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

Baren Digest              Wednesday, 28 April 1999      Volume 07 : Number 546

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From: Cucamongie@aol.com
Date: Tue, 27 Apr 1999 09:30:27 EDT
Subject: [Baren 4235] Re: Baren Digest V7 #545 

agatha wrote:
> it's refreshing sometimes to see what people (or gorillas) who don't think 
> about art too much can accomplish.  

Thank you!  I think sometimes our "intellect" or "rational thinking" or 
overconcern with technique or whatever you might call it can really get in 
the way of expressiveness.  
 
As for the use of the woodblocks, ultimately I'm not sure what I'll do 
w/them, but in addition to doing prints w/them, I always do some crayon or 
pencil rubbings, which sometimes I find I like better than the prints in a 
way - they have an immediateness in look and a roughness that I like.  Also, 
like others have mentioned, I think the blocks in themselves are interesting 
to look at.  Speaking of old blocks, there are some old woodblocks on 
permanent display in the Natural History Museum in NY which are very 
interesting to see - you can see multiple registration marks as one side of a 
block could be used to print at least two areas.
Also, I just received my tape copy from Jack, along w/a lovely booklet - I'm 
going to take a look at it today, and thanks to Dave & Jack for this treat!

There's been a lot to read on this forum lately - it's hard to keep up with 
it all! :) but it's fun!
Take care,
Sarah

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From: Sunnffunn@aol.com
Date: Tue, 27 Apr 1999 15:13:24 EDT
Subject: [Baren 4236] Re: Baren Digest V7 #536 

I have been remiss and lazy about introducing my self, I apologize.  It seems 
I am busy with opinions and not introductions.  I am Marilynn and for all of 
you who have been busy reading the descriptions of Portland Oregon you 
already know that is where I live.  I have been here all my life and seems I 
am stuck here in northeast Portland.  As for the arts  I graduated from our 
local university, PSU, with a degree in the fine arts:  painting.  Art found 
me and I had a husband and 2 teenagers when I finally acquired that degree.  
I have evolved through many years of painting and about a year ago 
printmaking found me.  Life seems to work that way for me, I resisted 
learning yet another skill but found myself in the printmaking room at the 
local community college one afternoon when a friend was pulling a print.  
Next term I was there.  I wanted to learn monotype techniques and perhaps 
etching.  But the prof had other ideas, he handed me a linoblock and cutting 
tools.  I looked at him and promptly said, " I do not carve, but I will try". 
 Much to my amazement I found out that yes I do carve and it was a wonderful 
first print!  How exciting art is!  Barbara Mason I send my apologies to you 
for starting a feud and to all of you who have had to read my letters.  I 
find this the most professional group I have met on the internet and admire 
your wonderful discussions.  I have yet to try woodblock, but after seeing 
some of this work and listening to all of you I can't wait.  It would be a 
thrill to take a workshop with some of you so skilled at this.  Thanks to the 
friend who sent me the link to try out your wonderful group.  I am sorry I do 
not have a web page, I tried doing that when I first got on the internet and 
a friend once built me one, I lost the link when my hard drive crashed  and 
could not find the address, so it is floating about in cyberspace somewhere. 
It seems I just do not grasp this part of computerland.  As for participation 
locally in the arts, I serve on Gresham city council arts commission and help 
to put together several shows annually and purchase art for city hall.  Also 
I am busy at the coast doing shows in this community, I am presently showing 
at the Ilwaco Heritage Museum on the Washington coast. Happy woodcutting to 
all of you.

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From: michael schneider <mikasch@t0.or.at>
Date: Tue, 27 Apr 1999 21:30:12 +0200
Subject: [Baren 4237] Re: Various 

Michelle,

About the performance. I did the performance in japan during a festival of
austrian art celebrating the 1000 year anniversary of the name giving of the
country. (the oldest document to contain the modern name of the country dates
from 996)
Together with "TENM" (Tyrolean Ensemble for new music). The Idea was that the
sketches on my block have influence on the rhythm of my working and by time, the
rhythm of my working and the rhythm of my heartbeat become the same.  When
attaching short compositions to parts of the sketch, it would be possible to
compose a piece of music without following the traditional structure of a
straight timeline in notation.  The outcome was very interesting and the
audience liked it. The performance lasted about 25 minutes, but because of the
limited disc space the CD contains only a short clip.
Your praising words about the book I imediatley forwarded to my wife Elizabeth
who did layout, writing, organisation, redaction and was the edtitor.

michael

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From: michael schneider <mikasch@t0.or.at>
Date: Tue, 27 Apr 1999 21:47:18 +0200
Subject: [Baren 4241] just a few words 

David wrote
> It's too bad Michael is so busy this week ... he must be watching all this
> stuff go by with quite some frustration ...!)

You are quite right! And my frustration grew enormously when my computer
crashed in a way that recovery was impossible and I had to reinstall
everything.
That took me off the internet for the last three days.
Most frustrating is that I lost all the mails I received so far. I have to
apologize to all of you who were waiting for a response. If you are still
interested to get an answer, please send a mail again.

>All [Baren] discussions are archived, and can be reached from the 'Forum
>Archives' link on that page. 

At least I can read the discussion about abstract art from the beginning in the
archive.

But first of all, let me tell you that I also had a wonderful time when reading
all the statements. To soo many of them I would have liked to respond but I
think that it would be to much to include all this thoughts in this posting.

So here are just a few words.........( not about the "meaning" of my work,
because I believe that when you can express the meaning of a work of visual art
in words, you should write it.)


I believe that in the discussion about abstraction, the fact got lost, that all
creation of images and pictures is abstraction.
The "readability" is a different question as is "meaning".
The fact, that somebody might be able to recognize something within a work of
art des not mean that the person understands the intentions of the artist. On
the other hand it might be possible that someone does not recognize anything in
a work of art  instinctively understands what the artist/creator intended.
Art always is a means of communication. Mankind developed different strategies
of communication, but no system is perfect. Even when two native speaker of the
same mothertounge talk to each other, the will have to take care not to
misunderstand each other. Compared with visual arts, language is a highly
organized system, with fixed rules.
In developing a syntax for visual communication, the image built the central
starting point. The closer an image is to the original object, the better it
can be used to point exclusively at the original object. If I want to instruct
someone using pictures, to cut down a certain tree, I have to draw the picture
of the tree including as much of the characteristic of the tree I selected as
possible. Otherwise I have to expect that the wrong tree might get cut down.
But if I want to express some thoughts about trees in general, I should find a
expression that represents all trees. That means, I have to reduce the
individual characteristics of the different trees....... find a form that can
be used to represent all trees.
The story gets a little more complicated, when we want to give a statement
about the god living in a tree. How can we find a form to express this. The
most intriguing part here is, that this question has to be asked, because it is
in the centre of the development of abstract thinking.
This form can not be random. It has to have some qualities, to make it useful
to represent the idea. Only then will it be recognized and accepted. (All this
applies of course to people of a group.)

My work is about the qualities of such forms, that is the research I do. I know
that I miss the group somehow, but the more people try to "read" my work, the
greater is the community, that might find an agreement about the way to read
it.
To make that happen, one of my goals when developing a new print, is to arouse
the desire to read my work. I you allow me to do so, I take the discussion on
baren, as proof, that I somehow succeeded with that.


 This is the first thought from the book to be written "1001 thoughts that
bring my prints into being" by M. Schneider. : )
(Fact is that there are many interwoven ideas that are important for me when
composing a new work.)
Other thoughts to be included in the book:

...................lost cultures, foreign cultures and danger, image and
object, aesthetics, why to do prints, woodcut-mass media-society, rhythm and
form, transcendental experiences, humanist and cartesian thinking and the truth
within us, woodcut and heisenberg, open artwork (the whole world is
semiotics?), symbol and ornament, the haptic quality in 2D creation,
...................

michael

BTW I was very happy to have found at least two persons in oregon who are
interested in my work. I recently got mail from a printmaker from Eugene who
offered me to introduce my work to galleries there (one in Eugene and one in
Portland). One gallery told her, that my work does not offer enough "new"
elements to be of interest for them and the other gallery told, that there is
not enough interest in oregon in european printmaking to justify a show there.

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From: April Vollmer <jy6@columbia.edu>
Date: Tue, 27 Apr 1999 20:44:11 -0400
Subject: [Baren 4244] Abstraction/Recipe Request 

Thank you Jack, thank you Grahm, Mary, and Maria, too--I thought your
description of learning to understand the abstract sounds of the English
language was very nice!

I don't think abstract art is quite as hard to learn as another language,
but studying it, talking to the artists, and finding out where they are
coming from certainly helps (MFA or no!) I reallly enjoyed the Rothko show
here, seeing the whole range of work chronologically gave me a much better
understanding. I am also reading Anna Chave's book on Rothko, which makes
me enjoy the art that much more.

And Andrea, I am glad to find another artist who reads about chaos theory!
I think it relates so much to organic shapes in nature. I have never been a
math person, but I am fascinated by the way these new ideas seem to
describe some elemental quality in nature.

I look forward to seeing Michael's CD, hope I'm on the list after Sarah.

But enough with the talk, I am in the midst of cutting a new block, and am
getting a little tired of the weakness of that shina...I'm cutting very
fine details, and it keeps splitting. Graham, could you remind me of the
recipe for strengthening a block? I used to use varnish when I did oil
base, but will it work for waterbase? I've already started cutting.

April Vollmer

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From: "Gregory D. Valentine" <gvalen@linfield.edu>
Date: Tue, 27 Apr 1999 19:46:16 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: [Baren 4245] Re: technology and visual communication 

 Jack, thanks for your response.  This is something I have to think about.
The idea is reasonable, but complicated.  Not enough known about the
introduction of writing, too much about the introduction of photography. 
But the impact of printing on graphic arts, that might be usefully
investigated.
 By the by or vis a vis, I have seen identified as causitive technologies 
of impressionism: paint tubes (allowed painting outdoors), the railways
(got them into the countryside & on the way gave them something blurry to
look at), and now photography (the need to render things uniquely).
                                                --GV

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From: Graham Scholes <gscholes@home.com>
Date: Tue, 27 Apr 1999 22:42:02 -0700
Subject: [Baren 4247] Re: Abstraction/Recipe Request 

>Graham, could you remind me of the
>recipe for strengthening a block? 

Even now, after you have start carving, you can apply a coat of varnish.
By the best varnish you can.  My last purchase was Spar Varnish and cost
$17.00 a quart.

Mix a small amount in a plastic margarine container.... 50% Varnish and 50%
Turpentine thinner.  You will apply one coat with a rag.
You want to mix just enough to coat the block. If you have some left over
pore in back in the quart container.

Let it dry and continue carving.  This will help to stiffen up the wood a
bit.  When you have finished carving put another coat of the same mix. When
dry you take a block of wood or any object (I have used a colour slide
container) wrap a piece of 400 grit wet/dry sandpaper on it and sand the
flat surfaces lightly.  It is best if you have a thin pad of cloth on the
block as it cushions the hard sanding block and will not accidentaly mare
the surface of your plate.

You will find that mixing the rice paste with you pigment will prevent and
beading of the pigment.

Sincerely,

Graham

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End of Baren Digest V7 #546
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