Suzanne Sawyer
Tuscaloosa, Alabama

Suzanne Sawyer is currently an MFA candidate in Book Arts at The University of Alabama. She is a native of the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia and holds a BSW and a BFA in Art Education from Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Virginia. She taught high school art for many years before coming to the University of Alabama. In her work, she explores themes of duality, identity, and anonymity through sculpture, handmade paper, books, drawings, letterpress printing, and printmaking. She is the proprietor of Down Home Girl Studio.

Website: downhomegirlstudio.com

The High Road, 2011

The High Road is letterpress printed on handmade denim paper using a combination of reduction linoleum blocks and photopolymer plates. It was inspired by the Blue Ridge Parkway, which traces the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia and North Carolina. My grandfather worked for FDR's Civil Conservation Corps in the 1930s. The front pamphlet describes my grandfather's history with CCC. The accordion contains a map of the parkway with milepost markers that are significant to my family's history on the parkway. The markers are associated with the memories written by members of my family that are contained in the back pamphlet.

Dimensions: Closed: 5 x 5.5 x 0.5, Open: 5 x 36 x 5.5 inches; Closed: 12.5 x 14 x 1.5, Open: 12.5 x 91.5 x 14 centimeters

Letterpress printed on handmade denim paper using a combination of reduction linocuts and photopolymer plates.