Sue Sommers - "Manna: Empty Vessels 12/12"

Hello, this is Sue Sommers. I’m an artist in Pinedale, Wyoming, and I made the piece Manna: Empty Vessels 12 of 12.

It’s a one-of-a-kind, three-color woodcut in a series I printed in 2022 on the theme of Women and Money.

In the Old Testament, manna was the food sent by God to sustain his chosen people, the Israelites, as they wandered in the desert. Today, we refer to any lucky windfall as “manna from heaven.”

In Wyoming, but also worldwide, women rely heavily on men for resources, and for the laws that govern resources. We know that such “manna” is both privilege and bondage, freighted with judgments of worthiness.

Empty vessels can imply continuous filling, and continuous loss. 

I’m grateful to the Ucross Foundation of Clearmont, Wyoming, for providing me with the time, support, and facilities to make this suite of woodcut monoprints.