[Baren]: The mailing list / discussion forum for woodblock printmaking. Baren Digest Saturday, 5 September 1998 Volume 04 : Number 265 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: "Roger A. Ball" Date: Fri, 04 Sep 1998 09:03:32 -0600 Subject: [Baren 1522] exhibit Count me in for any sort of exhibit on any reasonable scale. As was mentioned, when the exchange is "in hand" would be the time for effort by those who can bring such a thing about. The preparation would be gigantic and I would be extremely grateful to any of our members who have the gumption and contacts to get any or all of us greater exposure. Of course, there are those on Baren who want none of it and that should somehow be respected as well. Design done and glued on six planks. Will start carving tonight. The birch ply makes me think that I'm holding a nickle compared with the "silver dollar" feel of walnut. Looks like it will work, though. Cheers! - -Roger ------------------------------ From: Ray Esposito Date: Thu, 03 Sep 1998 17:09:45 -0400 Subject: [Baren 1523] Re: Baren Digest V4 #263 Jean wrote: >We have to remember that Ray is a newbie, an amateur. Professional >artists want to show and sell their prints. Jean With all due respect, this is a little silly. All artists want to sell their work. But is a professionly "only" someone who does art full time. I don't buy it. Cheers Ray Esposito ------------------------------ From: Ray Esposito Date: Thu, 03 Sep 1998 17:56:53 -0400 Subject: [Baren 1524] folio I love this forum. I assumed members would have seen the same thing in Elisa's post that I saw and that a long dissertation was unnecessary. Elisa wrote ".........I could use my set to show, and since I could not possibly afford to frame them all, mount them behind glass only......." Does anyone see the difficulty with that statement besides the obvious one of having the art pressed up against glass? Besides my amazement that a co-op would give up the wall space to hang 29 prints, this is a folio. Folio's are not meant to be hung. Dave Bull presents his work in folios. He has given his reasons a number of times. He does not want his work hung. I could not agree with any statement more, at least to the extent that we are talking about folios. I will honor Dave's wishes when I exhibit his folio (not for sale) at Printhouse Elisa's folio is hers to do with as she wants as is everyone. I for one would encourage Elisa and all participating members to show off the folio in as many venues as possible. MY objection is to "hanging" the works. I plan on exhibiting my folio in Printhouse, along with other folios I own. None of these will be hung because that is not what folios are designed for. Hanging individual works breaks up a folio, even if hung in the same gallery. Folios are meant to be kept together and shown together. My objection is that simple. Show the folios? Go for it and good luck, but show them as a folio. I also think Elisa or any of you, would find it much easier to get galleries to show the folio AND MOST IMPORTANT, promote Baren and woodcuts if offered as a folio and not ask them to take up 58 feet of wall space. Think about it. If someone came into Printhouse and asked me to give up 58 feet of wall space to display 29 artists I had not heard of, whose body of work I have never seen or reviewed, at a price of I know not what, (it is assumed the folio is not for sale), for a period of time that would cost me a great deal of money from lost sales, my answer would be the same as every gallery in this country....... This is my opinion. Each of you will do with your folios what you want. That is how it should be. At Printhouse I will give each of your works as much exposure as I can but I will do so as a folio in a portion of the gallery dedicated to folios I own on Dali, Pirenesi, Dave Bull and other print clubs and artists. Dave and Julio mentioned a traveling exhibit idea I presented some time back. Those were to be prints specifically designed for the project and were to be mat mounted with participants sharing in the expense. That was a different approach from a folio. Cheers Ray Esposito ------------------------------ From: Julio.Rodriguez@walgreens.com Date: Fri, 4 Sep 1998 16:38:58 -0500 Subject: [Baren 1525] re: bare #524; folio Hi Ray. I was in nearby Winterhaven (Universal, Seaworld, etc,) for a week last month. Had I known you were so close I would have tried to stop by and chat. Somehow I tought you were further south by Boca. Anyways... Regarding the folio. I don't know much about putting exhibits together and/or all the pros & cons that go with that line of business. I am usually due for one long posting a month...so this is it. Point #1. I suspect that many (if not most) galleries would be cautious to exhibiting a large group of prints from mostly unknown artists. I say mostly unknown, but this needs explanation. When you look at many of the resumes of the Baren group this is quite an accomplished group of artists with many having a lengthy history of solo shows and exhibitions. So if the word "unknown" belongs at all, it is only when looking outside of each artists home turf /niche or when talking about the truly "newbies" (me being one of them) that fillout the folio group. I think the art work will speak for itself. All that I have seen in Baren so far tells me that this is going to be a very exciting group of prints by some very talented people. Point #2. Regarding hanging prints & displaying them separate. Again, I am aware of the problems encountered in matting, framing & hanging such work. I understand paper against glass to not be good (specially if embossing is involved) and I understand your concerns regarding "hanging" vs "folio". I know Dave's views in displaying his (traditional japanese) prints. But here I would argue that these prints will have no unifying theme. Most of them will not be in the traditional Japanese style. Besides the common size, all they would share would be the fact that their makers belong to an internet forum and have a love for woodblock printing. I would venture to say that the variety of subjects involved and techniques used will be so wide that each print will be able to stand on it's own merits and will have no noticeable connection to any other prints in the folio. We are talking about monochromes vs. multi-colored prints, we are talking about traditional moku-hanga techniques vs. razor blades and needles, we are talking reduction vs. multi-block carvings, Rives vs. Hosho. Correct me if my inexperience shows, but, what would be the problem with showing them on a wall ? Point #3. The problems & solutions encountered in exhibiting such a folio would be undertaken by each artist who chooses to follow such a path. If someone wants to use glass, or display their prints together as a folio, or frame them...or just keep them home under lock & key...so be it. We are planning some remodeling here at home and thus I am hoping to be able to display some of the prints in my home. Perhaps with some form of revolving display. I think a common "description letter" as described by Dave should go out with each folio so that it could be used by those wishing to display the work. Having said all of that.......let me just add that it's probably way too early to start worrying about such things...but it's ok to dream about them. ps. Since Graham is out-of-town........If you ate pasta and antipasta, would you still be hungry? , Do pediatricians play miniature golf on Wednesdays? and If one synchronized swimmer drowns, do the rest have to drown too? ------------------------------ From: David Bull Date: Sat, 05 Sep 1998 14:26:42 +0900 Subject: [Baren 1526] One-Point lesson Here is this week's 'One-point' lesson (contributed by David Bull) ********** ********** ********** (#21) Getting the block 'warmed up' for printing ... To make 'just one' good woodblock print is almost an impossible task. There is a 'warm-up' process that must be gone through when starting any given print run, and the first few sheets off the blocks are always 'test' sheets. Just as an athlete cannot simply enter the stadium, crouch into the starting position, and then run the 100 metres, neither can the printmaker (nor his woodblocks) work without properly warming up. When I was making my first experiments in woodblock printmaking, I used to prepare a half-dozen or so sheets of paper for each print run. I thought that I had no need to make larger numbers of prints, and of course also didn't want to 'waste' paper. I didn't realize it at the time, but that policy of making such a small number of prints made it inevitable that my efforts to make a decent print would fail. The blocks were dry and thirsty, the brush was clean and almost 'empty' of pigment, and it was only by the time the last of the six sheets came across the block that things were starting to come into balance. And I unintentionally made the situation _much_ worse by taking a long time between sheets, inspecting each one to see 'how I was doing'. During those intervals, even though each was only a minute or so in length, the block dried out a bit and the next print suffered in consequence. Pulling a group of woodblock prints is _not_ something that can be stopped and started or dawdled over. You must get the materials all ready, then get them warmed up properly, and then ... go, go, go ... until they are all done. This is a huge 'Catch 22' for the beginner. He has to constantly stop and inspect what he is doing, in order to make the necessary adjustments to the blocks and paper, but stopping like that _guarantees_ that the next sheet will have a different block/paper moisture balance, thus rendering his adjustments meaningless. There is only one solution for this: do your early printing experiments using a cheap and expendible paper, put _at least_ a couple of dozen sheets in the stack, and promise yourself you will keep moving, keep moving, keep moving ... Make your adjustments and experiments as you move along - use more pigment, use less pigment, etc. etc., but _don't_ stop printing! They're no good? Don't worry about it - these sheets will be thrown away! Later, when you're a bit more confident and ready to run an edition, put a half-dozen of these cheap sheets at the beginning of the main stack of proper printing paper (or more if you think necessary). They will be your 'warm-up' group, and hopefully by the time you hit the 'real' paper, your block will be properly moist, your brush will be 'loaded', and you will be cruising ... *** (Extra note: I didn't mention it in that lesson, but assumed that before you are ready to try such a test printing run, you have previously tried to print one or two sheets to verify such basic things as general registration alignment, whether or not additional carving is perhaps necessary, and what general sort of colours you are going to mix ... That kind of adjustment and testing always takes a lot of time, and you cannot hope to do such things properly during a print run.) ********** ********** ********** Next week - Heads up, heads down, heads up, heads down ... These 'One-point' lessons are being collected into a section in the [Baren] Encyclopedia of Woodblock Printmaking. http://www.woodblock.com/encyclopedia/updates.html Contributions from experienced printmakers for future 'One-pointers' are eagerly solicited. ------------------------------ End of Baren Digest V4 #265 ***************************