Catching up with Laura Wilder: RALA's 2025 Featured Artist
- 15 hours ago
- 8 min read
Last year, we here at Roycrofters-at-Large made the decision to return to the use of original art by Roycroft Artisans and Masters for Roycroft Festival posters in preparation for our 50th Anniversary celebrations in 2026. 2024 was "The Year of Hurley," featuring designs by Master CJ Hurley of Pennsylvania.
This year, after a competitive submission process, we chose the work of Laura Wilder, Master Printmaker from Rochester. Laura Wilder is a familiar name to Roycroft Renaissance collectors beyond, and is noted for her complex and detailed prints, most notably in her ability to capture light and depth. She is a fixture of the Roycroft Festivals: we couldn't imagine one without her!
Laura's work "Lakeview" appeared on our Summer 2025 Festival Poster. Those who joined us in Summer will recognize the work:
If you are one of the only 18 collectors who own one of these beauties, count yourself fortunate. We had to wrestle that last poster away to the archive...it almost didn't make it.
Wilder's Winter Poster highlights “Winter Woods,” an 8-color print in blues and golds depicting sunlight blasting through snowy woods.
Originally created in 2019, it is an 8" x 11" print that beautifully highlights Wilder's talent in capturing light and depth.
Each festival marks a release of a limited production run of collectors posters, available at festival for attendees. We do not list these online. 30 signed Winter Wilder 2025 commemorative posters will be available for purchase at festival this weekend at Admission.
We're certain that this poster will be dearly hard won treasure for 33 collectors this weekend. Be sure to stop by and tell Laura how much you enjoy her work.
As members will know, we periodically publish The Chronicle, a members-only update on the affairs of RALA. This has been a staple since our inception nearly 50 years ago, and it is still delivered by snail mail to our loyal members across the nation.
Ten years ago, we highlighted Laura Wilder with a piece by Joe Kirchmeyer entitled,
"Enjoying the Light Through the Trees with Laura Wilder."
This was published on her twentieth anniversary of admission to our community as a Roycroft Artisan. At the time of this article, Wilder had been a Master in Printmaking for 8 years.
We find it appropriate to re-release this article as we, ten years later, highlight Laura as our Featured Artist of 2025 and "Winter Woods" as our Winter 2025 Official Poster Art. We also caught up with Laura for an update on where her practice has taken her over the last decade. Read on to learn more about Master Laura Wilder, graphic artist, Master in printmaking and thorough class act:
Enjoying the Light Through the Trees with Laura Wilder
Summer 2015, Roycrofter at Large Campus Chronicle
If you were to visit the website and Facebook page of Roycroft Master Artisan Laura Wilder, you’d likely notice several references to enjoying and capturing the “simple life.” And while her life isn’t always as simple as she may like, you do tend to see a reflection of that philosophy in her work, which frequently highlights the beauty found all around us.
A resident of Rochester, N.Y., Laura found her true calling as an artist when she discovered the Roycroft way several years ago. Following is our conversation, which hopefully shines a
light on the person, the artist, the past and the future.
Q: Your art often reflects nature and/or a simpler lifestyle. Is that an accurate reflection
of your life as well?
A: Not really. My art is a reflection of the things I find most beautiful,
but don't get enough of. For a few precious weeks every year, my husband and I do get to live a simpler lifestyle when we're at our rustic country house in Vermont. The pace of our days slows way down. It is quiet. We don't have TV, internet or cell service. He does home repairs and I cook meals in a simple 1930's style kitchen. We take walks down a dirt road, through woods and enjoy mountain views. I guess I'm trying to capture some of that beauty and serenity in my art. But being both a painter and a printmaker is common; many of the
Q: The Roycrofters-at-Large Association recognizes your work in two media — print-
making (master) and painting (artisan). Very few Roycroft artisans have accomplished that
feat. As an artist, are there any other talents we may not know about?
A: My daughter suggested I answer, “Yes, parkour.” I probably should skip this discussion
because this year I decided not to re-apply for the mark in painting, because in 2014 there
wasn't time to get many new paintings done. I don't want to put the RR mark on my paint-
ings if I'm not painting regularly. I hope to do more this year. But being both a painter and a printmaker is common; many of the most famous painters in history were also printmakers. This may not be well known because paintings get more attention than prints. Same ability, just different tools and techniques.
Q: You dedicate a lot of time and effort to keeping the tradition of block print alive. Why is that so important to you personally?
A: Sometimes it isn't! Block printing is really hard. I burn out on it periodically and temporarily switch to painting or poster design to get a break. But I always come back to it. Possible reasons: 1) It's so thrilling when it comes out well, 2) You paint for three weeks and
get one handmade piece, you make prints for three weeks and get a stack of handmade pieces, 3) It's really fun to teach block printing workshops, and no matter how much someone struggles they always end up with a great looking print. You combine a color with black on white paper, with those hard, hand-cut edges, and it's going to pop!
Q: Where do you like to “create?” Paint a mental picture for us of your ideal workspace.
A: My actual workspace varies a lot. When making block prints I design at the computer,
carve at a table (kitchen, studio, dining room, coffee), and print either at a table with
inking brayer and wooden spoon, or at the letterpress center with other printmakers. As
long as I am alone, it works. Although at the printing center, I can sometimes converse
with fellow artists while printing once I've gotten all the bugs worked out.
My most ideal workspace so far was probably at the Stickley Museum at Craftsman Farms. I did an artist-in-residence there. This is Gustave Stickley's retirement estate. They
gave me the cottage where Gus and his family lived while the big log house was being built.
It's furnished as it may have been then — natural woodwork is everywhere. There is a
room with huge windows that look out on a meadow with woods beyond. I had my print-
making table set up in front of the window. No phone, no interruptions. In the morning
the sun glowed orange through the trees. During the day, deer would wander past my
windows or graze nearby as I ate lunch on the front porch. In the early summer evening, Bambis would leap and chase each other around the meadow, putting on quite a show.
My husband and I have plans to build a studio in the back yard that will face our woods. It will have simpler furnishings, and instead of deer I'll have squirrels and woodchucks, and I'll get to watch the light through the trees.
Q: When I interview artists, I often discover that the artistic gene has been handed down
from generation to generations. Is that true in your case?
A: Probably. My paternal grandma was a missionary, but did beautiful professional-looking
illustrations of Indian street scenes, and as far as I know had no formal training.
My mother would never admit it but she is also quietly artistic. She canes chairs, knits, makes clothes, slipcovers and furniture, and once did a near-perfect copy of a landscape photograph in oil paints.
Q: Your artistic style seems perfectly suited to the Roycroft way. Did you find Roycroft ... or
did it find you?
A: Synchronicity happened over and over ... I had quit commercial art and was a bit lost.
Around that time, the Memorial Art Gallery had an exhibition called Elbert Hubbard and
the Roycrofters. There I saw a few Roycroft Renaissance artisans demonstrating their
crafts. I suddenly knew I wanted to do portraits of them working and arranged to photograph
a few of them in their studios.
Then I accidentally came across a photo of some old block prints which had the perfect
bold, simple, vintage style for my project. I took a block printing class. My first four block prints were The Potter, The Silversmith, The Bookbinder and The Cabinetmaker.
The potter — former RR Artisan Janice McDuffie — urged me to apply to become a RR Artisan. I was thrilled and sent my application and four prints to the jury. Belatedly I realized, mortified, that those prints were ALL portraits of jury members, and they would think I was totally sucking up. But I was approved anyway.
Original interview and article by Joe Kirchmeyer of Kirchmeyer Media, LLC for Roycrofters at Large, Summer 2015 Issue
Catching up with Laura Wilder
We shared this with Laura this fall and asked her to update us on where she is now, a decade further into her work.
She shared the following:
My art is still a reflection of the simple things that I find most beautiful: like light glowing
through trees, a sparkling lake, and more recently, native flowers and the pollinators that depend on them.
Ten years ago I talked about finding inspiration in the simple things at our rustic summer
house in Vermont. Two years later my husband Bob Thompson had a heart attack, and
we decided to sell it. (That was another way to a simpler life: instead of two, now Bob
has only one old house to fix up.) But we still get away occasionally for beautiful
Vermont-like hikes, which often serve as art inspiration.
I still find block printing to be difficult, but I am lucky: I have an amazing studio assistant
in Bob, who used to be a commercial printer. He orders my supplies, helps me figure
out the order of printing colors, and fixes the press when it malfunctions. And it always
malfunctions.
This year, inspired by a hike in the Adirondacks, I made “Mountain View,” my largest,
most challenging block print so far. It required seventeen ridiculously precise carvings
and printings. To my immense relief, it came out well. Except OOPS, one tree has a
piece missing in the middle. So I’m hand-painting that missing piece on each of the one
hundred and nine prints. After that stress, I’m gonna paint for awhile.
About Roycroft Winter 2025:
The 2025 Roycroft Winter Festival takes place Saturday and Sunday December 6 & 7, 2025 at The Hampton Inn of East Aurora. The festival is open from 10 a.m. through 5 p.m. on Saturday and 4 p.m. Sunday. A schedule of live artist demonstrations complements 22 exhibiting artists, all of whom are Roycroft Masters, Artisans or Roycroft Emerging Artists. Members enter free. New members who sign up at festival will receive a hand printed letterpress print of our beloved Roycroft Chapel by Roycroft Artisan Andre Chaves of Clinker Press, Oregon, as an additional gratitude for their support (while supplies last).
Already a member? Memberships are now giftable. Purchase a membership for family or friend and give the gift of art this year: take the Chapel print home as our gift to you.
Each year we choose a premium art piece as our Patron Gift. All Patron Members will receive this year's Patron Premium Gift by Tom Ciminelli of Buffalo Creek Leatherworks.
Download the festival guide and read more about admission, membership, our annual Goodie Box Fundraising Raffle, valued at $7,000 this year at the Roycroft Winter Festival this weekend here:
Keep abreast of festival updates and exhibitor spotlights on our social platforms @roycroftartisans on Instagram and Facebook. A shareable event for festival with additional information on our exhibiting artists and demonstrators can be found here.