[Baren]: The mailing list / discussion forum for woodblock printmaking. Baren Digest Thursday, 10 December 1998 Volume 05 : Number 369 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: "Roger A. Ball" Date: Wed, 09 Dec 1998 09:43:17 -0700 Subject: [Baren 2262] new try Latest attempt at http://www.inquo.net/~beckorro/woodcut/bee1b.jpg playing with colors, moisture, shading...etc. One more block to go to just to add the stamens. Changing printing order to get more subdued tone on flower veins. Still trying to find a better background color. Last overprint of yellow on the bee didn't print worth a damn here. Brush strokes and smudges plague me on these short test runs, but it's getting cleaner slowly. Hoping to pull together plank, paper, pigment, proof, paste, patience and phumidity about Dec. 15 and actually start printing! :o) Cherrio, - -Roger ------------------------------ From: "Ray Esposito" Date: Wed, 9 Dec 1998 12:55:58 -0500 Subject: [Baren 2263] 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. I am playing catchup but wanted to add a thought or two to this discussion. I notice one point is missing. The tread seems to be that many do not pay taxes but it is because they are not making a lot of money as artists and/or that their lives are complete by not making more than they need. All well and good. If you are happy, I am happy. But there are also those who make a lot of money and do not pay taxes. I get the feeling that Dave would object but I would be proud to join Richard's point of view. The point that seems to be missing is this. If I make $100,000 a year and, utilizing the tax laws of the Unithed States given to me by Congress as a citizen to use, I end up paying zero taxes, I consider that good business and money management. If this is wrong, change the law, but do not put an individual down for using those laws. (And I know no one is being put down in Baren. That is just a turn of phase.) I grant you that most of these laws are geared to benefit the wealthly but once on the books, they are available to everyone. When I was an investment advisor, all those many years ago before retiring in 1982, my job was to reduce clients taxes as close to zero as possible. Most of my clients were middle income management, not wealthly taxpayers, but what loopholes existed were applicable to Joe Officeworker as well as Rodney Pureblood. I realize also that we are discussing viewpoints and philosophies from different countries and that plays a large role in what everyone has written. My viewpoint is of course from the US. Use what laws your government gives you to put the money in your pocket. And be happy. Cheers Ray ------------------------------ From: David Bull Date: Thu, 10 Dec 1998 09:01:36 +0900 Subject: [Baren 2264] Re: cameras Speaking of cameras ... (were we?) ... Graham wrote: > That sure is a Jim dandy little camera.... > Not goint to by one just yet......$1400.00 ain't in the budget. > They will be much cheaper in a year or so.... Actually Graham, the 'year' is over; the price is now down to just about half of what I paid for it last summer. Sony has a raft of new models just out, so they've cut the price of my 'old' model. For anybody interested, it's the FD71, and now sells here for just about 60,000 yen. *** Had an interesting day of filming on the documentary yesterday. They had arranged to come on the day when I was to do the carving of the poem on the final print, but when they arrived, I saw that they hadn't brought their camera with them. Nakaba-san the cameraman, just laughed at me, opened up a bag, and brought out an endoscope, that medical tool with a tiny camera at the end of a long thin 'snake'. I expected him to say 'Bend over please ...' ... But he used it like an airplane to 'fly' over the surface of the block while I was carving, and he got some film that looks like it came from 'Top Gun' - a jet screaming down the valleys and then up and across the landscape. But this landscape is all carved cherrywood. Nifty scenes, and I think they might be using this as the opening sequence of the film. I can't wait to see it! Dave ------------------------------ From: Steiner Date: Thu, 10 Dec 1998 12:45:34 +0900 Subject: [Baren 2265] A taxing note from Richard /Kyoto Jean wrote (Baren 2257) that printing an edition on one kind of paper, then doing the same thing on another paper is a good idea. It is also illigal, according to what I have been told. Many years ago, some French printmakers tried that sort of thing when they sent works to The States for selling, and the US Government's Income Tax Ministry nailed them. Merely changing the paper does not constitute a new work of art. I feel the same about this; and as we know, the "color" of the paper often affects the feeling of the design. A work printed on a white paper will not look the same when it is printed on a tan or darker paper. While the piece may sell well on white, it could bonb on brown. The Baren letter I wrote long ago, Jean, about carving that was so good, it looked like actual brushwork, is called KYOTO CRAFTSPEOPLE, but I don't have the Baren Number. This is what Dave was refering to (Baren 2258). Dave took umbrage (Baren 2253) at my pride at having never paid any taxes to any central government while continuing to live in civilized society and reap the benifits thereof. This needs explaining. First off, there is no one, not even me, who can live in society and escape paying taxes. Even we low-income artist-type earners who get refunds annually, do, in fact, pay some taxes to the central government; not all the money we pay is refunded. I am from that generation and that location where anti-government senitment was not only high, but created. That is, the 60's and the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor (the center of the universe). I was an early member of SDS, Students for a Democratic Society, and while I didn't go on to the bomb-making phase, the suspicion of governments ingrained then has never left me. Here in Japan, every day's newspaper confirms this feeling. I would never want to leave organized society for a life, say, in the woods; I enjoy receiving and greatly appreciating, like Dave, the benifits available, like this on-line forum and my Mac. This will not blind me, however, to the ills of government and its continual misuse of the taxes I only partially pay. Here in Japan, we alians cannot vote. This is a giant pity, because if we could, I for one would get involved in the effort to better the government. As it is, I strongly maintain my USA citizenship and I never fail to vote by absentee ballot every four years, another fact I am immencely proud of. This has not much to do with printmaking, but a reply was needed. Sorry to have taken up everyone's eye-time. (Just read Graham's note. Seems there are a bunch of us out there more or less in the same boat. I didn't realize that. Thanks, Graham.) Steiner/Kyoto ------------------------------ End of Baren Digest V5 #369 ***************************