A Portrait of the Artist: Linda Harrison-Parsons

"I document moments in time, to preserve those images that are here today and may be gone tomorrow. Trees, leaves, animals, wild and domestic are the focus of my work. As each season regenerates and every animal prepares for the season ahead I try to capture the feeling of that event," writes mixed media artist Linda Harrison-Parsons in her Artists Statement.

During a recent road trip in Vermont, Harrison-Parsons happened upon a wild bird animal rescue center for injured birds. She saw a young Snowy Owl on its perch, snapped several photos of it, including several close-ups of its speckled face, which kept turning left and right, she said. Since then, she has developed a series of pastels inspired by the Snowy Owl and intends on expanding it with portraits of the Great Horned Owl, the most widespread owl species in North and South America.

featured 16 of the artist's wildlife portraits and landscapes alongside her partner in capturing the majesty and diversity of the animal kingdom and friend Marilu Tousignaut's scratchboard art. Their work in this show was inspired by recent travels to Alaska and South Africa. Harrison-Parsons and Tousignaut started working, traveling and exhibiting together after a joint show at the Artists' Gallery in Frederick, Maryland.

At first they thought it would be difficult to display their work side by side because their work was so similar, but a successful joint Earth Day exhibition - "Sticks and Stones" - proved them wrong. Since they filled the Artists' Gallery with tree branches and other artifacts from nature, they have been showing together three to four times a year and have even started a joint blog, Wild at heART, which documents their travels and encounters with wildlife across the US.

Between them, Harrison-Parsons and Tousignaut have documented the lives of countless animals, including wild birds, zebras, elephants, wildcats, and even dogs.

Even though she has grown strong local roots, earlier in her career, Harrison-Parsons traveled to Brazil, where she learned how to make hand-made paper from a school friend. With a background as a printmaker, she was always interested in paper materials and bookmaking.

In graduate school at George Washington University, the artist developed a lithography technique that required a reduced amount of chemicals. Her research borrowed from the work of a Florida researcher who worked with waterless lithography, which in its modern-day state, does not require the use of oil-based inks, replacing them with water-based ones. In traditional lithography, water repels oil-based inks from non-image areas and allows the inks to stick to the printable, image areas.

Prior to enrolling at George Washington University, during her time as an art student at Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore (MICA), Harrison-Parsons and twelve of her colleagues founded the Maryland Printmakers. Rapidly growing in regional and national membership, Maryland Printmakers organized nonprofit exhibitions and conducted educational workshops in Maryland public schools. Twelve years into working with the organization, Harrison-Parsons became President. In collaboration with Southern Graphics Council, the group hosted a large international conference in Baltimore. In addition, it participated in three exchange exhibitions with a similar organization in Brazil and through the Embassies Program, it displayed work in what was then the Congo. Maryland Printmakers is still active today and boasts an international membership and continued nonprofit programs and exhibition opportunities for printmakers.

Continually involved with Maryland Printmakers, even following her graduation from George Washington University, Harrison-Parsons also began teaching across Maryland in Montgomery, Prince George's, Howard and Frederick Counties through the Maryland State Arts Council Department of Education. She taught printmaking, papermaking and bookmaking at all grade levels, including elementary, middle, high school and college. In Gaithersburg and Prince George's County, she also worked with teenagers who were recovering from drug and alcohol addiction.

In the spirit of learning she still enjoys taking workshops herself, she said.

"The workshops remind us of what the rules are in art," she reflects. "And then we can break them," she added.

Eventually lithography became onerous for the artist, and she started experimenting with other lighter media, translating removal techniques into pastels and charcoal. In her current working process, she uses 100% cotton rag paper, which she coats with a pastel or charcoal medium ground over the paper and smoothed onto the surface. She draws the image with vine charcoal or pastel, pulls out light areas with a kneaded eraser, and as midtones and lights emerge, she uses vine charcoal or pastel to create the finer details.

"I've always liked pastels, since I was young," said the artist.

Originally from Washington, DC, Harrison-Parsons moved to Frederick, Maryland - where she still resides - 16 years ago. There she has shown her work through the Red Door Gallery, the Artists' Gallery and Wye Creek Gallery among others.

She participates in the annual Art at the Mill, Burnell-Morgan Mill juried exhibit in Millwood Virginia and shows regularly in Scottsdale, Arizona.

Her work is currently on view at Main Lee Gallery and Matrix Gallery in Blacksburg, Virginia, at Thistle Fine Art in Lewes, Delaware, and at Blossom and Basket Boutique in Mount Airy, Maryland. One of her pieces is in the permanent collection of the National Museum of Women in the Arts, where she also worked as a docent.

One of her first solo shows was at the Gaithersburg City Hall Art Gallery.

In 1994, she organized an MFA (Master of Fine Arts) thesis show for George Washington University graduates at Kentlands Mansion in Gaithersburg.

Attuned to nature, each May, she transforms her Frederick house into a multimedia art gallery to celebrate the blossoming of mountain laurels in the surrounding area.

To visit the artist's website, click here.