Born in Chicago and trained at the Art Institute of Chicago, Belle Baranceanu (American, 1902-1988) settled in San Diego during the Great Depression. While employed on the Federal Art Project, a cultural arm of Roosevelt’s New Deal relief programs, she painted murals for city schools and the La Jolla Post Office. As part of the Curriculum Project of the WPA, she designed and executed linoleum block prints depicting a variety of animal species. From that point forward linocuts became Baranceanu’s preferred medium and she frequently revisited the subject of animals.