Mary Azarian celebrates her birthday on December 8th. She graduated from Smith College, planning on studying science but finding delight in printing and etching classes she was taking. She moved to northern Vermont in 1963, started a farmhouse press and began producing woodcut prints. She is known to till her garden there as skillfully as she carves her unique woodcuts.

She published her first book, A Farmer's Alphabet, in 1981 and has gone on to illustrate forty more. Snowflake Bentley won a Caldecott Award in 1999 (and written by Jacqueline Briggs Martin, CLN member from Iowa). It is a picture book about Vermont's famous photographer of snow crystals. One recent title, Race of the Birkebeiners, was written by CLN member Lise Lunge Larsen from Duluth, Minnesota. The story is based on a 12th century Norwegian saga and illustrated with Azarian's beautiful hand colored woodcuts.

Azarian sketches directly on a basswood block and then cuts into the block with Japanese carving tools. She makes prints on an 1880 Van der Cook proof press. Check out her prints, calendar, cards and books available at www.maryazarian.com.

—Karen Ritz