[Baren]: The mailing list / discussion forum for woodblock printmaking.

Baren Digest             Tuesday, 23 December 1997     Volume 01 : Number 023

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From: Graham Scholes <gscholes@islandnet.com>
Date: Mon, 22 Dec 1997 07:21:43 -0800
Subject: [Baren 117] Xmas  

No I haven't dropped off the edge and to be never heard from again. I have
dropped into Santa's workshop and am making Christmas gifts.

We have 3 children which results in 7 Grandchildren plus a friend or two,
it doesn't leave much time for the Baren.

You guys have had some interesting threads going and I do want to
contribute. However this will have to wait until my guys go back home to
Lethbridge. But in the meantime there are very important things to be done.
One being the building of a sculpture with Doug, my son.  Every visit
consumes some time for us to collaborate and come up with a creation.  This
years is not too involved.....I don't think..... it will only by about 15
feet high and made from rebar. We start this morning.

So until I get back into the groove of "thinks" my I wish you compliments
of the Season and all of you great success with your creations in the
coming year.

Cheers
Graham

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From: Bill Mixon <bmixon@nine.com>
Date: Mon, 22 Dec 1997 11:30:03 -0500
Subject: [Baren 118] Re:  Minds, states, etc. 

Matt, thanks for your insights.  I'd understood "state" to refer to the
plates, while "variant" might refer simply to the results of expressive
inking.  But there might be other usages of the terms?  (Some of my
questions have boggled down in issues of semantics, I guess.  There
would probably be a collective sigh of relief "if this guy would just
limit himself to asking about technique"!;^)  Sometimes I think too much
*about* what I'm doing, rather than "just doing it", I know that's not
very Z*n.  But I do find the history and philosophy of it all so
fascinating too, we don't work in a vacuum.

Dave, thank you too;  even if we disagree on a thing or two, that's what
makes for spirited discussions.  I'm learning a lot here.  (Some of
these topics, surprisingly, are hard to discuss in school, where one
tends to be surrounded by a narrower and less mature spectrum of
attitudes;  one of the great things about this forum is the wide range
of perspectives and experience represented.)  You have me totally
convinced about the need for absolute control in the *craft* parts of
printmaking.  I still have reservations about the *artistic* part (the
preparation) being so deterministic.  Art is so broad... what you say
about control and creation is perfectly true for some, and obviously
works for you, and well!  But there are other ways too?  Words seem so
clumsy here.  I'll try to illustrate what I mean about the artist
sometimes being "filter" rather than "creator" (notice I've softened my
wording to "sometimes").  Again I'll take an extreme example, to clarify
by exaggerated contrast.  Consider the sort of photography practiced by
Adams, Weston, Porter, and so on (not the everyday snapshot).  They are
"filtering" what they present, not purely "creating" it.  So is it art?
Yes, I think so.  Granted, they are very much in control of what they
filter.  (Please forgive my blatant topic drift, though!:^)

Anyway, my timing may have been a little off, coming up with so many
questions just before Christmas!  So I'll understand if you all have
other things you need to do right now, like spend time with loved ones,
and...  In fact, I've got to do some last-minute Christmas preparations
I've managed to put off till now.  I look forward to many good
discussions next year.  Thank you all for being here.

Happy Holidays, and the very best New Year,
Bill

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End of Baren Digest V1 #23
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