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

Baren Digest            Saturday, 19 September 1998    Volume 04 : Number 286

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From: Gayle Wohlken <blueman@pantek.com>
Date: Fri, 18 Sep 1998 09:56:25 -0400
Subject: [Baren 1726] Re: Baren Digest V4 #285 

Okay, I'm confused:

kim and paul wrote:
>   Hello, my name is Kim Kaschimer Medina and I am new to the group.

I received this as a message as a quote that had already appeared
in one of the Baren Digests.  How did I miss it the first time around? 
I went back through my old digests to see when it first appeared, and
couldn't find it.  Is anyone else confused?  

Anyway, welcome to Kim.

Kim, last Spring I did a demonstration of woodblock printmaking in a
classroom at Kent State University's Geauga County Campus and found the
students completely taken up by the process.  I think anyone who gets those
little knives and gouges into their hands finds a relationship with the wood
they hadn't imagined.  And finally, the pulling of the print --the
unwrapped gift--the exclamations, sighs, giggles even.   As they left the room
 I heard their plans being discussed with excitement.  More than one
copy!!! They were going to buy wood!  They had an idea they couldn't wait to
try! What if they turned the paper  to the other side?  What if the next time
they try a different color on the same block, but only at the top?  I
saw creativity awakened.

Gayle Wohlken

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From: jimandkatemundie@juno.com (James G Mundie)
Date: Fri, 18 Sep 1998 12:18:22 -0400
Subject: [Baren 1727] Re: Baren Digest V4 #285 

Kim wrote:
>I will be speaking in a panel discussion group at the next
>Southern Graphics Council conference concerning Bill Fisher's 
>questiona about making "meaning" in art........
>I am most concerned with whether or not printmaking should be taught at
>all.... to students K-12 and university levels.  Why should students
>learn about printmaking, especially in this age of technology?  

Kim, welcome to [Baren]... but forgive me for disbelieving that there is
any question as to whether printmaking should be taught in the schools. 
"Age of technology"?  Printmaking is one of the _original_ technologies
(think Gutenburg) and -- as Dean mentioned -- still one the most
technically demanding methods of mark making!

In my own experience teaching printmaking at the elementary school and
college level, printmaking was both the most challenging and rewarding
exercise for those students.  My findings match Ray Hudson's exactly.

Printmaking requires an entirely different way of thinking and reverse
engineering.  The mental aspect of printing alone has helped my students
in many of their non-artistic studies, enabling them to reason beyond the
obvious.  

If you think printmaking is obsolete in this technological age, then why
paint or draw either?  Why teach children any of these things?  The
reasons to continue to do these things is obvious.  Technology itself
cannot replace good handcraft.

Let us not forget that this "age of technology" is influencing
printmaking itself (look at all the folks on this forum using their
computers to help design their prints, or the recent discussions on
Prints-L about registering computer-generated etching plates).  Think how
the introduction of acid-etching changed the world of metal engraving or
movable type influenced calligraphy... boxwood endgrain... Japanese color
woodblock... lithography... etc., etc.
 
James Mundie, Philadelphia USA

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From: Jean Eger <jeaneger@LanMinds.Com>
Date: Fri, 18 Sep 1998 09:42:22 -0700
Subject: [Baren 1728] Re: Baren Digest V4 #285 

Are any of Baren's Japanese members familiar with the Japanese public
school teaching of linocut or woodcut in the elementary or secondary
grades?  I am under the impression that children are taught to hold the
woodcutting knives at a young age.  Is this true or not?

I have seen young children paint on sponges, then print.  The sponges were
round and fluffy-feeling, not the flat hard kind.  The kids really enjoyed
this.  I guess that might be called stamping, but that's a form of
printing.  Rubber stamps are big in all the stores.  
	
I think your project sounds good, Ray.  

Jean Eger

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From: David Bull <davebull@woodblock.com>
Date: Sat, 19 Sep 1998 05:39:03 +0900
Subject: [Baren 1729] Teaching printmaking 

Re the recent comments about teaching printmaking ...

Jean wrote:
>Are any of Baren's Japanese members familiar with the Japanese public
>school teaching of linocut or woodcut in the elementary or secondary
>grades?  I am under the impression that children are taught to hold the
>woodcutting knives at a young age.  Is this true or not?

Very much so.  The elementary school kids do printmaking with 'blocks'
made from paper, styrofoam, wood ... you name it.  The art supply boxes
in all classrooms include complete sets of student grade carving knives,
as well as enough barens to go around the class.

Japan works on a set national curriculum, and every kid in the country
studies the same thing at the same time.  This may scare some of you
freedom-loving Americans, but there is one rather large benefit - 99.99%
literacy ... literacy in reading and writing, literacy in mathematics,
literacy in printmaking ... etc. etc.

***

I don't have 'students' here, but every year at the local community
centre, as part of the 'Culture Day' (a national holiday) events, I do a
printmaking event for the kids.  I get a design that will interest them
(last year's was a frame from a popular animated movie, this year's is a
character from an old folk tale), and carve a set of four plywood blocks
- - black with three colours.

At the community centre they give me two tables, and I set up four 'work
stations' - each one with the block (taped to the table), a bowl of
pigment, a brush, and a baren.  They line up at one end, grab a sheet of
paper, and work their way down the line.  I stand behind the table,
guiding and yelling and fooling around, and after the first hour or so,
I've usually collected a bunch of 'assistants' around me - Grade Six kids
who want to help out assisting the younger kids.  

Over the years this has become a very popular event, and kids come back
each year to 'collect' the latest print.  The mothers tell me that many
of the kids have these things stuck up on their bedroom walls, etc. 
When we hit the peak time about two in the afternoon, the lineup can
stretch for dozens of kids waiting ...

By the end of the whole thing, my back is just about broken from leaning
over the low tables, but it sure is a kick to watch all their faces when
they pull the paper off that last block and they can see the finished
print (we do the black last, in reverse from the normal practice).

It's coming up again soon, November 1st ~ 3rd this time, and I'm lucky 
this year. When my daughters were here in the summer they wanted to 
do some carving, so I suggested that they prepare the set of blocks for 
this year's design (my 10th year doing this).  They caught fire and did 
the best set of blocks we've ever used for this event.  

There's a proof copy up at:
http://www.woodblock.com/forum/archives/vol04/extras/proof.jpg
(That's vol04 as in volume 04)

So I guess my answer to Kim's question 'Why should kids learn about
printmaking?' is just - 'Because it's fun!'

Dave B.

***

P.S.  Dave McClean's 'Twentieth Century Japanese Prints' site has moved,
and is now located at:
http://members.home.net/dmcclean/prints.html

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From: David Bull <davebull@woodblock.com>
Date: Sat, 19 Sep 1998 21:40:18 +0900
Subject: [Baren 1730] 'One-point' lesson ... 

Here is this week's 'One-point' lesson 

(contributed by Bill Ritchie)

********** ********** **********

(#23)  How to Market Your Prints - "Pricing Prints"

Should prints be priced according to what time and materials went into
them, or according to what you think they may sell for?
 
I see four possible answers, but they all stem from _one_ source: Your
_goals_. Do you have goals? Do you know what your goal is? 

For example, if your goal is to be left alone to your composing,
carving, doodling or just having fun in a serendipitous way, don't make 
_any_ plan. If you want to succeed as an artist, and this is the way
your instincts tell you to go, then go for it, even if the "it" is nebulous.

If your goal is to meet neat people and have great relationships among
other artists, crafts people, designers, publishers, collectors and
academics, your costs (and thus prices) will be determined other ways -
or not planned at all.
 
Once I gave a short Web site workshop to some people at a dining room
table. When I was done they said, "We want to pay you, even though we
didn't talk about this before you came. What do you charge?" They were
interesting people, and I was doing it for fun. "Whatever it was worth,"
I said, and they gave me a check for $300. This is not the same as
making prints, but you get the similarity - the only goal in mind was 
to have a little fun, meet some people, and listen to their ideas.

If your goal in making prints is to get rich, then yes, you (a) will
have a marketing plan and, from this, (b) you will make the _right_
conclusion (or your best guess), based on your actual costs of making 
the prints. There's a popular saying, "To fail to plan is a plan to fail." 
 
Fourth, if your goal is a pastiche of the above three ideas, you may
have different plans for different prints, or even for different runs
within an edition, or an open edition plus a closed edition. This 
happens when you are working with a publisher or a dealer, where 
there are rules that hold in certain instances, and areas where there 
are no rules. Communication is the key here, and may be expressed 
in written contracts.
 

Giving four answers to start things out, and throwing back the idea that
it starts with a goal in mind may seem like evasion, but the point is
that the answer descends from your goal. If you don't agree that goals
are important or realistic for artists (because they hamper creativity) 
then your own answer will be suspended on a daily basis. You may prefer 
this way.  You may make a new system every day, to suit the weather, 
your feelings or your horoscope.
 
It'll drive your business-like associates crazy, perhaps, but they'll
get used to it if they are still making a profit off your labor.
 
On the other hand, if you paid $20 for a self-help marketing and sales
book, you're already $20 down a road that assumes your roadmap is for
financial break-even or profit.
 
- ---------------------

The above recommendations are from Bill H. Ritchie, Jr., author of "The
Art of Selling Art: Between Production and Livelihood". He is currently
preparing a new edition called "Beyond the Art of Selling Art" as part
of his Perfect Studios trilogy.

********** ********** **********

Next week -   ... printing with ceramics ...

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.

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End of Baren Digest V4 #286
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