Mary Hamilton

Since about 1970, Mary Hamilton has been making linoleum block prints using the reduction method, the same technique used by Pablo Picasso. Mary discovered this method while in graduate school at Temple University's Tyler School of Art in Rome, Italy. She fell in love with it, and has been making a living doing the prints since 1972. The reduction method can be a painstaking process; a small part of the material is carved away, then the lightest color ink is pressed onto the paper. Then more of the linoleum is carved away, and the next lightest color is added. This process continues, until all the parts of the print are done, lightest to darkest, and the linoleum block is basically destroyed. It can never again be used to make a print. Mary makes an average of 70 of every print she does. Her work is currently on display at places such as the University of Pennsylvania, the Albright-Knox Museum in Buffalo, N.Y., Disney World, and the City of Toledo. Her prints are colorful, whimsical, feature lots of dogs, and almost always evoke a smile.

Mary resides at her Skyflower Farm in Curllsville, near Rimersburg, Pa., where she lives in a farmhouse built in 1852. Her studio is in an old one-room schoolhouse next-door.

Preview some of Mary's work!

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