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Margaret Davidson – The Joy of Paper
Date Recorded: Saturday, April 15, 2023
For any drawing artist, paper is the most important partner and ally in the making of their art, so it is good to know what papers are made of, what they feel like and what their voices are.
For any drawing artist, paper is the most important partner and ally in the making of their art, so it is good to know what papers are made of, what they feel like and what their voices are.
Margaret Davidson has a BFA from the University of Michigan and an MFA from the University of Washington. She is both an artist and illustrator, and, until retirement in 2014, taught courses in Beginning Drawing, Sources of Modernism in Drawing, Aesthetics of Drawing, and various drawing technique classes at Gage Academy of Art in Seattle, Washington.
In scientific illustration Davidson concentrated on archaeological and anthropological subject matter, drawing lithics, pottery, and especially basketry and textiles. To this end she has illustrated various books and journal articles, such as Spruce Root Basketry of the Haida and Tlingit by Sharon Busby (2003 Marquand Books and the University of Washington Press) and The Archaeology of the Yakutat Foreland: a Socioecological View, Volumes I and II, by Stanley Drew Davis (1996). She has also drawn the maps for Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer (Villard Books, New York, 1996), and Ten Degrees of Reckoning by Hester Rumberg (Berkley Books, 2010).
3 Responses
Thank you, Margaret, for your very informative presentation of the various materials from which paper is made. I was most interested in hearing about your experience of drawing on a variety of surfaces. Your art works are truly amazing in their detail and realism.
Coleman raises an interesting issue re: cotton rag vs cotton linter. After a brief online search I discovered that cotton rag is an acceptable term when discussing cotton papers. To my surprise cotton rag is considered a superior fiber to cotton linter. Some paper manufactures prefer cotton rag sources vs cotton linters to make their papers, check out Mohawk papers made from recycled ‘rag’. https://www.strathmoreartist.com/faq-full/are-cotton-papers-and-rag-papers-the-same-thing.html
Wathced part of the Davidson video. She uses the term “rag” to describe European style paper. But is it made from rags or from cotton linters? I suspect that few if any commercially made papers are made from actual rags these days. And a paper that she mentioned — Rosaspina — is actually a 60/40 blend of cotton and alpha cellulose. So it is disconcerting that such an influential educator as Margaret Davidson (whose book Contemporary Drawing and work I’ve admired for a long time) is using the term rag paper as a catch-all term.
Now, if she goes into more detail later in the recording and I missed it, then . . . never mind.
3 Responses
Thank you, Margaret, for your very informative presentation of the various materials from which paper is made. I was most interested in hearing about your experience of drawing on a variety of surfaces. Your art works are truly amazing in their detail and realism.
Coleman raises an interesting issue re: cotton rag vs cotton linter. After a brief online search I discovered that cotton rag is an acceptable term when discussing cotton papers. To my surprise cotton rag is considered a superior fiber to cotton linter. Some paper manufactures prefer cotton rag sources vs cotton linters to make their papers, check out Mohawk papers made from recycled ‘rag’. https://www.strathmoreartist.com/faq-full/are-cotton-papers-and-rag-papers-the-same-thing.html
Wathced part of the Davidson video. She uses the term “rag” to describe European style paper. But is it made from rags or from cotton linters? I suspect that few if any commercially made papers are made from actual rags these days. And a paper that she mentioned — Rosaspina — is actually a 60/40 blend of cotton and alpha cellulose. So it is disconcerting that such an influential educator as Margaret Davidson (whose book Contemporary Drawing and work I’ve admired for a long time) is using the term rag paper as a catch-all term.
Now, if she goes into more detail later in the recording and I missed it, then . . . never mind.