Erica Leiserowitz is a recent graduate of the Rubenstein School and is an Animal Science major and Wildlife and Fisheries Biology minor. As part of her art project for Field Herpetology, Erica created 4 linocuts of species that were either native to Vermont, or to her home state of California.

Erica writes, “I decided I would make four linocuts for four different species. I chose Rana sierrae, because it was the subject of my popular science article, Eastern Newt, because I did it for my presentation, and then Spotted Turtle and Ring-necked Snake because I just liked them, and I thought they would be easier to do on this medium.”

“With linocuts, you can either cut or carve around the subject so that when you stamp it, only the subject shows up, or you can carve out the subject, so that when you stamp it, the negative space makes up the shape. For the Eastern Newt, Spotted Turtle, and Ring-necked Snake, I cut around them, but for the Rana sierrae I carved out just the outline.”

“Linocuts turned out to be a lot more work than I anticipated, which always happens whenever I do a creative project for a class. … Luckily, now we have 4 extra linocuts to make cards, so watch out friends and family, because you’re getting Christmas newts and Hanukkah Sierra Nevada yellow-legged frogs.”