[Baren]: The mailing list / discussion forum for woodblock printmaking. Baren Digest Thursday, 26 August 1999 Volume 08 : Number 678 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: "Jean Eger" Date: Thu, 26 Aug 1999 13:34:14 +0900 Subject: [Baren 5428] Date: Wed, 25 Aug 1999 Re: collaboration, what about us making an exquisite corpse(s)? You know--the surrealist game in which each made a drawing of part of a figure but all they knew of the others' work was the connecting points. What's this about a raffle? Did I miss something? Jean Eger ------------------------------ From: David Bull Date: Thu, 26 Aug 1999 13:40:31 +0900 Subject: [Baren 5429] Re: Upload April wrote: > I just uploaded two images to Woodblock.com. I sent in a photo of Bea, > Barbara and me (April) above an installation shot of our closing show and a > separate closeup of our three prints from the Horizons Craft Program. OK, got 'em. Head over to http://woodblock.com ... where you will find a new link on the main page - 'Events and Activities'. Anybody have any other suitable photos? Dave ------------------------------ From: "Horacio" Date: Thu, 26 Aug 1999 03:22:19 -0300 Subject: [Baren 5432] Re: from the south hemisphere People from the south hemisphere ask your permission to participate of this tornado of postings, motivated by the prize, I think. [1] Considering that I am one of the Baren members that most distort the human figure, I kindly protest!!! It's non-sense: Guernica hasn't any mistake! For me, mistakes and distortions are complete different concepts. [2] This question of mistakes remind me that some printmakers, even knowing that characters and numbers should be designed and cut in the reverse, consciously ignore it . It is a way to make clear that we, printmakers, no matter the technique, work in the other side of the mirror. [3] Jack, I agree with Dave: the lady has 5 toes on her foot, but I agree with you and Dave that there are a mistake on the background. [4] Dave, beautiful Sony Mavica photos. [5] Despite my individualism, I think that Wanda's proposition of a collaborative printmaking process (with the variations suggested by Jeanne, Jean, Pete, Cindy, etc) is very seductive. I would like (I don't know how) to participate . Horacio ------------------------------ From: John Ryrie Date: Thu, 26 Aug 1999 20:15:27 +1000 Subject: [Baren 5434] Re: The gloves are off. Gary wrote.... >Yes, good art does take risks, but a good artist removes the evidence of >the error. Just look at Matisisse 100's of drawings that show some beautiful errors. I think Picasso saved up all his mistakes for his relationships. I haven't bothered to talk about computer art before. There is a computer in the print room at school and it is used by most of the students. Wen I go in and work directly onto a block, plate or stone without a photo or print out to work from the students look at me as if I have supernatural powers. Drawing is seen as obsolete. I think the computer is an amazing thing and I'm shore it could be used to make good art but I am yet to see it. I should be able to comment on the shark topic being Australian where most people are attacked by one at least on a dally basis. But I can't As for the collaboration what if each person decided the subject mater of another member? John Ryrie ------------------------------ From: Gayle Wohlken Date: Thu, 26 Aug 1999 08:50:59 -0400 Subject: [Baren 5435] Re: Baren Digest V8 #677 Wow. A person leaves for a few days and comes back to more action on the Baren than seen in a long time. It must be the print Dave is offering. :-) *** The collaboration idea is intriguing. Does it work like this? A person is sent someone else's design, and carves it. Then that person packages the blocks and sends them to the printing person? Then the printing person sends the blocks back to the carving person, and forwards the finished prints to the coordinator of the whole thing? What happens when some of us do oil based printing? Should we form groups according to what we do? This would have more to do with the person who prints. So if you want to be in a waterbased print group, you'd have to specify that? * * * The discussions lately are making me dizzy in a way. It seems we have people who work different way, each way with its own goals. I don't think it's possible to judge one as better than the other. I don't think anyone wants sloppy work, but then what do you do with the German Expressionists? Someone mentioned them. I have a book called "Woodcuts" which traces the history of woodcuts with Durer at the start of the book , and when you get near the end some of the German Expressionists have just hacked away into the wood to get whatever it was they were after. When people do the traditional Japanese woodblock prints, the rules are bound in history. When you do woodcuts thinking of the tool marks, the wood, the paper, the expression, then there's a whole different process of thinking. Some don't like that look because it might look too "thrown out there". But design is imperative. Every cut can be one too many, upsetting the balance of dark and light. And it is a search that is exciting from beginning to end. For me, the idea of sending out my stuff to a master carver or printer would make me nervous because it is my project, my own art, my own printing style and I want that control. Having said that, I would like to join that collaborative exchange as the experience of it might reveal the same wonderful surprise of having someone else read your poetry. I've always been amazed how much depth I've found in my own poems, when my lines were read aloud by another. But, if the reader isn't particularly strong at reading, the poem can sound less deep. It's a risk having someone else take your idea and run with it down a rocky path you never imagined. Anyway...Welcome, Brian. Gayle ------------------------------ End of Baren Digest V8 #678 ***************************