Artists: Judith Wolf, Susan Byrne, Kate Jenkins, & Mal Petty
On view: March 3-30, 2026
Reception: Thursday, March 5, 2026, 6-8 PM
Judith Wolf
Bonding and Belonging: Elephant Connections
Printmaking for me is a process-oriented medium, with elements of layering, experimentation, and surprise. I am continually nourished by the creative, inspiring community of Zea Mays Printmaking in Florence Massachusetts, where I have been a member for nearly twenty-five years.
“Bonding and Belonging: Elephant Connections” is a series inspired by seven days in the Chiang Mai province of Northern Thailand, learning about, feeding, and walking among a herd of Asian elephants. I was both awed and calmed by their majestic presence and their constant tactile attachment to one another as they grazed through a forest of diminishing resources.
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Woodcut printmaking allows me to use a variety of carving tools and techniques to explore the rich texture of the elephants and the trees, grass and leaves where they foraged. I am interested in the way shapes and negative space in between trunks and legs become abstract, with individuals unified into one organic mass. In some images, elephants are integrated into the forest vegetation, emerging with full presence or ephemerally hidden and receding. Immersing myself with these deeply socially and emotionally intelligent beings led me to contemplate separateness and attachment, protective care and connection, and bonding and belonging.
Susan Byrne
Retiring from a corporate career in 2018 gave me the time and space to explore life as an artist. Through this transition, I discovered printmaking and the rich possibilities it offers. An introductory course at MassArt in Boston left a lasting impression, and in 2022 I joined the Zea Mays Printmaking community in Florence, Massachusetts, where I remain an active member.
The work in this exhibition reflects explorations rooted primarily in woodcut techniques, often combined with collage and, in some cases, the written word. The prints are drawn from three bodies of work: The Space Between, Fractured, and Reconfiguration. These series are informed by the Neolithic designs of Newgrange, Ireland, an examination of ancestral presence in my life, and the possibilities of a limited color palette, where layered blocks create variation and depth.
Kate Jenkins
Kate Jenkins began drawing and painting with watercolors about 35 years ago. Ten years later when Zea Mays Printmaking opened, Kate took her first printmaking class. She has been making one-of-a-kind monoprints there ever since. Some prints have seemed good enough to exhibit. Hundreds of others were not entirely successful but felt too precious to discard. Recently, Kate began cutting up those old prints with an X-Acto knife and using representational and abstract parts to make collages. She often begins with a particular element and then the collage seems to proceed of its own accord in surprising directions. Her subject matter is taken from her everyday life and the natural world surrounding her.
Mal Petty
Mal Petty (they/them; he/him) is a visual artist, illustrator, writer, and musician based in Easthampton, Massachusetts. Mal’s practice is rooted in the relationships of their chosen community here in the Connecticut River Valley and celebrates the diversity of the local environment. Organic materials act as both tools and collaborators in their work, creating dynamic forms and landscapes with each unique mark. All prints in this collection utilize archival ink and plant material pressed onto watercolor or printmaking paper.
