CARLI Digital Collections Featured Image: Miss Froggie

Founded in 1976, Normal Editions Workshop (NEW) is a non-profit research facility affiliated with the ISU College of Fine Arts, providing collaborative custom printing services. The publication of this digital collection by Milner Library coincided with NEW’s 30-year anniversary, which was also marked by the 30-Year Retrospective exhibition, the Frontiers in Printmaking conference, and the publication of the monograph Marks from the Matrix.

The featured image, “Miss Froggie,” is one of three limited edition prints produced by John Phillips in collaboration with NEW staff during his one-week visiting artist residency in January 1999. This three-color lithograph was hand printed on Rives BFK paper by Richard D. Finch and Veda M. Rives, respectively Director and Associate Director of NEW, in an edition of 26 arabic numeral impressions. The project was funded in part by an Illinois Arts Council grant.

Phillips (b. 1953, Chicago) holds a BFA from University of Colorado, Boulder, and earned his MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where he has also taught as an Adjunct Associate Professor of Painting and Drawing. “Miss Froggie” is a late example of the scroll or ribbon forms that had been characteristic of his work since 1987. Phillips has noted the influence of music, particularly 1950s rhythm and blues, on his work; the title of this print may derive from Warren Smith’s 1957 rockabilly song of the same name.

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