It all started with Big Tiny
S.V. Medaris has been exhibiting her work professionally since 2004 with her debut of A One Chick Show, featuring a 20ft painting The Return of Big Tiny, now hanging in the Training Center on the Epic Systems campus.
For Medaris, the purpose of making the artwork is to educate about the different species and breeds (dogs, cats, chickens, peafowl, turkeys, and pigs she has raised on this farm in the Driftless area of Wisconsin since 1998), often exposing the drama and/or humor inherent in raising the various livestock for meat or as pets.
The artist, resting after printing the first of the edition Cock ‘O the Walk, an 8ft woodblock
Over a dozen solo shows in 17 years—recently MOWA (Museum of Wisconsin Art), James Watrous Gallery—focus on themes of domestic animal husbandry, the relationships we have with livestock and they with each other, and their unique characteristics.
Medaris has been represented since 2005 by Abel Contemporary in Stoughton, WI. An MFA in 2011 at UW-Madison in printmaking allowed her to add block prints as storytelling vehicles alongside the oils. Artworks are in numerous public and private collections in the U.S. and abroad including Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum, Museum of Wisconsin Art, Epic Systems Corporation, Denver Art Museum and UW Children’s Hospital.
Visual stories from the farm
The latest news, work, happenings at the farm and in the studio.
Printing a 5ft wood block
The printing of a 5ft wood cut, ‘Hog Butcher for the World’ at Hoofprint Workshop, and the history behind the Chicago Union Stock Yards.
Carving a 5ft Woodblock
5ft Woodcut Tribute to the Stockyards
Possum Defensive
Possum Defensive is a 5ft x 5ft, hand-colored woodblock print, available, framed at Abel Contemporary. Entering the coop before dusk, a hungry possum had just killed a chicken. He is exhibiting a defensive pose, trying to look as scary and formidable as possible (growling, mouth wide to show all the sharp teeth, and drooling excessively) to hopefully frighten away this approaching human.