Name/Title
FuelEntry/Object ID
2007.36.1Description
Black and white woodcut depicting a central female figure with a wagon at her feet holding an armload of wood. Two automobiles are at the left and another figure to the right. A large structure with clearstory is in the background.
Titled "Fuel" and signed by the artist in pencil.Context
Ronald Slayton (1910-1992) was born in Barre. During the Great Depression, he worked as an artist in the Vermont Division of the federally-funded Works Progress Administration (WPA) from 1936-1939. W.C. Lipke once commented that Slayton “has been a painter, poet, dramatist, educator, politician, gallery director, peace activist, humorist, critic and historian suggest that the single appellation ‘artist’ is not broad enough to encompass his many achievements.”
This particular woodcut was created during his first year working for the Federal Art Project as an easel artist. This print was exhibited in a 1989 exhibition of his work at the T.W. Wood Gallery in Montpelier. To accompany the work, Slayton offered the following poem:
There was a hunger and
They were fed by soil's bounty.
There was a thirst for water
And water was there in all living things,
A remnant of sea left in themselves
There was darkness, then as now,
Soft upon the island hills at dusk;
Night, a same black ocean, swept the valleys
To wane before their feeble fire.Acquisition
Accession
2007.36Source or Donor
Hadsel, ChristineAcquisition Method
GiftCredit Line
William MaresMade/Created
Artist
Slayton, Ronald Alfred (1910-1992)Date made
1936Lexicon
Nomenclature 4.0
Nomenclature Primary Object Term
PrintNomenclature Sub-Class
Graphic DocumentsNomenclature Class
Documentary ObjectsNomenclature Category
Category 08: Communication ObjectsDimensions
Height
36-1/4 inWidth
24-1/2 inRelationships
Related Publications
Publication
Ronald Slayton