Today's postings

  1. [Baren 44688] Re: What is the idea of red stamps/signature in Japanese woodblocks? (key sevn)
  2. [Baren 44689] Re: New Baren Digest (HTML) V57 #5828 (Dec 5, 2011) (Lynn Starun)
  3. [Baren 44690] Subject=Re: What is the idea of red stamps/signature in Japanese woodblocks? (A R)
  4. [Baren 44691] Re: Subject=Re: What is the idea of red stamps/signature in Japanese woodblocks? (Graham Scholes)
  5. [Baren 44692] Baren Member blogs: Update Notification (Blog Manager)
Member image

Message 1
From: key sevn
Date: Mon, 05 Dec 2011 17:34:47 GMT
Subject: [Baren 44688] Re: What is the idea of red stamps/signature in Japanese woodblocks?
Send Message: To this poster

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seal_%28East_Asia%29
I found this film:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DvMNTx50QIs&list=FL8O6mlBB2_93_gKeyLSJpTg&index=3&feature=plpp_video
really touching. reminds me of some paul klee works.

off topic:
check out this film it shows an interesting technique:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ePoTLfWeh5o&feature=related


W dniu 5 grudnia 2011 01:20 uytkownik Graham Scholes <
graham@woodblockart.ca> napisa:

> According to a Japanese friend, Noboru, tells me that the this is an
> ancient Japanese custom and is General considered for Japanese use.
> Although it is not held today, mainly because the marketing by the makers
> of these stamps. They are looking for bigger market.
> You can liken the tradition of a Japanese symbol with many aboriginal
> symbols. For example here in British Columbia the use of any West Coast
> imagery is absolutely taboo. Even painting totem pools is considered
> unacceptable. The Public Gallery system in Canada frond on the adoption of
> cultural symbols by non cultural people.
>
> I considered it for a moment and after the feedback I got I decided it was
> not appropriate.
> Tread lightly on with this idea.
>
> Graham
>
>
>
>
Member image

Message 2
From: Lynn Starun
Date: Mon, 05 Dec 2011 18:39:37 GMT
Subject: [Baren 44689] Re: New Baren Digest (HTML) V57 #5828 (Dec 5, 2011)
Send Message: To this poster

Thanks to everyone who sent me feedback on my boxwood issues. I guess now I need to just jump in and try it!!
Lynn
Member image

Message 3
From: A R
Date: Tue, 06 Dec 2011 06:01:03 GMT
Subject: [Baren 44690] Subject=Re: What is the idea of red stamps/signature in Japanese woodblocks?
Send Message: To this poster


Your new hanko!

Dear Graham and others,

I think the information you got was more then a bit skewed or pretentious.

Here in Japan a seal (hanko) is part of ordinary everyday life. You are required to have a legally registered seal (valid as an official signature) also you have one or more everyday seals which are used for various purposes signing for registered mail, smaller bank transactions and so on.
Nearly all cultures in East Asia uses seals as we did until the 19th cent. and on registered/certified post until the 1960s.

Many Western artist have used seals as an identification mark, for example AD for Albrecht Drer (incorporated into his designs), many turn of the century artist used seals, for example Toulouse-Lautrec, Klimt, Monet, Gauguin and so on.
Normally artist seals are found in three different types of shape and content. But you can stretch the limits with your creative thinking.

Shape:
Round
Rectangular
Fantasy

Content:
Artist name
Studio name (f.ex. Studio of the fragrant peach blossoms)
Pictorial

You can all safely cut and use your own seals. You will not hurt anybodies cultural sensitivities. But try to be original and not use Chinese characters, but maybe try to invent your own typography or imagery.

For Canadian authorities; it seems as they are more then a bit narrow minded and bigoted. (If it is a religious symbol you have to consider how far you are prepared to go as an artist, see the Mohammed drawing debates, but also remember it is an artist right to widen the discussion (in the "free world"))

Anders
Tokyo
Member image

Message 4
From: Graham Scholes
Date: Tue, 06 Dec 2011 06:38:07 GMT
Subject: [Baren 44691] Re: Subject=Re: What is the idea of red stamps/signature in Japanese woodblocks?
Send Message: To this poster


Anders, Tokyo wrote:
> Dear Graham and others,
>
> I think the information you got was more then a bit skewed or pretentious.

> For Canadian authorities; it seems as they are more then a bit narrow minded and bigoted. (If it is a religious symbol you have to consider how far you are prepared to go as an artist, see the Mohammed drawing debates, but also remember it is an artist right to widen the discussion (in the "free world"))

Hey don't shoot the messenger.

I can only pass on what has come to me. Sure back in the old days (Toulouse-Lautrec, Klimt, Monet, Gauguin) appropriation was not a consideration.... It certainly is today and I suggest that artist consider the present day guidelines and or trends....

Narrow minded and bigoted..!!! We Canadians like to think it is consideration and politeness for minorities

Respectfully
Graham
www.woodblockart.ca

Digest Appendix

Postings made on [Baren] members' blogs
over the past 24 hours ...

Subject: Pyramid
Posted by: Annie B

PyramidFinal

PYRAMID
Japanese-method woodblock (moku hanga)
Image size: 35" x 21" (89 x 53 cm)
Paper size: 38.5" x 25" (98 x 63.5 cm)
1 shina plywood block, 2 birch blocks
10 hand-rubbed color layers
Paper: Shikoku White
Edition: 7

Pyramid and eye are enlarged from the back of a U.S. dollar bill.
Figure is from a found 1880 etching of migrant workers in a field. __________________________________

The pyramid image found on the back of the U.S. dollar bill is part of the Great Seal of the U.S. and is, as my friend Mary so aptly put it the other day, "kind of strange." The eye, which I find especially odd, is said to indicate that God, or Providence, favors the U.S. enterprise and will watch over it.

PyramidFigure
I moved the eye farther away from the bottom portion of the pyramid and inserted a small human figure between the two to give the meaning a different twist. The figure is from an 1880 etching I found of a group of African American migrant workers in a cotton field, their labors watched over with care by a white man.

I love the posture of this figure. To me the man looks weary, as if he just arrived at the top of the 13 . . .
[Long item has been trimmed at this point. The full blog entry can be viewed here]

This item is taken from the blog woodblock dreams.
'Reply' to Baren about this item.


Subject: 2-Block Xmas Card
Posted by: Ellen Shipley

Short cuts always take longer.  *sigh*  Because I'd carved the original block differently than my cartoon I've had to trace and transfer the image with wax paper (the only thing I could see well enough thru on the block) and chalk onto the back of the block.


Now I'm carving away around the ornaments; next the window scene.  Ugly, ugly work.  I hate how the block looks.


Also need to carve a hole for the ornaments on the first block.

This item is taken from the blog Pressing-Issues.
'Reply' to Baren about this item.


Subject: The sound of summer is coming to town!


This item is taken from the blog Against the grain.
'Reply' to Baren about this item.


Subject: City within a city from the UK and another Brazilian citizen
Posted by: Maria

Harry French, Lincolnshire, United Kingdom writes this about his beautiful contribution:

My city of the world is a personal, composite print of my own city, Lincoln set in the rural county of Lincolnshire, England, UK. It was used by the Roman 9th Legion Hispania as their fortress in 65AD followed by the 2nd Legion Adiutrix in 71AD that eventually moved north. In the ninth century the Vikings invaded and settled down in the area until 1066AD when William conquered England. To establish his power he built a castle to keep us under control and ordered the building of a cathedral.

So what?s Lincoln?s contribution today as a city of the world in such a rural and isolated area?

I still use the Roman archway to enter the top end of the city.                                                     William?s castle is now the custodian of the world famous document of freedom, ?The Magna Carta (1215AD)?.

His great cathedral still stands at the side of the castle and dominates the city skyline.

Architectural experts now rank it as one of the finest in Europe.

I came to Lincoln in 1964 and have never had any great desire to leave it.

Awesome!


And Nancy Guedes Nastari Saia, from Guaruja, Sao Paulo Brazil sends a wonderful image and more news from lands far and fantastic.

[Long item has been trimmed at this point. The full blog entry can be viewed here]

This item is taken from the blog MCPP Puzzle Prints.
'Reply' to Baren about this item.