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

Baren Digest              Tuesday, 8 December 1998      Volume 05 : Number 367

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From: Graham Scholes <gscholes@islandnet.com>
Date: Mon, 7 Dec 1998 10:10:48 -0800
Subject: [Baren 2256] Re: Taxes 

Richard wrote:
>The one merit derived from this way of living, is that I have never in my life
>paid any income taxes to any government, a fact I am quite proud of.

Why am I not amazed....... I easily relate to this situation. I have been
doing my thing for 23 years....that is putting bread on the table.  In all
that time I have not paid income taxes.... Oh it's not that I didn't want
to, believe me.  I would dearly loved to have made enough money, but that
it seems was never in the cards. The cards being that which labels you as
..... well .... a flower painter  ...wild life painter....portrait painter
and so on..... No thanks.   I could have made a pot full doing that.   I
recall numerous early exhibitions where they lined up to get a watercolour
of a Sugar Shack. I always moved on and did that which I had not done
before.  One more year and I am out of the Lighthouse thing.

I know of numberous....well established artists.....that don't pay taxes.
We make just enough for the live on. We don't have morgages. We don't have
fancy vehicles and usually buy our working clothes at Sally Ann's but we
live really well keeping it simple.


Matt wrote .....
> Editioning prints is a sales gimmic (I believe), one that may be pretty
>key, in the > U.S. at any rate, to getting those sales figures into higher
>territory

Yes this does help but the most important aspect of limiting the edition
for me is so I can  move on.  I wouldn't want the cards to dictate that a
particular print is a real winner and so I could just keep producing them
until hell froze over or the market was saturated. Oh God what a terrible
fate. Hell, would be a label person.
Nooo Thannnkk Yoouuuu

Graham

Things are a lot easier said than done... unless you are a stttutttererrrr

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From: Jean Eger <jeaneger@LanMinds.Com>
Date: Mon, 07 Dec 1998 10:43:38 -0800
Subject: [Baren 2257] Re: Baren Digest V5 #366 

Dear BAreners,
	Thanks to all who tried to identify Sirizaka.  I'll follow up on Dave B's
suggestion.  After briefly perusing the Shogun Gallery's discussion list,
it looks like there are quite a few people knowledgeable about collecting.
Perhaps my desire to acquire water-based ink block prints will be satisfied
with the print exchange.  I looked at that little print and admired how the
artist had put a band of black on the crane's ochre neck--it was obviously
done with one brush mark, rather than a separate block. There were other
design techniques, such as outlining a white circle in red on top of an
ochre background--this was done with the brush also.  That, plus the
richness of the paper, made the print very attractive.  
	I got the good news that I sold two etchings out of a show that just came
down in North Carolina.  I hope I will be able to say the same for my block
prints some day.  
	It is very informative and interesting to read about the record keeping
techniques of our professional artists.  And inspiring!  As for editioning,
why not keep good records, pull a few prints and then print the whole
edition if it is successful.  Or print a small edition, then print another
edition on different paper?  
	Losing money in an art business is par for the course, but I think it does
have some tax advantages.  If one actually has a business license, one can
claim busines expenses--the use of part of the house, the telephone, gas,
art supplies, and so on.  
	I ran a small newspaper for years.  It increased our standard of living,
although it never made any money.  It broke even for years.  I got tickets
to major musical events in exchange for writing reviews.  Thus I was able
to take my son to see some really great theatre, where I wouldn't have been
able to do that otherwise.  It paid the telephone bill and the gas bill.  
	At least in the U.S., having a small business is really a good thing to
do.  Everyone sells lemonade or brownies when young, so that's the
preparation we have for business.
	The key is, sell it for MORE than you paid for it, not less!
Sorry, Ray, I guess I am rambling again.

Jean Eger

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From: David Bull <davebull@woodblock.com>
Date: Tue, 08 Dec 1998 09:35:54 +0900
Subject: [Baren 2258] Re: Retouching? 

Jean  wrote:
> I looked at that little print and admired how the
> artist had put a band of black on the crane's ochre neck--it was obviously
> done with one brush mark, rather than a separate block. There were other
> design techniques, such as outlining a white circle in red on top of an
> ochre background--this was done with the brush also.  

I'm not sure about this, Jean.  Of course, without the print here in
front of me, I can't say for sure on this, but I rather suspect that
what you think is brush work, is actually printed.

If the print you are looking at _is_ a Japanese traditional-type print,
then it would be most unusual indeed for any such retouching to be
necessary.  Traditional printers here can put lines onto paper that you
would swear had been delicately brushed on ... and I've seen
reproductions of paintings that needed examination with a magnifying
glass to detect (I think Richard also mentioned something about this a
while ago.)

Flip the print over and look at the back side in the place where that
'band of black' appears.  Can you see burnishing marks from the baren
just there?    Or try holding the print up against a steeply raking
light to see if that area is 'impressed' into the depth of the paper. 
Those two things should provide a couple of clues ...

***

Work on my '[Baren] exchange print/exhibition gift print/next year's
project sample print' (all in one!) is coming along at last. The key
block is now finished, and I've just updated the web pages that
illustrate the process as it proceeds:

http://www.woodblock.com/surimono/process.html

Dave

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End of Baren Digest V5 #367
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