[Baren] the mailing list / discussion forum for woodblock printmaking Baren Digest Thursday, 27 July 2000 Volume 12 : Number1090 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Gayle Wohlken Date: Wed, 26 Jul 2000 09:33:58 -0400 Subject: [Baren 10624] Re: Baren Digest V12 #1089 I've been rearranging my artroom (which is a space I can no longer work in for it is mainly a place of storage--next year I hope to have a real studio where the barn used to stand). We've added to tall shelving units, each with about six shelves. They stand on my model's platform (which I used to use when I could work in that room--before woodcut days) Anyway, I'm putting all my woodblocks together on the shelves instead of in boxes on the floor. Do I store them standing? Or do I store them flat. What about wood that is not carved yet, the new wood. Stored the same way? Gayle ------------------------------ From: "Philip Smith" Date: Wed, 26 Jul 2000 06:57:08 -0700 Subject: [Baren 10625] Re: Let's do it again ... Dave,..Something came into my small brain the other day that has always been a struggle for me....maybe it's the old one "everything has already been done". ...I find coming up with something new and original exceptionally hard! I did find the topic "funny" for the current exchange a good one,...well in fact that was my word,..but someone else said something that made me mention that,...we are usually very serious,...art is a serious business and we want everyone to know how very serious we are,... maybe that's why I always go to the serious side when I try to think of an idea,.... I remember a quote. paraphrasing a bit,..but it was something like "all art should have a political overtone",...then I was reading a blurrb on a book last night, something to do with beyond impressionism,...it had to do with the nitty gritty of mans toil,...a very earthy look at life,....and so many artist have this "focus"!!!!...inspired vision,...and they stay with it for years and years,....[maybe this is why, seemingly, all galleries want to see a style,...a constant mood]..........personally I get bored with repetition. Working in a cannery is not for me I guess. And I know I am always harping on earning a dollar,....as it's harder every year to stay up with things,... My question is this,.....and I hope the people that are not at the beach will reply with full vibrato,...where do you get your ideas? How do you get out of these "valleys" of doing the same thing over and over? What is your particular catalyst for creating????? Thanks, Philip ------------------------------ From: Graham Scholes Date: Wed, 26 Jul 2000 07:06:14 -0700 Subject: [Baren 10626] Re: Baren Digest V12 #1089 >Anyway, I'm putting all my woodblocks together on the shelves >instead of in boxes on the floor. Do I store them standing? Or do I >store them flat. What about wood that is not carved yet, >the new wood. Stored the same way? > >Gayle If you live in a earthquake zone I suggest you *do not* put them on a shelf. A little shake and they will come tumbling down..... Did you notice the cupboard beside the door of the studio... where Barbara was working .... full of plates. It is important to stand the plates on the end grain edge upright. In this way the can breath both sides and can move freely with temperature and humidity change. I put spacers between groups of each design. No reason other than knowing where one image starts and so on. Store all your wood this way, be them 1 foot long or 12 ft long. Or Stick them...... small flat (lath) pieces of wood between each board when layed flat. Graham ------------------------------ From: Graham Scholes Date: Wed, 26 Jul 2000 07:26:03 -0700 Subject: [Baren 10627] Re: Let's do it again ... Dave, You wrote on the above site...... >They are not 'originals', but reproductions made in the late Meiji >and early Taisho eras - around 1910 is my guess. And boy oh boy are You have me totally confused.... Either they are reproductions or they are prints. We must be carefull not to call reproductions.... prints. I have found that confussion reins supreme and having spend 25 years on the printing industry where reproductions was something off of a commercial printing press yet john Q public call them prints and thereby comes the confussion. Are you referring to a copy image print .... which is a hand made copy of an existing image? Graham ------------------------------ From: "Philip Smith" Date: Wed, 26 Jul 2000 08:44:09 -0700 Subject: [Baren 10628] Re: Let's do it again ... Graham,....they look like woodcuts to me,...probably,... a print of an already existing design. Right Dave? Someone has taken someone's design and recut it......how close am I? Philip ------------------------------ From: Salsbury Date: Wed, 26 Jul 2000 10:46:03 -0700 Subject: [Baren 10629] duplicate messages Hello all, I am not having trouble with the size of the type from Murillo but I am getting four and five copies of each post. Any ideas here? I am on the digest thread list. I like the idea of the Silly contest and the print is lovely. I am however going to have trouble giving even a small piece of advice on wood carvings as I work on a plexi glass sheet. Maria, since you won last year would you like to put in pearls of wisdom in the name of us mono print lurkers so we can play too? :-) Sue ------------------------------ From: "janet" Date: Wed, 26 Jul 2000 11:48:12 -0400 Subject: [Baren 10630] Re: CPC Dear Julio: I am a new member of this exchange (and fairly new to the internet). I live in Baysville, Ontario Canada and do alot of woodcuts, some etching and lithographs, monotypes, etc. Years ago I took a weekend class with Graham Scholes who lived in Barrie, Ontario. Hi Graham! Anyway, about waterless lithography... there's a fellow by the name of Otis Tamasauskas who teaches waterless lithography at The Haliburton School of Fine Art in Haliburton, Ontario, Canada. Otis also teaches at Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario. Basically, aluminum plates are used and silicone is the resist for the greasy inks. I would not say this is a nontoxic method since acetone, etc. is used. The big advantage is being able to do lithographs with an etching press. I have alot of notes about this process if you have specific questions. Thanks to David Bull, I am no longer an isolated printmaker! ------------------------------ From: Graham Scholes Date: Wed, 26 Jul 2000 09:17:50 -0700 Subject: [Baren 10631] Re: Let's do it again ... I just wrote....... >You have me totally confused.... >Either they are reproductions or they are prints. and got to thinking that we should surely give some thought to the terminology we use on our sites and in the listserver. If you look up the word "reproduction" the meaning is clear ... however.... the waters have been muddied over the last 20 years years by promoters, publishers and artist endeavouring to get an edge in the market place to sell there goods. The definition in my dictionary is.... noun [one thing which closely or essentially resembles another that has already been made, produced, or written] Synonyms carbon, carbon copy, copy, ditto, duplicate, facsimile, reduplication, replica, replication which is all well and good but if our leader uses reproduction and print in the same paragraph this I feel adds to the confusion. We as an organized group of "real" printmakers should agree on a term that can take on a clear and defined meaning to us and the public. What about "Woodblock Reduplication" or "Woodblock Replication" when a design is copied in the tradition technique making a facsimile. A "Mechanical Reduplication" or "Mechanical Reproduction" ... and not to forget about "Mechanical Replication" could be used for a work that is mechanically copied also a facsimile. No confusion about the "Real" prints..... Thank goodness. (<: We should round table this and come up with a consensus. Graham ps. i do not want to be in on the "Silly Season" contest. I am into serious stuff these days "Brown Baggin It" How could this is serious???. Certainly food for thought..... Sorry.... --- http://www.members.home.net/gscholes/ --- Graham Scholes ............ E-Mail gscholes@home.com 11435 Hawthorne Pl. Sidney, BC. V8L 5J7 PHONE/FAX 250 655 0600 ARTIST DON'T RETIRE ...........THEY DRAW TO A CONCLUSION ------------------------------ From: Wanda Date: Wed, 26 Jul 2000 10:11:37 -0700 Subject: [Baren 10632] Re: duplicate messages Salsbury wrote: > I am not having trouble with the size of the type from Murillo but I am > getting four and five copies of each post. Any ideas here? I am on the > digest thread list. Hello Sue, and welcome to Baren! Your comment about receiving four & five copies of each message prompts me to explain & to remind our posters of a little option in your e-mail program called "mime". I am the person archiving the daily digests to the main web-site & several of you have your "mime" option turned on. This causes your message to go to the digest form twice. Once in regular text & once in an italic version of the same thing. If you are in doubt as to what this makes the digest version looks like, I will post up a copy & you can take a look at it. http://web-ster.com/robertson/digest/ Also, many of you are including the whole message you are responding to in your reply. This is not necessary, just a line or two is sufficient to remind us of the other message. And, preferably, at the beginning of your post, rather than at the end. So we know what you are referring to at the beginning of your post, rather than at the end. :-0 This post is *way* too serious to be in the contest - sorry! Wanda ------------------------------ From: Wanda Date: Wed, 26 Jul 2000 10:37:33 -0700 Subject: [Baren 10633] Re: duplicate messages Oops! I didn't finish my little foot-stamping act! ;-) Also, remember to put something in that little subject line (besides digest #xxx!), turn off your html programming for posts to this list, don't include pictures or attachments, uhhhh, and have fun! Seriously, these little things do make it easier for others to read your lovely messages, and make *my* job so much easier. If you are not familiar enough with computers & e-mail to change these settings, we have many many computer experts on this forum to help. Just ask! If you don't know what or who to ask, just disregard all my rantings & continue to post - there will be no penalties! Love & health to you all! (I stole that from Maria #1) Wanda go look at the digest from yesterday: http:/web-ster.com/robertson/digest I did leave the header on - but the rest of it is what the digest readers have to wade through every day. :-) ------------------------------ From: Kris Alder Date: Wed, 26 Jul 2000 13:20:43 -0600 Subject: [Baren 10635] RE: Martha Stewart Michelle wrote: >...By the way, welcome Kristine and Caz. Kris, I hope you didn't pay money for >that critique of your portfolio, if that was what she truly said. People >say more meaningful things in their sleep Michelle, Thanks for your comments. No, I didn't pay money for that critique (unless you count tuition). It was from a visiting artist/juror who was doing "a formal critique" for those in the department who were finishing degrees and getting ready to go out into the "real world." I still think that you have to take critiques with a strong grain of salt. Take what is truly meaningful and let the rest go. My feeling for the most part was that she (the juror) was trying to show us all how important she was and needed something to say, so I didn't take it to heart. I only passed it along because I know others have probably had similar experiences with their own portfolio reviews. Kris *********************** Kristine Alder, Printmaker/Art Educator Logan, UT *********************** ------------------------------ From: baren_member@woodblock.com (Drew Stevens) Date: Wed, 26 Jul 2000 18:09:48 -0400 (EDT) Subject: [Baren 10636] CPC Message posted by: Drew Stevens Julio, A dear friend of mine, Deb Wood, has been teaching at the Chicago Print Center for about a year (mebbe more; time flies). She is another one of those Tamarindas, & a generous person as well as being a very good lithographer. She took me on a tour of the shop and it's impressive (forgive pun); a tidy place with nice presses in good repair. The work people are producing there is as varied as the people themselves, naturally, but the technical know-how seems quite high. & its right on the train line! Drew Stevens <> Andrew Stevens Curator of Prints, Drawings, and Photographs Elvehjem Museum of Art 800 University Avenue University of Wisconsin-- Madison Madison, WI USA 608-263-7377 ------------------------------ From: David Bull Date: Thu, 27 Jul 2000 07:24:00 +0900 Subject: [Baren 10637] Re: Let's do it again ... Graham wrote: > You have me totally confused.... > Either they are reproductions or they are prints. Sometime around 80 years ago, a publisher had the idea to put out this series, gathered together a bunch of interesting prints, and gave them to his production crew ... "Make me a bunch of these, guys." They traced, carved, and then printed - just as I do every month. So they are both. Just like the surimono print you watched me make last month, they are prints, and they are reproductions. Dave ------------------------------ From: Graham Scholes Date: Wed, 26 Jul 2000 15:07:19 -0700 Subject: [Baren 10638] Re: CPC >lithographs, monotypes, etc. Years ago I took a weekend class with Graham >Scholes who lived in Barrie, Ontario. Hi Graham! Hi Janet Welcome to the group.... Good to see you moved to printmaking..... >Anyway, about waterless There is a class being taught here in Victoria by an excellent teacher .... graduate of Tamerind Frank is part way through the final course this year..... If you are interested you should investigate at: http://members.home.net/lithoworkshop/ for next year. I can recommend Frank highly. I took waterless from him and this is a no secrets guy. You can go to the site of the inventor of this sport. Nik Semenoff Artist-in-Residence Department of Art and Art History University of Saskatchewan Saskatoon, Saskatchewan Canada S7N 5A4 Fax:(306) 966-4266 http://duke.usask.ca/~semenoff/ An excellent resource of information. Enjoy Graham ------------------------------ From: barbara patera Date: Wed, 26 Jul 100 15:38:21 Pacific Daylight Time Subject: [Baren 10639] re: storing wood Graham says to store wood with end grain up.... does this apply to plywood...never thought of it as having an end grain....also what about little pieces..went ahead and bought several boxes of 1/4" maple faced plywood but all of the pieces are small ( left over from puzzle making). none is larger than 7"x9" and most are 4"x6". Also have a question about joining some of these small pieces together. Is there a prefered/better way of doing this? Would like to know, as I really like the way this stuff carves but have some ideas that call for larger blocks. Barbara P. ------------------------------ From: "Daniel L. Dew" Date: Wed, 26 Jul 2000 19:52:17 -0400 Subject: [Baren 10640] rolling along Hey, I had an iddea that is working O.K. I can't afford and don't have a place for a press, so, I bought an 18" rolling pin! It works really great and is easy to store away. dan dew P.S. Did I win, Huh,Huh???? ------------------------------ From: Graham Scholes Date: Wed, 26 Jul 2000 19:54:27 -0700 Subject: [Baren 10641] Re: storing wood Barbara P. wrote..... >but all of the pieces are small ( left over from puzzle making). >none is larger than 7"x9" and most are 4"x6". You can store plywood of that size anyway at all. >Also have a question about joining some of these small pieces >together. Is there a prefered/better way of doing What thickness is the plywood? You need to have proper equipment like joiner and table saw to do the job. A biscuit joiner is the way to join wood. Or cut a grove with a table saw and glue a spline as the joining membrane. The problem is that you cannot print across a join in wood. The join line will show no matter how good a job you do. The grains in each piece of wood expands with the moisture in a different way and the join show sure as rain in spring. I have joined wood to facilitate the border and the kento at the bottom of the image. Graham ------------------------------ From: Greg Carter Date: Thu, 27 Jul 2000 00:23:55 -0400 Subject: [Baren 10642] Re: Either they are reproductions or they are prints? Dear Baren, I really hate to write this but I am afraid I must. As a new (and more liberal member ) of baren I thought I would keep my mouth shut but this simple little statement from Graham troubled me(Either they are reproductions or they are prints.). I think my problem lies in that art is so subjective and I really do not like people telling me it has to to one way or another. In art it can usually be both at one time or another. A print is a print. I think we can argue the merits of different types of prints and I truly respect the diffent opinions of the group but ink transfered from a fixed matrix onto a surface(usually in multibles ) is a print. No matter how much I generally dislike reproductive prints(I usually do) there is always an exapmle or two that I run into that impresses the hell out of me -Artists that use the idea of reproduction as part of their content. Please forgive me , I promise I am not trying to start an argument again. Greg Carter ------------------------------ From: "Keri & Tom Marion" Date: Wed, 26 Jul 2000 22:31:57 -0700 Subject: [Baren 10643] Re: Either they are reproductions or they are prints? >think my problem lies in that art is > so subjective and I really do not like people telling me it has to to one > way or another. you know, this is very true, but facts are facts. digital prints are not the same thing as relief/intaglio printmaking, i think you can agree with that. i would hope that no one would look down their noses at a digital image.. i've seen some really cool stuff.. and i do believe the computer arts arena hasn't even been experienced yet. just because one doesn't agree with the term "print" for a digital output image doesn't mean that person doesn't enjoy the work.. i certainly do enjoy digital work, but it really needs to have its own set of definitions. it is nowhere near the same thing. it's like calling a poster a "print".. i mean.. it is a print, but it's not. how could you justify a print number on a poster? it renders the number void due to its very nature of clean reproduction EVERY time. i just wanted to voice that there are those of us who are absolutely for digital imaging, but still want to recognize the difference between them and prints. i think most of us would fall in this category. (such a lengthy response from such a lurker...) km spoken, washingtongue http://www.artistnation.com/members/lofts/kmarion ------------------------------ From: "Keri & Tom Marion" Date: Wed, 26 Jul 2000 22:49:52 -0700 Subject: [Baren 10644] Re: rolling along charset="iso-8859-1" can you see any measurable difference between a press-pulled and a rolling-pin pulled print? do you get a good amount of embossing? is your pin metal? wood? what if we were to put freeweights on the ends of the pin.. hmmmm ...(even though that's just a joke, i might try it!) tee hee km spoken, washingtongue http://www.artistnation.com/members/lofts/kmarion ------------------------------ From: B Mason Date: Wed, 26 Jul 2000 23:45:40 -0700 Subject: [Baren 10645] ideas Seems like all good topics, we have covered this before, but it never hurts to cover them again, as each time new bits of information seem to leak out. Most if my ideas come from books or my dreams. Some are from sketches. The trick is how to generate them when nothing seems to be happening in your mind or under your hand. The best advise I ever got about "artist's block" was that every day, no matter what, you make your lunch and you go to your studio. You clean, you read, you fiddle with stuff, you listen to music and suddenly, there it is, an idea. It might take days or only hours. If you don't give yourself time for your mind to develop things, it never happens. Some of us are blessed (cursed?) with so many ideas there will never be enough hours in the day. Others struggle with that blank paper syndrome. Either way, you have to allow time to sort out the ideas or time to let them happen. We are in such a slam bam results oriented society that we seldom give ourselves permission just to develop an idea or theme slowly over days or weeks instead of minutes or hours. It's like being married, if you only spend 10 minutes a day talking to your spouse, you won't know them very well. If you only give your art 10 minutes worth of thought you won't know it very well. All good things take a little time to grow. OK, enough from me. I am setting the timer for my 10 minutes worth of thought for my next print. Barbara M ------------------------------ End of Baren Digest V12 #1090 *****************************