Baren Digest              Tuesday, 14 January 2003      Volume 22 : Number 2093


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From: Stephen Goddard <goddard#ku.edu>
Date: Mon, 13 Jan 2003 08:24:09 -0600
Subject: [Baren 20412] Re: Baren Digest V22 #2092 - beauty 

As for beauty in the unbeautiful, one of the most effective strategies of 
subversive printmaking is to make the horrific sumptuous and lovely -- 
plenty of examples - as for David's & John's great print and the musings 
about it, I can't help but think of Baudelaire, writing on Charles Meryon's 
etching, "l'Abside de Notre Dame de Paris," -- he noted the smokestacks on 
the horizon "vomiting their coalitions against the universe, in an age when 
beauty is so paradoxical." -- careful with that quote, this is off the top 
of my head, but it is close to that - here's the image: 
http://www.ku.edu/~sma/meryon/meryon.htm.

Steve


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From: "Jeanne N. Chase" <studiojnc#prodigy.net>
Date: Mon, 13 Jan 2003 10:24:49 -0500
Subject: [Baren 20413] Re: Print finished ... 

I cannot even imagine making soooo many steps in a print. Congratulations,
it is indeed a fantastic lesson, print, endeavor, etc.
I hope this will be a permanent part of the Baren pages so I can go back and
look at it from time to time.
The beautiful texture of the paper comes through on the enlargement.

Jeanne N


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From: Louise Cass <lcass#primus.ca>
Date: Mon, 13 Jan 2003 10:42:16 -0500
Subject: [Baren 20414] Re: Print finished ... 

I must add yet a few more words to this discussion - pictorial
renderings of a country or society's everyday buildings are
invaluable to the archaeologist and historian quite apart from
their aesthetic qualities - very often the actual remains are not
to be found so paintings, etc are very helpful (the opposite is
more often true tho' - some civilizations have only the
architectural evidence and not much surviving in the way of 2D
stuff). The evolution of this print was fascinating to follow on
this society's marvelous tool - a very handsome image ( also
reminiscent of Demuth,Sheeler et al) Louise Cass

At 06:29 PM 1/12/03 -0800, you wrote:

>> But when there is no point to be made? That was my question - when there
>> is no specific _reason_ for the ugliness, can it still be worth
>> showing?  Of course I answered it myself by making the print - John and
>> I felt that the object was worthy of depiction ...  I was just curious
>> what viewpoints others would have ...

>
> "Ask a toad: what is beauty? .a female with two great round eyes coming out
>of her little head, a large flat mouth, a yellow belly and a brown, warty
>back."--Voltaire
>
>Dave, I'm afraid with that question the "non-artist" in you is showing! :-)
>I, like many others have mentioned, have come to admire the way many artists
>(both old and new) have shown us the "beauty" of war and bullfights and
>other ugly things. It is at times the job of the artist, in this case the
>artist-team, to do so. Hats off to you both!
>
>Maria
>
><||><||><||><||><||><||>
>     Maria Arango
>  Las Vegas Nevada USA
>  www.1000woodcuts.com
><||><||><||><||><||><||>
>
>
>
>

http://www.LCassArt.com

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From: "Tyrus Clutter" <TRClutter#NNU.Edu>
Date: Mon, 13 Jan 2003 09:09:29 -0700
Subject: [Baren 20415] Re: Baren Digest V22 #2092 - beauty 

As an amateur aesthetician, I think one word we are skirting around is
Sublime. When I have spoken on aesthetics this is the thing I have to
first present to non-artists. Most of the artists I know tend to use the
word Beautiful in a somewhat improper or non-traditional way. It is fine
when we are talking to each other, because we know that we are actually
talking about either technique or sublimity. The confusion is usually on
the part of the non-artists. Just one more semantical thing for us all
to consider.

TyRuS


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From: Julio.Rodriguez#walgreens.com
Date: Mon, 13 Jan 2003 12:02:00 -0600
Subject: [Baren 20416] Re: Print finished ...


It will be interesting to compare the original 'Milton'  (1999) to this 
latest collaborative effort.  I will have a copy of both prints soon for 
close scrutiny. Look for a full report on the next issue of Barensuji 
newsletter.

Sharri writes:
"... Applause, Applause to all three of you...."

All three ???? Do you mean the holy trinity....designer, carver and 
printer ?

My condolences to Carol and Dean on their recent loss. 

julio





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From: Julio.Rodriguez#walgreens.com 
Date: Mon, 13 Jan 2003 15:12:23 -0600 
Subject: [Baren 20417] Re: More on Woodpeople.....



There are more woodpeople hiding in Suezan Aikins'
work....."Floating", "Life Current", Against the Tide", "Nymph" &
others...Check under her relief page..I guess there is another
form of collaboration here as it looks like she does the designs
and carving and her husband does the actual printing. The whole
process taking as long as a year per work !!!!!!

http://www.suezan-aikins.com/relief.html


EOPC (End Of Printmaking Content)

I guess with all these 'woodpeople' around it puts a twist to the
ever eternal question.....If a tree falls in the forest and there
is nobody around...does it make a sound ?  or....Do the
woodpeople hear it ?

Here is a possible answer:


"Scientists have been dealing with the problem of natural tree
falls (and the sound they make--or don't make) for quite some
time and have drawn some rather surprising conclusions. If a tree
falls and there is a person around the sound is easily
recognized. If a tree falls in the forest and there is nobody
nearby, the sound that it makes is very different and often not
recognized as the sound of a tree falling. Either way, there is a
sound. Even though plants do not show any changes to the naked
(or lensed) eye, when a human is in their presence systemic
biological changes have been discovered that have grave effects
on plant life when a person is within 300 meters.  This effect is
called "human stress syndrome". Apparently, when a tree is about
to fall, if it senses a human nearby the biological stresses of
human presence cause the cell walls in the plant to become
brittle and it is the cell brittleness responsible for the
familiar sound we know as that of a tree fall.  The cell
brittleness also has significant effects to the quality of the
lumber, making it much more suitable for use in construction.

Through the miracle of recording tape, scientists are able to
provide a sound recording of an actual tree falling without human
presence.

http://www.getodd.com/stuf/treesound1.wav

All trees, except the Ohio Buckeye tree, when in the presence of
humans, emit a faint cloud of ultraviolet gasses.  These UV
gasses are visible when filmed with a special camera and are
convincing proof of tree stress when humans are present. Photos
can show the various amounts of UV gasses being emitted as a
human walks nearby. Lumberjacks are familiar with this and know
that it suggests that the tree they are working with will yield
good useable wood.


Building codes throughout the US require that all lumber used in
construction be obtained from properly human-stressed trees. 
There is good reason for this. Lumber from trees that fell
without the human stress factor are known to fail prematurely and
have numerous imperfections. It is easy for the casual observer
to discover the difference between human-stressed  lumber and
naturally occurring fallen tree lumber. On a visit to your local
lumberyard you will note that the coloring of the wood is
relatively uniform and that the grain lines are clearly visible.
The wood is also hard to the touch and dry.  Some species of
human-stressed trees create lumber with a greenish color (often
referred to as "green lumber"). Compare the lumberyard
human-stressed tree wood with that you find lying about on the
floor of a nearby forest. The non-human-stressed wood (naturally
falling tree lumber) is almost always rather soft and wet.  In
many cases you will find splotches of various colors and sections
of the wood that appear more like a sponge (one of the best
sources of natural sponge is from fallen trees).  If you try to
build a structure out of this wood, you are in for a bad surprise
when your building soon collapses.

Should you be walking in a forest and happen to see this type of
gaseous emanation from a nearby tree, you should take cover
immediately-- as the tree may fall on you!

thanks.......Julio ps. The quotes above come from the Getodd
website, it contains satire and parody, which means that you
should not take it as truth....it is meant to be humorous and not
necessarily factual.



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End of Baren Digest V22 #2093
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