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

Baren Digest              Wednesday, 5 April 2000      Volume 11 : Number 960

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From: Andrew Stevens <arsteven@facstaff.wisc.edu>
Date: Tue, 04 Apr 2000 08:38:08 -0500
Subject: [Baren 9138] Re: black only (Gertrude Hermes) 

Hi all. I've been lurking here for a time & am refreshed by the friendly 
tine and the amazing accomplishments of the group; the Encyclopedia, 
Baren-Suji, the print exchanges and the Skokie exhibit are just great. It's 
wonderful for a person like me to ride along this wave of skill and 
enthusiasm.

I'm no printmaker (all right, I've gouged one block, and that printed with 
that awful non-water based stuff), but figure the more I know about the 
process the more I'll appreciate it. Thanks, all, for the continuing education

Anyway, Barbara might be thinking about the fine artist Gertrude Hermes. 
Her beautiful wood engravings are collected in a book by Judith Russell, 
published by Scholar Press, in England in 1993.

Drew Stevens
Madison, Wisconsin, USA

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From: B Mason <bemason@concentric.net>
Date: Tue, 04 Apr 2000 07:18:14 -0700
Subject: [Baren 9139] gertrude Hermes 

Drew,
Welcome to baren and thanks for the whole name, I will find that book.
As I said, her work was very impressive and I was not doing woodcut at
the time.
Barbara

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From: Pedrobot@aol.com
Date: Tue, 4 Apr 2000 10:45:16 EDT
Subject: [Baren 9140] Re: New Print, Helio relief and Sand plasting  

In a message dated 4/4/00 12:24:49 AM Pacific Daylight Time, 
ar_alnaim@yahoo.com writes:

<< regarding your technique please explane who do you do
 sandplasting? do you use any machines or you do it
 manually?...exlpane! >>

We have one of those big sandblasting machines up at school.  It's a big 
chamber that you stick something inside and then close.  Then you come around 
the other side and stick your hands in these thick rubber gloves to 
manipulate whatever is inside, and work the nozzle, which blasts compressed 
air and sand.  They have it there mostly for the sculpture and ceramics 
people, but I sort of appropriated it.

- --Pete

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From: Don Furst <furstd@uncwil.edu>
Date: Tue, 04 Apr 2000 11:04:10 -0400
Subject: [Baren 9141] Re: New Print  Sandblast 

>This is my latest print.  No actual carving-  All of the imagery is created 
>by sandblasting and masking tape.  Sort of like a wood aquatint. ..>
>Let me know what you think. ..

Pete,
Dramatic wood grain nicely captured.  Sandblasting wood takes time and
patience--it's not as fast and easy as people might think.  --Don


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From: "Maria Arango" <maria@mariarango.com>
Date: Tue, 4 Apr 2000 08:11:10 -0700
Subject: [Baren 9142] Re: New Print

> http://www.geocities.com/pedrobot2000/xmaskiss.jpg

Nice work, Pete! I really like that wood texture showing through. It seems
from your explanation like you could get quite interesting effects,
especially, as you mention, Munch-like backgrounds for high-contrast
imagery. Also suitable for LARGE prints, oh boy...
Very interesting.

Welcome Drew, there are a lot of us messy-oily-kiddy stuff lovers in the
forum, so don't get intimidated by the washed-out-water-logged folk! :-)
Barbara, I am working on a series of smaller prints (7" x 2", 5" x 3"...),
only in "black." They are desert scenery and I use the "black/white" to
simplify the imagery, working from memory. Similar to the ones I do on the
trail, but this time I just get in the studio, grab a chunk of wood and
sketch right on it with a sharpie. What's with all the quotes? I truly
started with the intention of doing "black and white," but then I saw all
those single sheets of beautiful colored papers sitting on my shelves,
remnants from larger print runs. Of course I started using them!
Funny thing is, once I started thinking that my background would be a
certain color, like tan or red or blue, the images got more interesting.
Then of course since I changed my white paper to ??whathaveyou, I couldn't
leave the black ink as black either. So I tint my blacks, usually with red,
purple or blue, but I have also tried with graphite to get a nice gunmetal
look. So my black and white experiment was cut short by my relentless
impulse to experiment.

I also did one in water based pigment with paste, brush and all, just snuck
it in between the oily ones so I wouldn't be scared. Turned out okay!
I will post all the images once I have about half a dozen.
Health to all,
Maria

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From: Julio.Rodriguez@walgreens.com
Date: Tue, 4 Apr 2000 13:22:06 -0500
Subject: [Baren 9144] Skokie Show - Announcement cards 

By now most of the participants of the exhibit should have received an
announcement card from me. Unfortunately
it looks like my label program misbehaved and misprinted a few labels. I have a
handful of people whose cards
did not go out last week ( Elizabeth, Juan, Josephine, Horacio and a few
others...) but as soon as Thursday's opening is done I will get them out to you.

There are a total of 75 participants in the show....but I only have addresses
for about 55-60 of you. So if you don't get a card by late next week, please
send me a private email and I will take care of it. After I collect more show
info and stuff, I am hoping to be able to send each of you a little care package
with show-related stuff and photos.

Thanks....Julio

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From: "Jeanne Norman Chase" <studiojnc@prodigy.net>
Date: Tue, 4 Apr 2000 15:31:40 -0400
Subject: [Baren 9145] Re: Skokie Show - Announcement cards

Julio

If you are going to send a Care package to us, then you should receive our
first born!!!!!!
You have really outdone yourself, the postcards were neat, the p.r. was
great.
Golly, gee, your pretty neat yourself!!!
Would love to see the show. So we will have to see it vicariously.
Good job, well done.
Jeanne N.

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From: Jack Reisland <reislandj001@hawaii.rr.com>
Date: Tue, 04 Apr 2000 10:04:07 -1000
Subject: [Baren 9146] Re: Baren Sushi 

> Jack, can you tell me the perfect alternative to plastic bags
> for print storage? I have been slipping completed prints into archival
> clear plastic bags to keep them clean and organized. Your article reminded
> me that this will trap damaging humidity. Wrap them in glassine? is
> glassine archival?

The answers to these questions are my next article! A quick answer, don't put
them in plastic, especially newly printed prints, as they may still have
residual moisture in them from printing. There is really no advantage to
glassine, either. I would recommend acid free paper folders or envelopes.

Jack
Aiea, Hawaii

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From: Cynthia Wilson <cywilson@juno.com>
Date: Tue, 4 Apr 2000 15:44:21 -0700
Subject: [Baren 9147] Re: Exchange Print Exhibit - Opens 04/03 !!!!! 

Thanks once again for all the time, effort, and hard work that you put
into this show, Julio!!  I'm proud to be a small part of it.

Cyndy

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From: Studio Dalwood <severn@acay.com.au>
Date: Wed, 05 Apr 2000 09:28:30 +1000
Subject: [Baren 9148] black only 

Barbara said
"I have been thinking again (sorry, it just keeps happening) and the
reason most new people to woodblock would welcome working in black is
that line is a big part of traditional prints."

I think it is more than this Barbara. I prefer to work in black and
white and I'm not a beginner. B&W is purer somehow. It reduces the image
to its essential compositional qualities without the distraction of
colour. Colour (note correct spelling) adds an exponential effect of
complexity related not just to colour compositional effects but also
coded cultural and psychological effects. Eg That Graham claims never to
use black (sorry Graham) is a flow on effect from his training as a
watercolourist, where to use black is a hanging offence. 

When an artist is learning to draw, they begin in B&W. I am of course
ignoring childhood crayons and poster paints here. For a printmaker
carving a block, the major compositional skill they have to learn is
where to carve. To dissect the image into cut/white and uncut/black
(assuming a relief print). Then there is the issue of lines around the
forms, is it a white line or a black line? And what do we do when the
form crosses over two backgrounds, where does it change from black to
white and vice versa. How do we carve shades of grey when all we have is
the absolute of 'black' or 'white'? An old teaching method was to ask
the student to carve a greyscale, ten steps from white to black in even
graduations. That one always sorts the 'men from the boys' so to speak.

You could start a rank beginner with a black line key block, plus colour
plates. But to do this circumvents teaching the compositional effects
that areas of body colour (B&W tones) add to the image. 

I believe that to teach in b&w is the logical thing to do, but it is
_not_ an indication that B&W is an inferior or easier method, on the
contrary it is more difficult to make a superior print without the
glamour and easily derived effects that colour brings. 

When I see full colour prints that strive to look as real as possible, I
wonder why the artist did not simply use a camera and produce a
photographic image. Another common criticism I have is that the artist
has spent too much time concentrating on the technical attributes of the
print. By this I mean that they use expert cutting and printing but with
little consideration to the content of the image, or consideration of
its _printerly_ qualities. This results in a print that says "look at
how clever a printer I am" rather than "work of art". In this instance
the printmaker is placing themselves in the role of technician rather
than artist and might as well be printing another artist's work.

What is it that makes a print a print? What is unique to the media? What
qualities are added to the image by the print media that cannot be
derived any other way? Why do this image as a print and not a drawing,
painting, photograph or even a digital image?

These are the questions that are too infrequently asked or discussed. It
is too easy to get bogged down in technicalities such as how to hold the
tools. Perhaps this should be an exchange theme as someone suggested to
me recently.

For those of you who have never heard of it or read it I can recommend
this text as an introduction to some of these issues. I found this
online a couple of days ago and will re-read it myself when I have time.

"The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction" - Walter
Benjamin,
http://www.ipdg.org/museum/collage/benjamin.htm

Its one of those standard classic texts and lies in marxist critical
theory. Dont let this put you off, just persevere with the intro, here's
a taste to get you started...

"With the woodcut
                graphic art became mechanically reproducible for the
                first time, long before script became reproducible by
                print. The enormous changes which printing, the
                mechanical reproduction of writing, has brought about in
                literature are a familiar story. However, within the
                phenomenon which we are here examining from the
                perspective of world history, print is merely a special,
                though particularly important, case. "

Josephine
Sydney, Australia

PS Welcome to the new bareners.

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From: David Bull <davebull@woodblock.com>
Date: Wed, 05 Apr 2000 16:59:57 +0900
Subject: [Baren 9149] Skokie photos are up ... 

EXTRA!  EXTRA!  Read all about it!

An email just in from Julio ... with a timestamp of 2:24 AM (which tells
quite a story) ...  Here is the address of the first batch of photos of
the Skokie exhibit, taken during the setup.

http://www.skokienet.org/bandits/jcrstuff/libsetup.html

It looks absolutely fabulous!

Dave

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End of Baren Digest V11 #960
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