Painter, printmaker, woodcarver: Ella Peacock’s career spanned many different artistic media, as seen here in this depiction of a linoleum block, ink brayer, letterpress, and jar of paintbrushes. Peacock’s creative work also extended to her picture frames. She purchased secondhand carving tools to shape basswood and sugar pine—light, pale woods that work well with hand carving.
Like Peacock’s talent for working across media, this painting crosses several genres at once: a still life of the tools of her trade that also serves as a compelling self-portrait of her own career and artistic commitments.
For further reading, see Susan Larson Mumford, “Ella Gilmer Smyth Peacock: Spring City’s Resident Saint,” in Worth Their Salt Too: More Notable But Often Unnoted Women of Utah, ed. Colleen Whitley (Utah State University Press, 2000).
