Masonic Temple, Mendocino

 

Emmy Lou Packard

  1914 - 1998 (biography)

1960  

two color woodcut 

37 x 11 1/2" image size 

pencil, lower right 

not stated 

pencil titled; penciled copyright symbol before signature 

Natsoulas catalog page 39, illustrated 

cream Japanese laid 

published 

artist 

24318 

$700.00 

The historic Masonic Hall in Mendocino, also known as the Masonic Hall and the Menodcino Lodge No. 179, California, features a hand-carved sculpture older than the building itself titled "Time and the Maiden" atop its cupola, created from the trunk of a single redwood tree by the temple's eventual architect, Erik Albertson. Intended simply as an object of personal craftsmanship, Albertson carved it at the mouth of nearby Big River - likely where the trunk drifted after coming loose from a raft of logs on their way to being processed for lumber. Within the shelter of a makeshift lean-to, and using only lamplight to work by, Albertson used hand chisels to complete the 10' sculpture. It was later used as a backdrop in the television shows "Murder, She Wrote" and "The Fugitive".

Emmy lou Packard pays tribute to the noted landmark in this two-color woodcut, the building gleaming white against black, and a moody sky, which incorporates the second color - deep navy blue - to achieve a foggy coastal drama. Packard had already established herself as a muralist, printmaker, painter, and labor activist in San Francisco when she moved to Mendocino in 1959. She remained there for fourteen years, during which time her love of the town and its stunning coastal environs became the driving force behind her organizing to save the famous headland bluffs, now a part of the Mendocino Headlands State Park.