Snapshot In Time: The renovation and restoration of Utah's old-time Big Rock Candy Mountain Resort (which includes an inn, camp ground, swimming hole and restaurant) was finally finished in 2001, just about the time Carol Summers finishing up this bright and effervescent woodblock print. The actual Big Rock Candy Mountain was named because of its large, candy-colored rock formations. Both the mountain and nearby resort were made world-famous when singer Burl Ives recorded the song Big Rock Candy Mountain written by folklorist Harry McClintock. The mountain still holds its magical appeal for the thousands of people who visit it each year.

I'm heading for a land that's far away beside the crystal fountain. I'll see you all this coming fall at the Big Rock Candy Mountain. McClintock penned this tune when he was a brakeman on the Rio Grande Railroad line that used to run by the mountain. The local folklore says that during the Great Depression, hobos used to ride this train and jump off here because the town folk would give them food and let them rest. They sang about the lemonade springs and the bluebirds that sing because the Big Rick Candy Mountain was a happy place to be.....just as it is today.

Art Smart Fact: This is one of Carol Summers' most abstract woodblock prints and one that dazzles the senses with color. Abstract Art has been defined as a 20th-century style of art in which nonrepresentational lines, colors, shapes and forms replace literal visual depictions of objects. Subject matter is often stylized, repeated or broken down into basic forms just as it is here in this modern mountain picture.....in other words, this woodcut print is a quintessential example of 20th century abstract art.

About The Art: BIG ROCK CANDY MOUNTAIN is one of the very few oversize woodcuts that Summers has created in the last few years. You will sometimes see it referred to as a monumental woodcut. This term was coined in the early 1960s when Carol Summers and a handful of other printmakers started making woodblock prints that were much much bigger than those of the past made on small printing presses. Given the size, very small edition number, beauty and sheer fun of this piece, today this fine arts print is an exceptional buy.

Note: With every purchase of an original Carol Summers woodcut you receive free a four-color, 48-page Catalog Raisonne; a four color, 64-page 50-Year Retrospective Exhibition Catalog (including a color woodcut frontispiece); and the museum poster ROLLING SEA.....all personally signed by Carol Summers! Each of these items can be acquired separately here at Peggity’s.