heinz ketchup bottle, me with the red outfit, my tent-mate with the mustard-yellow.
I first encountered woodcuts as a young art student in Sarasota, Florida, at New College and the Ringling School of Art. One of the first ever exhibits of the northern Canadian Inuit stone cut prints was on display at the Ringling Museum of Art, along with the grand Reubens paintings and the full-size replica of Michaelangelo’s David. Twenty-five years later I traveled to the workshop on Baffin Island in the Canadian Arctic to see the stonecutting in progress.
Bread & Puppet Theater came through Sarasota in those early years. I was overwhelmed by the rough power of street theater and larger-than-life paper mache characters. The show was a Vietnam War protest.
Between then and now, my three boys grew up to have adventuresome lives and pursuits and children. I still live on the family homestead near Grand Marais, Minnesota, watching the horses and chickens and the garden grow. I’ve moved the studio into town, tucked into a former historic Lutheran church with plenty of room for the presses and woodblock prints and books, and to build and store the big puppets for our annual community Solstice pageants.
I like what I do.
Find more of Betsy's work here.
Artists to Watch is an award-winning company working directly with independent artists to craft high-quality products that meld visually intriguing images with thought-provoking words. Our line is carefully curated to publish several exclusive collections from independent artists - each with a different look, feel, and voice. The result? A unique collection of products that inspire, celebrate, sympathize, and encourage those we love and support.
Life is busy, but we can never underestimate the power of a handwritten note. All the little social media “Likes” in passing will never compare to receiving a lovely handwritten message from a friend or loved one. When paired with amazing art & perhaps a perfect quote, it helps us to feel grounded, connected, and part of the whole.
We believe that a sustainable environment requires everyone to be conscious about the consumption of non-renewable resources while finding ways to reduce waste. Therefore, we only print on recycled paper! Each printed product we create has the highest post-consumer content available in a sheet that will still produce a high-quality reproduction. By printing with vegetable-based inks our products are less harmful to the environment. All our paper mills and printers are Forest Stewardship Council certified. We respect our environment by recycling, reusing, and reducing our waste at every opportunity.
Find more work from Artists to Watch here.
