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Message 1
From: Jan Telfer
Date: Mon, 3 May 2004 20:45:41 +0800
Subject: [Baren 24975] Re: Hanga Print in WA Exhibition
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Dear Bareners,

Many of you can relate to my present situation at the WA Exhibition I
see and I do thank you all for your kind words of encouragement and
sympathies with this particular print.

This Particular hanga print is quite large for a woodblock although my
friend Emi has two geometic patterned ones of the same size in the same
exhibition, one is next to mine and I am quite sure that seeing one
with only calligraphed lettering is again "not the norm", so. I
presumed that they could only figure that it was "hand coloured". The
funny thing is as I looked at it on the wall I wondered how they could
think that as it has no key block and no definite outline inside which
to contain a painted surface.

Bill, I do do a fair bit of "hand colouring" too.... my Christmas Cards
two years ago I printed in an oil based ink and then painted them in
watercolour. It was indeed meditative... I did 120 them in batches of
10 or a little more. The Belgium "estampe" Bookmark Exchange this year
I also printed my Tulips in oil based ink and hand painted them in
watercolour, and they looked good too..... In that Exchange I only got
one from Charles Morgan from Baren of the names on the list of
hundreds. But I thought This Exhibition Print "Colour My World" should
be written up correctly. In fact I was saying to someone during the
Opening that mine is too "pretty".... I maybe should have written
things like Murder, conspiracy, sex, condoms, black holes, brain drain
or something to fit in with other titles around me!!

I will be back there tomorrow to see "how things are going" !!

Thank you all for your interest..... hold onto these thoughts when the
Large Prints are posted on the Baren website!!!

With my kindest regards,

Jan

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Message 2
From: Cucamongie # aol.com
Date: Mon, 3 May 2004 09:19:25 EDT
Subject: [Baren 24976] for ny folks re exhibition
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Hi folks, I'm pleased to let you know about my upcoming solo exhibition,
"Geneticircus", at Woodward Gallery. It will be a show of brand new work -
drawings, etchings, woodblock rubbings, and a few sculptures. The Geneticircus is
composed of many variations of combinations of animals - There's the
Batarilla, the Bunny Shark, the Sealoyote, Octochimp, Kitty Hawk, and many more.

Here's the where and when stuff: Woodward Gallery, 476 Broome St, Fifth
Floor, NYC, Phone no 212-966-3411. Website www.artnet.com/woodward.html, email:
woodwardgallery@aol.com. For those not in NYC, some of the work from the
show will be posted on the website in the near future.

The opening reception is Thursday, May 6, from 6-8 pm. The gallery hours are
Tuesday-Saturday from 11am-6pm. The show runs through June 17.

Enjoy!

Best wishes

Sarah Hauser

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Message 3
From: JEANNE CHASE
Date: Mon, 3 May 2004 06:25:14 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: [Baren 24977] Re: for ny folks re exhibition
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Congratulation Sarah

on your upcomint exhibition.
and on all your other very recent accomplishments.
This is such an active group that it is difficult to keep up with their Events!!!!!

Best
Jeanne N.

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Message 4
From: "William Auge"
Date: Mon, 3 May 2004 11:27:46 -0400
Subject: [Baren 24978] Re: That ^^($(% Print
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Exchange 20-ers

I had some trouble printing for exchange 20.

I signed up as one of the substitutes in the beginning of April. I had just
recently signed on to [Baren]'s forum, when Darrell posted that there were
openings. So I jumped at the exchange opportunity. I only had a month to
complete the image, so I decided to work a bit smaller than i normally do.
6x9 vs. 11x14

The problems I ran into began with maintaining the details and some of the
edges were wearing down while printing. I don't usually have that problem
because, I guess, of the size. I am a little heavy handed when hand
printing so maybe I'll try some harder wood. Or maybe just press lighter.

It all worked out in the end but I'm glad to see that I wasn't alone in my
"Printing Hell"

I enjoyed the experience and would love to have another go.

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Message 5
From: Wanda
Date: Mon, 03 May 2004 09:29:37 -0700
Subject: [Baren 24979] Re: That ^^($(% Print
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Gosh, Dan, is this the first time you've ever had problems with a print?
What a lucky guy! :-) You are definitely not the only 'goofball' in here!
There are so many places to goof up that it isn't even funny! My biggest
stumbling block is deciding what I want the image to be. Once I get past
that dilemma - I usually am o.k. But I've had big chunks fall off the block
(or I carved them off!) and spots appearing in the margins from something on
the wood - usually a teeny tiny splinter that soaks up the pigment & then
transfers it to the paper. Sometimes they can be really hard to find. Then
I'm ready to print & can't find the stack of paper I planned to use. Does
anyone have a good organizational system to keep track of different kinds of
paper in the flat file?

Believe me, you are in *good* company on this one!

Wanda

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Message 6
From: Emma Jane Hogbin
Date: Mon, 3 May 2004 12:58:43 -0400
Subject: [Baren 24980] Re: That ^^($(% Print
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Carol Myers wrote:
> My horror story, however, was a chest virus that left me so sore that
> I couldn't even think about printing. But the prints are now headed to
> the post office, so there was a happy ending.

I moved (not part of the plan when I signed up); and got laryngitis after
a brief cold. Exchange #20: exchange from hell. ;)

emma

--
Emma Jane Hogbin
[ www.xtrinsic.com ]

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Message 7
From: Sharri LaPierre
Date: Mon, 3 May 2004 10:03:25 -0700
Subject: [Baren 24981] Re: W Aust Exhibition
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Ahh, but Mike, you are forgetting that the press, rollers and brayers
are in the lab mainly, and sometimes, only, for intaglio. The only
thing the students have to buy, as I said, are their individual carving
tools, and (if they don't scrounge it from a lumber yard or other
source) a block of wood, and sometimes a student grade $4.95 baren.
And, as we all know, the Western tradition can be printed without a
press, also. Therefore, as far as the hierarchy at the school is
concerned, hanga is the more expensive alternative. If they had to
purchase as many brushes as they did cheap brayers it would be more
expensive. Also, they have the students print with the same ink in
both intaglio or litho and relief and the same paper, or they did
everyplace I taught, anyway, so keeping the supplies replenished is
much easier. As you see, there are reasons for both the administrators
and the instructors to go only with the Western tradition. I think
hanga would have to become a separate class and I don't see that
happening, especially now when everyone is under such budget crunches
that they are eliminating printmaking departments right and left. We
are currently protesting the elimination of the department at U of WA,
for Pete's sake, and that was where Glen Alps made the innovations to
the collagraph which make that medium what we know of it today.

Just teaching the world to hanga is not the only vital battle in the
world of education today, we need to keep the printmaking departments!
Anyone who feels strongly enough about this please write to :

Dean Michael Halleran
Divisional Dean for Arts and Humanities
Office of Arts and Sciences
67 Communications Bldg. Box 353765
University of Washington
Seattle, WA 98195

or: Email: mrh@u.washington.edu.

Please write immediately, time is of the essence.

Cheers,

Sharri

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Message 8
From: Frank Trueba
Date: Mon, 03 May 2004 10:12:34 -0700
Subject: [Baren 24982] Re: That ^^($(% Print
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Hi Wanda, Dan, et.al.

Suffice it to say, that every single hanga print I've done
has held its own special challenges. Since I don't do that
many, I usually take the opportunity to try something new,
therefore my difficulties are often hard to diagnose--is it my
technique (probably), it is the paper (sometimes), is it the
carving (rarely), is it the ink (sometimes), etc.

Anyway, in the print I did for exchange #20, while I don't
believe my printing was great, it was passable. However,
during the printing--after I carved and prepared the block, I
first noticed I had lost a silver of wood from the design.
Fortunately, although a crucial design element, it wasn't
fatal, and lead me to simply change the title of the piece.

However, I'm trying to standardize my inks and paper selection
so I can try to control the process better or at least better
diagnose problems--only time will tell if I'm successful.

frank

Spoiler alert--I'm going to describe the problem so if you're
in #20 and want to be surprised by the design don't read on.

My design is of a old adobe church in New Mexico and it
wasn't until I started printing did I notice one arm of the cross
had fallen off (believe me, I was extremely careful when carving
and I did not knock it off at that point--so it was a surprise
when I looked at the print). So I decided to title my print
"Broken Cross" and proceeded to print the edition.

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Message 9
From: Sharri LaPierre
Date: Mon, 3 May 2004 10:24:38 -0700
Subject: [Baren 24983] Re: Woodcuts
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From John Center:
...university art dept. are either etchers or litho people. Most are not
relief printers
and do not really understand relief beyond lino in anycase. I don't
think
it has anything to do with being western mostly it has to do with what
the
teacher is interested in...>

Sorry for two posts in one day, but I had to answer this one, too :-)
John, I'm sure what you say is true and maybe I went to an exceptional
school. I was fortunate to have one of Lazansky's students, John Paul
Jones. (give him a google if you want to know more). Anyway, in his
intro to printmaking class he combined etching, drypoint, collagraph
and relief. He gave everyone a chance to do all or one. Most people
chose the woodblock first because it seemed the easiest (no scary acid
to mess with), and SURPRISE everyone! it was cheaper. We had to
purchase zinc plates and the intaglio tools were more expensive than
the woodblock tools and the wood you could get out of the scrap bin at
the local lumber yard - free. In my experience, students will most
always go for the cheaper alternative - unless they are the one you get
each semester who still has the silver spoon hanging from their mouth.

The curriculum of the printmaking dept. is pretty much left to the
instructor - so, naturally, they are going to emphasize their favorite
medium with which they are most familiar. However, that being said,
the ethical ones will cover it all. And, what you don't get from the
hands-on courses, you should get from the Art History classes, and at
least be able to tell an etching from an engraving and relief from
intaglio or litho. (BTW lithography is a planographic process, not
relief -) Engraving is not often taught in an Introductory class
because it is too time consuming and, like you say, most teachers don't
know how to do it. Anyway, and the first class in anything is to
provide an overview. Engraving is for upper division or grad school -

Another BTW, my Basic Design teacher was a serigrapher, and one of our
design projects had to be done in - guess what? Right, silk screen. It
was the only university exposure I had to that medium -

Cheers!

Sharri

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Message 10
From: ArtfulCarol # aol.com
Date: Mon, 3 May 2004 14:27:58 EDT
Subject: [Baren 24984] Lefties
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Hi,

One participant had to drop out so if there is another Leftie out there who
can join the list and complete 12 8"x10" woodblock prints by June 1 please
e-mail off-line.

About the %$#**^%%%^^!!! Prints. I interpret them as hanga "malfunctions",
not goofs.

If I wrote about all of mine I would not have the time to make more and in
the process miss the opportunity to possibly make some decent prints .

As usual
Best
Carol

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Message 11
From: "Matt Laine"
Date: Mon, 3 May 2004 15:03:54 -0400
Subject: [Baren 24985] Re: That ^^($(% Print
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Now I don't feel too bad about my efforts -- I don't feel good but it's a little easier knowing that I aint the only one with problems!
Matt Laine

Dan Dew wrote:
>...Come on now, I can't be the only one with a horror story. It would make me feel better
>if others would chime in with theirs. If not, then I am going to feel like the only goofball in here.

Barbara Mason wrote:
>Dan,
>I am so sympathetic...my three block print is now a two block print...

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