[Baren]: The mailing list / discussion forum for woodblock printmaking.

Baren Digest              Friday, 16 January 1998      Volume 02 : Number 037

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From: David Bull <davebull@asahi-net.email.ne.jp>
Date: Thu, 15 Jan 1998 23:30:52 +0900
Subject: [Baren 154] Not again! 

Well, if Hollywood can get away with it, maybe so can I ...

'At the Gallery - II'
(the conversation continues ...)


Excuse me again, Mr. Bull ... 

    Yes?

It was interesting talking to you earlier.  I've been 
enjoying looking at all the prints, and I really like 
that one with the woman in the long kimono. It would 
go very nicely on one wall of my living room. I'd 
like to buy one please.

    Well, thank you but ...

Oh, are you out of stock?

    Oh no.  I have plenty left.  But ... ...

Excuse me, I don't understand.  May I buy one please?

    No.  I'm sorry.

What's the problem?  Are you upset because of my comments
earlier about limited editions?

    No, no, not at all.  I quite enjoyed chatting with you.
It's just that ... you see I never sell 'one' print. 
Never.

You mean I have to buy the whole series?!  Are you
crazy?

    Maybe ... I don't know about that.  But anyway, I
never sell single prints, but only by subscription, and
the minimum order is one year's set - 10 prints.

So I have to buy at least ten prints ... at 10,000 yen
each ... that's 100,000 yen!  Why do you do things this
way?

    Well, it's a bit of a long story, and there actually
are a number of reasons behind this.  Mostly though, I
guess it's because I'm selfish ...   I love these prints
very much, and I can't stand to see them become
'decoration'.

Ah ...  it's because I mentioned putting it on the living
room wall!

    That didn't make any difference, my answer would have
been the same.  This is the way I've been doing things
ever since I started.  But that's a good example.  If I
sold you one today, you would take it home, get it framed,
and then hang it on the wall.  That first day you would no
doubt look at it many times, and feel quite pleased at
having it there.  The next day too, no doubt.
    But what happens after that ...  You _know_ what
happens!  After a few days ... weeks ... it just fades
from view - it becomes just part of the wallpaper.  That
print - a print that I and twenty other people used all
our skills to make - just becomes an unseen piece of
wallpaper, gathering dust!

Twenty other people?  I don't understand.  You said that
you made these prints by yourself!

    Yes, I carve them, and I print them, but do you think
for a minute that I could create such works without the
cooperation of a block planer, a papermaker, a blacksmith,
a baren maker, a brush maker ...

Oh, I see what you mean!  But those people are all just
'background'.  Of course we know that you need tools and
supplies to do your work, but their contribution doesn't
show in the finished print.

    Not if we put it in a frame behind glass, and stick it
up on a wall, it doesn't!  But that's not how prints
should be seen.  If I do what you want, and let you go
ahead and hang this print on the wall, then Shunsho - the
man who sketched the design - would be happy, because his
contribution will be clearly visible, but all of the rest
of us will feel that our labours have been wasted.  You
might just as well take a poster of the print and stick it
up there.  It would look the same. But when one looks at a
woodblock print properly, then it takes on incredible life 
and depth.  And the work of every one of those men is 
apparent!

What do you mean 'properly'?

    Simply look at the print in the same sort of
environment that was common in the days when these prints
were born.  No electric light shining down vertically onto
the paper.  No glass frames ...  Pick up the print!  Touch
it!  Hold it near a window or a low lamp so that the light
falls horizontally across the surface.  Then you will see
the texture of the paper ... the sharpness of the incised
lines ... the absorption of the pigments ...   Then you
will see a real woodblock print!

OK, let me get this straight - you don't want people to
hang up your prints, so you don't sell one by one.  I
still don't quite understand the connection.  I think the
subscribers who are buying your prints are quite probably
hanging them up in their homes.

    Yes, of course they are.  Many of my collectors have
an 'easy-open' frame in which they hang up the most recent
print, changing it every month or so.  The prints thus
become less 'stale', hanging on the wall for a shorter
time ...   I don't like this, but there's not much I can
do about it.  But it goes beyond just this business of
hanging on the wall ...
    Think about it - if I had sold you the single print
you requested, we would never have had this conversation. 
And this is what happens with my collectors.  As they are
receiving the prints one by one, month after month, and 
carefully putting them into the case that I provide them 
with, they are also reading my accompanying essays and 
newsletters. I talk about this sort of thing constantly, and 
during the course of their year-long subscription they 
develop an understanding of my ideas.   They 'meet' the other
craftsmen, they hear about my experiences while I work and
learn about this craft, and they gradually come around to
my way of thinking.  They learn what a beautiful 'object'
a woodblock print really is, not just what a beautiful
'picture' it is.  This would never happen if they simply
bought one print and then walked away  ...

This sounds wonderfully idealistic.  Why did you say a few
minutes ago that such an idea is 'selfish'?

    Because if I left the discussion at this point, I
would be being less than honest with you.  There are other
reasons ...
    When I was first calculating whether or not this
ten-year project to make a series of a hundred prints
would really be practical,  I ran into what seemed like a
major stumbling block.  For the series to become reality,
I needed two things to happen, and they at first seemed
mutually exclusive: I needed to make the prints - and I
needed to sell them.
    These prints are extremely complex and full of tiny
detail.  It takes many many hours of work to finish one. 
And not just 'time', but time spent at my carving bench in
a relaxed, quiet and peaceful frame of mind.  The carvers
who worked on prints like these in the old days just sat
at a carving bench all day long.  They didn't worry about
printing, marketing, designing, etc. etc.  So of course
the lines they carved reflect their peaceful environment -
the work was beautifully done.
    But if I were to work like this: Monday - carving,
Tuesday - visit to a department store to promote the
prints, Wednesday morning - carving, Wednesday afternoon -
telephone conversations with a gallery owner about
discounts and display problems ...  etc. etc.  then what
would happen?  Perhaps I exaggerate, but you get the idea.
There is simply no way that peaceful and delicate work
can be done in such circumstances.
    So I hit on the idea of doing it by subscription - on
a minimum one-year basis.  For me December and January are
a whirlwind of exhibition preparation, media attention,
conversations like this one we are having now, and
suchlike.  It's all great fun, but soon the end of the
'exhibition season' comes, and I clean up and head home. 
If things have gone well, I carry with me a sheaf of
orders for the coming year's work.
    Then from February until the 10 prints are finished, I
sit in my quiet room, carving, carving, carving ...  I no
longer have to even think about the 'business' end of
things; for the next ten or eleven months, I can focus
purely on the work.  I'm not always successful at that, as
I tend to get a bit sidetracked by other projects
sometimes, but at least I'm not in a constant whirlwind of
business and sales ...

So each year you have to start from scratch again?

    Well, because these prints are all part of a large
series, it doesn't work out like that.  Quite a number of
the collectors are big fans of this poetry, so when they
get my letter at the end of the year, thanking them for
their support and letting them know of my plan for the
next year, they send me a note asking for 'One more year,
please'.  And in quite a surprising number of cases, they
have said 'Right to the end, please!'  Of course, some
people do take just one year's set, and then finish in
December.  So at then end of each year the the collector
list drops a bit, and usually picks up again at the
exhibition in January.

I see ...  This starts to make sense. And this plan has 
been successful?

    Well as I said to you earlier this afternoon, in the
early days it was tough.  There simply weren't enough
subscribers.  But recently it has been OK.  I'm certainly
not getting rich at this, but I am making a living at it. 
And for a woodblock printmaker, that's enough of an
achievement ...

But what will happen when this poetry series is finished? 
Your subscriber list then drops right to zero!

    Yes, it's going to be a bit traumatic!  But it may not
be all that bad ...  For one thing, this poetry series
will still be continuing after a fashion.  At each of the
exhibitions there are always some people who are seeing
this series for the first time; they want all the prints,
but 'missed the chance' to start nine years ago.  But as I
have stock on hand of each of the prints, I am happy to
start them up with a subscription anytime.  So even when
I've finished number 100, these people will still be
continuing to take prints from my stock, some of them for
a number of years.  That will help 'tide me over' for a
while.
    And then of course, I'm now starting to think about
the next series I'll be making ...

So that will be a 'series' too?  No chance for me to buy
'just one'?

    Well it certainly won't be another series of 100!  No
more 'ten years' for me thanks!  But yes, it will be a
subscription collection, and again probably for a year at
a time.  Please come back to visit next year's final
exhibition of this current series - I'll be making some
kind of announcement then!

I'll be there! Thanks for your time today ...

    Not at all.  I've enjoyed bending your ear!  I'm sorry I
can't help you with the print you wanted, but perhaps 
sometime in the future ...?   

We'll see ....


***


You can relax guys, there isn't going to be a 'Part III' - I think I've
just about summed up explaining how I do things ...   I don't know if
any of these ideas are of any use at all to anybody else, or just how
much of this is even appropriate in another environment, but anyway,
this is the way I do things ...

Thanks again for your patience with the long posting.

Dave

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From: Dan Wasserman <dwasser@slam.org>
Date: Thu, 15 Jan 1998 09:48:58 -0800
Subject: [Baren 155] Re: Baren Digest V2 #35 

Hello All:

My understanding of what distinguishes Glicee/Iris printing from
conventional inkjet is that where as ink jet printers have four or seven
ink heads that jet on and off to form the image on the paper or canvas,
Glicee/Iris have finer jet heads that spray a continuous fine stream of
ink over a set electomagnetic plates... the ink spray is continuous and
where ink is not desired to strike the support the plate is activated to
interrupt the ink stream and draw the ink down into a channel that feeds
it back to the jet well... this setup allows a nearly instantaneous
on/off of ink application providing more control and a much clearer ink
*dot* than found with consumer ink jet printers.  The machines cost
between ten and thirty thousand dollars US I believe, and some models
run the paper on a rotating drum past the jet assembly that allows a
progressive build up of ink rather than sending the sheet once through. 
Furthermore, the ink is not archival but responsibvle publishers
silkscreen a film of UV blocking acrylic medium over the print area for
those prints they represent as *permanent*.

I could be wrong here but my understanding was that in the Western
tradition prints are not neccessarily numbered in the order they are run
off the press but rather at the descretion of the artist signing them,
thus, numbering can indicate order of printing, be arbitrary, or
represent order of fineness as determned by the artist.  The artist is
permited up to ten percent of the run in Artist Proofs and the publisher
and printed are given specially designated print-offs as well. 
Numbering order is of more account with drypoint or in huge additions
from metal plates that have not been steel faced, and are much more
important in the case of post humous printing as it is no longer
accepted for the printer to pick up tools and *freshen-up* the plate if
the artist is unavailable to do so.  In anycase, the literature I have
here at hand indicates that numbered limited editions date back no
earlier than the last quarter of the nineteenth century and typicaly
refer to canceling the plate as an *artificial means of creating
rarity*.

regards,
- --dan w.--

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From: Dan Wasserman <dwasser@slam.org>
Date: Thu, 15 Jan 1998 09:55:12 -0800
Subject: [Baren 156] Value 

When there was the auction of Andy Worhols personal effects and his
collection of $14 Swatch watches were selling at and hundreds and
hundreds of dollars each  a comedian commented, "Can you imagine how
much a Van Gogh that had been owned by Worhol would be worth!"

dw


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From: Graham Scholes <gscholes@islandnet.com>
Date: Thu, 15 Jan 1998 09:28:54 -0800
Subject: [Baren 157] Re: Baren Digest V2 #35 

Hi
>
>The machines cost
>between ten and thirty thousand dollars US I believe,

Depending on there size. 80thousand is cost of big jobs.
Cheap by comparison to a 4 or 5 colour Litho press at 250thousand

>Furthermore, the ink is not archival but responsible publishers
>silkscreen a film of UV blocking acrylic medium over the print area for
>those prints they represent as *permanent*.

Permanent...is that like forever.
Ah yes but, the jury is still out on what the acrylic medium does over time.
Hype and BS baffles brains.

You guys getting the idea I have a little dislike towards reproductions
sold as fine art!!!!!

Graham

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From: Graham Scholes <gscholes@islandnet.com>
Date: Thu, 15 Jan 1998 09:44:07 -0800
Subject: [Baren 158] Re: Not again! 

You must have a show coming up soon!!!!!!!

Nervous anxiety shows up in different forms. I go and dig furiously in the
garden or cut fire wood.

Graham

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From: Ray Esposito <brassring@brassring.org>
Date: Thu, 15 Jan 1998 17:55:19 -0500
Subject: [Baren 159] Re: Not again! 

At 11:30 PM 1/15/98 +0900, you wrote:
>
>You can relax guys, there isn't going to be a 'Part III' - I think I've
>just about summed up explaining how I do things ...   I don't know if
>any of these ideas are of any use at all to anybody else, or just how
>much of this is even appropriate in another environment, but anyway,
>this is the way I do things ...
>
>Thanks again for your patience with the long posting.
>
>Dave
>
Dave

Don't apologize for there not being a Part III.  I would love to see one.
I for one really appreciate your thoughts, insights and ideas.  Keep them
coming.

Ray Esposito

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From: Ray Esposito <brassring@brassring.org>
Date: Thu, 15 Jan 1998 18:03:26 -0500
Subject: [Baren 160] Re: Baren Digest V2 #35 <199801141300.WAA41682@ml.asahi-net.or.jp> 

>Ah yes but, the jury is still out on what the acrylic medium does over time.
>Hype and BS baffles brains.
>
>You guys getting the idea I have a little dislike towards reproductions
>sold as fine art!!!!!
>
>Graham
>
Graham

You are not the only one.  As a collector I have never liked the idea.  As
a rookie artist, I like it even less.

Ray Esposito

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End of Baren Digest V2 #37
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