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

Baren Digest            Wednesday, 9 September 1998    Volume 04 : Number 269

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From: Gayle Wohlken <blueman@pantek.com>
Date: Tue, 08 Sep 1998 09:55:33 -0400
Subject: [Baren 1550] Re: Baren Digest V4 #268 

Ray said of the locals in his town

> BTW-the old codgers really do get together every morning at the coffee shop
> to discuss what is going on in town and talk about people.  If you stop in
> around noon for lunch, they are still there.  

Same here in my village.  But it's true about eccentricities one might 
have.  They also can make one a little famous.  Villagers always forgive 
artists...although, I heard that someone referred to our family as 
"The Adams Family".  They would definitely believe so if they came
inside and saw what we have here--one item a bone cabinet filled with
animal bones and other eccentricities.  Another--a table with a Bhudda
sitting next to a tall madonna statue (not the singer).

Never mind.  None of this is to do with Baren.

Dave, I won't digress like this again.  I couldn't help myself with Ray
saying those things about his new town.

* * * * * 

A question for you people who wire brush your boards.  How much wire
brushing does it take to make the grain come up?  I tried it recently
and when I printed, I couldn't tell any difference.  Maybe Elisa or James
can answer this.  

Gayle Wohlken

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From: April Vollmer/John Yamaguchi <aprilvollmer@altavista.net>
Date: Tue, 8 Sep 1998 10:39:51 -0400
Subject: [Baren 1551] Practical and Modern, Not 

I certainly agree with Ray about destroying books! And I agree with Dave on
the differences between a folio and a book. I think displaying the folio
won't permanently damage anything, so it's basically different from slicing
up a book.

The colophon page will be a useful identification/education tool, to
explain what we're doing. I hope Dave will take a hand in that, seeing as
how we all think so highly of him!

Glad to hear a little about Gayle's Danbury show at Elisa's coop, sounds
very nice! I must visit sometime!

I was also very interested in the remarks about the status of hanga in
Japan. It seems to me that historically hanga was never as highly regarded
in Japan as in Europe...where the Impressionists were so impressed.

As an American, I spend a lot of time explaining what traditional hanga is,
and why I think it's important. The whole tradition of handicraft in Japan,
papermaking, brush making, baren making seems so wonderful...and yet, I
certainly understand why young people in Japan would want to do something
more practical, more modern, and more remunerative!

April Vollmer

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From: "Chris Bremmer" <cbremmer@prairietech.net>
Date: Sun, 6 Sep 1998 23:15:52 -0500
Subject: [Baren 1552] Question on starting then carving 

Hello,

First of all I'd like to say hello and thanks to everyone on the list. 
I'm new to woodblock printing and enjoy all the information and ideas I 
get each day from this list.

My question is this.... after you have the design drawn out on the 
keyblock, what is the first tool you like to use?

I've read where a straight-edge blade is used to initally make the first 
cut around each "pattern" or "color".... and then a v-shaped blade is 
used from there on.

I'm just wondering what the general preference is.

Thanks much,

Chris Bremmer
cbremmer@prairietech.net
http://www.prairietech.net/chris

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From: Ray Esposito <brassring@brassring.org>
Date: Tue, 08 Sep 1998 11:39:23 -0400
Subject: [Baren 1553] Re: Practical and Modern, Not 

April wrote:
>I was also very interested in the remarks about the status of hanga in
>Japan. 

April

I was at Border's books the other day and reviewed a large book called Art
In Japan since 1945.  There was nary a mention of Hanga.  Every art form
was covered and when it came to woodblocks only modern techniques were
covered.  I think it is sad that in all probability in 25 years,
traditional hanga will be just a memory, perhaps carried on by a very few
like David.  Once the craftsmen are gone, and if their sons and daughters
do not take up the skills, we will only be able to read about it.  Sad
indeed.  Dave, what do you see for traditional woodblock in Japan in 25
years?  Is it as bleak as I think or did I just pick up the wrong book?

Cheers

Ray Esposito

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From: David Bull <davebull@woodblock.com>
Date: Wed, 09 Sep 1998 08:56:30 +0900
Subject: [Baren 1554] New prints 

I got a nice present in the mail this morning, a new URL:

http://www.atlantic.net/~theadm/gallery/

That doesn't tell you who it is, but when you go there you will find
prints and drawings, etc. by [Baren] member Jeanne ...

Go there forthwith and check out those two musicians!  _And_ the 'Winter Sun'!

(Graham especially, you are going to stand up and cheer when you see
those drawings ...)

Congratulations on your new site Jeanne, and now I'm really salivating
to see your 'exchange' print!

***

Ray wrote:
>Dave, what do you see for traditional woodblock in Japan in 25
>years?  Is it as bleak as I think or did I just pick up the wrong book?

Boy, don't get me started on _this_ topic, or I'll type until your eyes
glaze over ...

In a nutshell, traditional type printmaking (with separate professionals
to do the designing, carving, printing and selling) _is_ pretty much
finished.  And so it should be.  It flourished in a different age, under
different economic and social circumstances.  There is neither any need
nor necessity for it to continue.  Everything has its time and place,
and the time and place for this craft is pretty much past.

I've been expecting Richard Steiner to pop up and add his 4 cents here,
because anytime he hears people crying about this situation, he
vociferously argues that woodblock printmaking is far from dead, and is
still very healthy here.

And he is right.  As I mentioned in the previous post, there are a great
many people here making a great many woodblock prints.  Please don't get
confused by these contradictory stories.  

Woodblock printmaking is very much alive and well in Japan, I am sure
more so than anywhere else in the world.  Yes, it's mostly amateur work,
but I suspect you would be surprised if you could see the level of what
many of these people produce.  I don't want to insult the members of the
[Baren] group, so please don't misunderstand what I'm about to say, but
prints that some of my neighbours are producing at the local 'culture
centre' woodblock course would fit in perfectly on our 'Who is Baren'
page.

What Daniel was bewailing, and what I face in my own work every time I
try and buy new tools or go to a craftsmen's association meeting, is the
unescapable fact that we are now coming to the 'end of an era' as
regards the division of labour traditional printmaking style.

Various organizations, both private and governmental, are making efforts
to put off the inevitable, and I myself am convinced that given proper
'management' and direction, there would be a lot of life in the craft
yet.  We'll see what the future brings - perhaps some surprises.

Dave

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From: Jean Eger <jeaneger@LanMinds.Com>
Date: Tue, 08 Sep 1998 17:01:18 -0700
Subject: [Baren 1555] Re: Baren Digest V4 #268 

Gary,
They eat tofu.  It's good for you.

Jean Eger

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From: Daniel Kelly <daniel@vowel.or.jp>
Date: Wed, 09 Sep 1998 09:32:25 +0000
Subject: [Baren 1556] Re: New prints 

David Bull wrote:
> professionals to do the designing, carving, printing and selling) _is_
> pretty much
> finished.  And so it should be.

Should it really? Seems to me that there is a need for professional
craftsmen in this field who do  work for artists as there is in every
medium. I use professional studios so that I may concentrate on aesthetic
decisions.D

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From: Ray Esposito <brassring@brassring.org>
Date: Tue, 08 Sep 1998 21:06:26 -0400
Subject: [Baren 1557] Re: New prints 

Jeanne

What a wonderful site.  I envy such talent.  I agree with Dave, I am really
looking forward to your exchange print.  I love the oils and drawings but
the prints were absolutely outstanding.  I look forward to seeing much more
of your work.

Congratulations for giving us all an insight into such great work.

Ray

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From: Gary Luedtke <GLuedtke@compuserve.com>
Date: Tue, 8 Sep 1998 21:16:58 -0400
Subject: [Baren 1558] New prints 

Dave wrote:
>traditional type printmaking (with separate professionals
>to do the designing, carving, printing and selling) _is_ pretty much
>finished.  And so it should be.  It flourished in a different age, under
>different economic and social circumstances.  There is neither any need
>nor necessity for it to continue.  Everything has its time and place,
>and the time and place for this craft is pretty much past.

Hold the fort!  _I'm_ not done with it yet, in fact I'm just getting
started!   I'm going to pump some new life into it and introduce a whole
new genre of woodblock prints, and I better be able to find someone to
carve and print them because I'm too busy designing 'em to take the time
and learn how to do it myself.  Tell those guys to hold on over there,
don't get excited and start quitting to take up delivering newspapers or
something, we've got some art history to make yet as woodblock printing
enters a new millenia!  And I want to be there to help throw it over the
threshhold.   Whoaaaa boy!  Not by a long shot is this coming to an end yet
if I have anything to say about it, and I've got plenty to say about it.

Yeah, that's right, me, the"computer" designer.   Sure, it helps in
designing them, but there is _no_ printing like woodblock printing done in
the traditional sense!   Dave, you know that, and the Baren members know
that, at least some of them, and there's an art audience out there that
knows it.  Sure, more people _need_ to know it, but it takes some
spectacular art to go out there and whack them awake to it, and given a
little time, we'll do it!    And if _we_ don't do it,  _I'll_ do it.   

The Sosaku- style prints are fine, kind of do-it-yourself woodblock
printing, I've got nothing against that at all, I see very little style in
it I could like with a passion, but we all have different tastes.   The
traditional style however have a _tremendous_ amount of techniques to offer
which can terrifically enhance a print outside of the merits of its design.
  To have "experts" adding these touches to a print which only they, after
years of study and experience within their own field can offer,  ( It would
take a lifetime to achieve ability such as the carver of Dave's Goyo block
for example) is something we will ultimately lose to economics, it is true,
but which if we can hold on longer, can yet add some new pages to the
magnificent history of traditional woodblock printing.  Shozaburo Watanabe
and  Hiroshi Yoshida stood on the same threshhold and went forward anyway, 
and look at the fine body of work they added.  We again stand on the same
threshhold, and can either close the door and look for another pursuit, or
step out and meet the challenge as they did.  

New times?   No doubt about it!  But when you have something good, hold
onto it.  The art perhaps needs to change more than the technique.   That's
my job.   Stand back!

Gary

So don't give up on this yet, but get your knives and brushes ready!

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From: Gary Luedtke <GLuedtke@compuserve.com>
Date: Tue, 8 Sep 1998 21:51:12 -0400
Subject: [Baren 1559] Re: Baren Digest V4 #268 

Jean,

I guess I'm destined to roll over early then,  "tofu"???  No way!  I'm a
meat and potatoes kind of guy, none of this bean curd paste.  How in the
world can you prepare the stuff without making you a born again bulemic? 
Are you sure it's not Sake and Sashimi that makes em forget how old they
are?  

Dave, don't worry, this _is_ woodblock print oriented because I've got a
lot of prints to do yet, and I want to be around to get them off the
drawing board, so diet is of course germain to that topic. 

Speaking of another tangential subject though, how, Dave, would you say
woodblock artisans sense the religious aspects of their work?  _Was_ there
a religious aspect to their work, in the sense of Zen maybe?  Strict
discipline has been required, there is a hierarchy of "enlightening"
stages,  a celibacy of a sense that much is sacrificed to the art, a
deliberate process is followed, it seems to me there would be something to
the idea of "Zen and the art of Woodblock Printing".  It was a rigorous
life, and it seems to me it had many religious aspects to it.  Is not the
carving of a block a type of ceremony?   There is meditation and
concentration is there not? And the printing?  The gods must be happy, the
stars in proper alignment, a tasty meal of bean curd just finished off, the
humidity just right, a spiritual calm descending, the muscles warmed up,
the brushes ready, the  pigments mixed, the paper stacked, the phone off
the hook, the c.d. playing softly, and the communion ready to begin! 

Sounds kind of religious to me.    What do you think?  

Gary

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End of Baren Digest V4 #269
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