Baren Digest Saturday, 25 August 2001 Volume 16 : Number 1534 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Bill Martin Date: Fri, 24 Aug 2001 09:24:45 -0400 Subject: [Baren 15500] Re: Graham Pigments just caught your message... new to baren my backgroung is a clasical edu. in painting and sculpture i would caution you not to use oil paint on paper because the linseed oil will oxidize and eventually rot out the paper i refer you to Reed Kaye's book on materials and techniques... he did extensive studies on this subject... whether the transparent base will isolate the oil or dilute the effect i cant say but the notion of oil paint on paper is a risky one its done all the time probably without the understanding of the chemistry. bill martin eli griggs wrote: > I'm going to try some of their oils, with transparent base, and see what > kind of results I get. I haven't done this before, (use transparent base > with oils) so I would welcome any tips, from anyone, especially if you have > used walnut based oils before. > ------------------------------ From: "April Vollmer" Date: Fri, 24 Aug 2001 09:42:14 -0400 Subject: [Baren 15501] Intellectual botherment Eli, you don't need to use extenders for hanga, you just add more water and paste! The trick is adding a small enough amount of pigment to get the color you want. You can do it, it's just easier to control a pigment with more moderate tinting strength. I have been fussing about this binder problem for years now, I haven't had any problem with my prints, but it bothers me intellectually. Sumi ink has lots of animal binder, when you print with it, you can feel it sticking to the block, and I know the old guys used partially decomposed sumi because it's not necessary to have so much binder. (quite a smell!) I just don't understand why I seem to be able to print other colors with no binder, and if there is a long-term advantage to being more careful about adding gum arabic as a binder. I assume the chemistry is similar to watercolor, but there you need 'paintable' characteristics, like honey to keep the pan moist. Judging from my experience, hanga colors do not need careful composition, possibly from the quality of the washi which seems to hold on to the pigment quite well! April www.aprilvollmer.com ------------------------------ From: "JEANNE N CHASE" Date: Fri, 24 Aug 2001 10:57:49 -0400 Subject: [Baren 15503] Need 2 e mail addresses Since I lost my address book when my computer crashed, I have retrieved most of the e mails except Carol Lyons and Sue Salbury. Would you please send them to me please. Sorry this is not about woodblock printmaking. Thanks Jeanne N. studiojnc@prodigy.net ------------------------------ From: slinder@mediaone.net Date: Fri, 24 Aug 2001 10:52:28 -0500 Subject: [Baren 15504] Re: Need 2 e mail addresses Here you go! Salsbury Carol Lyons Sharen JEANNE N CHASE wrote: > > Since I lost my address book when my computer crashed, I have retrieved most > of the e mails except Carol Lyons and Sue Salbury. > Would you please send them to me please. > Sorry this is not about woodblock printmaking. > Thanks > Jeanne N. > studiojnc@prodigy.net ------------------------------ From: "bemason" Date: Fri, 24 Aug 2001 09:56:07 -0700 Subject: [Baren 15505] exhifition upcoming Finally I have found a venue here in Portland to exhibit some of the baren work. We will have a show in the John and Betty Gray Gallery of the NW Print Council sometime in the next year. I will publish the particulars at some future date. Since I have been in 6 exchanges I have quite a bit of work to chose from but if anyone is missing, I will contact you off list. We can hang about 40 prints so we will pick and chose, trying to represent as many bareners as possible. More info soon. If I live right I might even get help framing and hanging. It could happen. Barbara ------------------------------ From: "JEANNE N CHASE" Date: Fri, 24 Aug 2001 13:59:42 -0400 Subject: [Baren 15506] Re: Need 2 e mail addresses Thanks, Jeanne N. - ----- Original Message ----- From: To: Sent: Friday, August 24, 2001 11:52 AM Subject: [Baren 15504] Re: Need 2 e mail addresses > Here you go! > > Salsbury > Carol Lyons > > Sharen > > JEANNE N CHASE wrote: > > > > Since I lost my address book when my computer crashed, I have retrieved most > > of the e mails except Carol Lyons and Sue Salbury. > > Would you please send them to me please. > > Sorry this is not about woodblock printmaking. > > Thanks > > Jeanne N. > > studiojnc@prodigy.net ------------------------------ From: "Bill H Ritchie Jr" Date: Fri, 24 Aug 2001 11:20:55 -0700 Subject: [Baren 15507] yourartlinks In a message to Dan from Cucamongie@aol.com, the question re: yourartlinks "Anyone out there know something about these folks?" I looked at the Web site, and I recall one area where people can get FREE ART! It's a come-on, what is called a loss leader. The trouble might be that artists are the losers in the long run. Some people say it serves us right for being dumb enough to give our stuff away free. OTOH, we're givers by Nature, and my sense of Natural Law says that's okay. But on the other hand, it conditions people to take the Free Art and pay to have the framer at the pickup point put a frame on it. I have many friends who are framers, and good for them! My art has helped put food on their table and send their kids to private school, etc. I think I learned in reading Kurt Vonnegut a long time ago that when you mechanize hand work, art work, brain work, etc, those human beings are eventually useless. But we get our revenge when the problems besetting society (and the economy) call for creative solutions, and, alas, there's no one around with any memory of what the relationship is between creativity and orignal, free(ly made) fine art is. Until art education is upgraded to fit the new era, I guess free fine art will continue to be devalued. There's no way to stop it except by education. Teach, for example, that the secret among true artists is that the word ART in connection with FREE means "Approximately Reproduced Trash" -- suitable to be framed and used for up to three to five years, after which it goes into the landfill, garage sale, or storage unit for indefinite periods--not even acceptable to give to charitable, nonprofit organizations or rummage sales. Hee hee . . . Bill H. Ritchie, Jr 500 Aloha #105 Seattle WA 98109 (206) 285-0658 Professional: www.seanet.com/~ritchie E-Store: www.myartpatron.com General: www.emeraldaworks.com First Game Portal: www.artsport.com ------------------------------ From: Marco Flavio Marinucci Date: Fri, 24 Aug 2001 14:28:34 -0800 Subject: [Baren 15508] NON TRANSPARENT color hello fellow bareners, does anybody know how to make a color NOT TRANSPARENT in water-based Japanese style woodblock printing? I am trying to lay a color and I do not want the undertone to show through. thanks, Marco Flavio marco@speedingbullet.com ------------------------------ From: Cate-Earthlink Date: Fri, 24 Aug 2001 16:54:05 -0500 Subject: [Baren 15509] Re: Training Dear Baren friends, I have been very busy with business considerations recently and have not been doing much printing. I have decided to investigate ways of getting more art training particularly hanga. If you have any suggestions of where I could get that training (anywhere in the US), please contact me at cate108@earthlink.net. Please offer some guidance for this new adventure. All suggestions are welcome and encouraged. Cheers, Cate ------------------------------ From: b.patera@att.net Date: Fri, 24 Aug 2001 21:56:46 +0000 Subject: [Baren 15510] Re: yourartlinks Bill, Very well put!Love the term "approximately reproduced trash".... Barbara Patera ------------------------------ From: "Philip Smith" Date: Fri, 24 Aug 2001 15:15:16 -0700 Subject: [Baren 15511] Re: yourartlinks Bill,..you know I was rather taken back when about a year+ ago several people were giving their work to a publisher so that they might get some exposure. The publisher was certainly going to make money off of this project, but alas I think the people duped into giving their work to this person realized very little. It's like having an electrician come over to my house, rewiring it, and telling him that, "there's no pay, but I will show everyone that comes here how well the lights work". Blah, blah, blah. Philip Hammond, OR USA ------------------------------ From: richard stockham Date: Fri, 24 Aug 2001 15:20:03 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Baren 15512] Re: NON TRANSPARENT color - --- Marco Flavio Marinucci wrote: > hello fellow bareners, > does anybody know how to make a color NOT > TRANSPARENT in water-based > Japanese style woodblock printing? I am trying to > lay a color and I do not > want the undertone to show through. Hiroshi Yoshida in his book says to add Gofun(white) to transparent pigment to make it opaque. I'm trying it myself to solve a problem in my latest print. I'll let you know if it works. ------------------------------ From: "bemason" Date: Fri, 24 Aug 2001 16:46:39 -0700 Subject: [Baren 15513] Re: NON TRANSPARENT color Marco, The only way I know is to add opaque white to the mix, I don't know if it will work in Hanga. Maybe someone else knows how to do this. Barbara > hello fellow bareners, > does anybody know how to make a color NOT TRANSPARENT in water-based > Japanese style woodblock printing? I am trying to lay a color and I do not > want the undertone to show through. > thanks, > Marco Flavio > marco@speedingbullet.com > > > ------------------------------ From: "bemason" Date: Fri, 24 Aug 2001 17:02:32 -0700 Subject: [Baren 15514] our work Bill, You are so right about this, what we think our work is worth is what it is worth! I just opened a bank account for my small art business, finally, and am going to keep track of stuff for the first time in 20 years. It is amazing the change of heart I have had now looking at it as a business. I am no longer buying stuff without thinking about it and I am thinking a little more carefully about making money instead of friends! Ha. I'll let you know at the end of the year how much in the hole I am! Next time someone asks for a donation, I want to sell it and at least donate the money so I can get a tax write off. This is assuming I will have income to balance it against! It could happen, I am going about it much more seriously! Best to you, Barbara > Until art education is upgraded to fit the new era, I guess free fine art > will continue to be devalued. There's no way to stop it except by education. > Teach, for example, that the secret among true artists is that the word ART > in connection with FREE means "Approximately Reproduced Trash" -- suitable > to be framed and used for up to three to five years, after which it goes > into the landfill, garage sale, or storage unit for indefinite periods--not > even acceptable to give to charitable, nonprofit organizations or rummage > sales. > > Hee hee . . . > > Bill H. Ritchie, Jr > ------------------------------ From: Bossbumpy@aol.com Date: Fri, 24 Aug 2001 22:37:25 EDT Subject: [Baren 15515] Re: NON TRANSPARENT color Philip and Barbara make a good case why art work should not be given away. But consider this alternative. About 18 years ago I was designing and manufacturing specialty frames for a specific national market. We did all the national trade shows but almost no magazine advertising. There were about 9 national magazines in our market that needed fresh product ideas to introduce monthly to their readers. Each publication listed their editor and his or her telephone number. I began calling them every month to suggest ideas for the their next printing. I discovered that they were more than willing to accept free frames with my project ideas. Sooo, every couple of months each editor received a goody box with my new designs @ no charge. Did they use every new design? No! But nearly every month each publication had at least one of our products pictured with our company name and our toll free number @ no charge to us. I would always follow up with a telephone call thanking the editors for their kindness and then suggested more new ideas. This process went on about seven years until we discontinued the frame line. With our toll free telephone number listed in all of these monthly publications, we received a large volume of daily calls from consumers. We discontinued manufacturing and selling these products in 1990, and yet in 2001 we still receive an average of ten calls a week from individuals asking to buy our product. This is my point. Giving away your product is not necessarily bad, but giving it to someone or something who can't give you anything in return is likely the sin. We must work smarter not harder. Identify your market and its power brokers. Get to know them and their needs. Then find your niche by trying to do something that no one else is doing. Sometimes I offer something outrageous just to get their attention. If you give them what they need, you'll usually get what you want. An electrician probably will not wire your house free just for a neighborhood walk through, but he may discount your job in exchange for the privilege of putting his sign in your front yard for a month or so. If we desire to sell our art, we must become as creative at marketing as we are at our art form. Just a thought. Thanks Tim Scott ------------------------------ From: Wanda Date: Fri, 24 Aug 2001 22:20:00 -0700 Subject: [Baren 15516] Re: exhifition upcoming I'll be more than happy to help frame & hang, Barbara! Wanda ------------------------------ From: Wanda Date: Fri, 24 Aug 2001 22:40:38 -0700 Subject: [Baren 15517] Publicity! Vince Kohler of the Oregonian did a write-up on me & my friend, Susan Sutherland-Martin. He got almost everything right & he actually knew what hanga was! I thought you guys might enjoy reading it. http://www.oregonlive.com/metrosouth/oregonian/index.ssf?/xml/story.ssf/html_standard.xsl?/base/metro_south_news/99813578120304315.xml Since it's so long - you might have to copy & paste instead of just clicking on it. Wanda ------------------------------ From: "Bill H Ritchie Jr" Date: Sat, 25 Aug 2001 06:00:10 -0700 Subject: [Baren 15518] freedom Maria writes so well about the chagrin many artists feel when it comes to standards that are expected by institutions. Such things a slides, biographical resumes, etc. drive a creative person nuts. I like the subject header "freedom" on this thread because creativity thrives in a garden of freedom. Then why do so many free, fine artists comply? You'd think all those institutional requirements (including the ones set up by baren in some instances) would simply fail, and there'd be no new creative work to be seen. In my humble opinion, it's merely a matter of getting involved with someone else' enterprise, or not. I call those OPE, standing for Other Peoples' Enterprises. My Own Enterprise is MOE. The only thing I think we can be against is the economics of it. You give an artwork away to a friend or an organization, an they pay someone to frame it--usually--and we're complimented by the fact they'd pay someone to frame it. Money speaks the compliment. We seem to think to be paid for our creativity is unholy. Like accepting a bribe to do or say something that isn't true. It's funny. Bill H. Ritchie, Jr 500 Aloha #105 Seattle WA 98109 (206) 285-0658 Professional: www.seanet.com/~ritchie E-Store: www.myartpatron.com General: www.emeraldaworks.com First Game Portal: www.artsport.com ------------------------------ End of Baren Digest V16 #1534 *****************************