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

Baren Digest              Friday, 22 October 1999      Volume 09 : Number 752

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From: John Ryrie <j.ryrie@pgrad.unimelb.edu.au>
Date: Thu, 21 Oct 1999 23:43:24 +1000
Subject: [Baren 6337] new member 

Welcome Luke,
        Julio's right, have a god look at the baren site.  I'm still
finding new
stuff on it after all these months.

Horacio, grate to see the new work if anyone hasn't seen it yet hear is the
address again    http://www.analiserital.com.br/xilograv.htm

John

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From: Elizabeth Atwood <elizuno@midcoast.com>
Date: Thu, 21 Oct 1999 10:43:56 -0400
Subject: [Baren 6338] NH Trip 

Welcome back, Dave.
I'm still a little jealous that you were unable to extend your trip to the
Maine part of New England....but you did see our colorful foilage at its
very best.
With Lynita's descriptions...and yours....it sounds like a grand trip. I
can understand your deep satisfaction in connecting with Matt.
It would be a learning time for all of us if you could recreate some of the
discussions point by point on your difference of methods, etc. A dialogue.
ElizA

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From: Maria Arango <Maria@mariarango.com>
Date: Thu, 21 Oct 1999 08:29:56 -0700
Subject: [Baren 6339] Re: Baren Digest V9 #751 

Welcome Luke! You will find nearly all the answers to the questions you
might have from time to time in the Encyclopedia, as someone suggested.
I spent weeks browsing and printed out most of the books for easy
reference around the studio. Also, browse the member's sites for even
more details and alternatives to the traditional methods and just to see
some awesome art.

Welcome back Dave and thanks for your Digest-saver post. Hope your
travels went well, sounds like a good time was had by all. I bet there
is quite a difference between the way someone who was taught the
traditional method and a self-taught practicioner handle the tools and
use them. On the other hand, by the results you both get, it seems like
Matt has done well for/and by himself. I find that sometimes books and
illustrations aren't enough and find myself looking for more answers.

Juan, I'm envious! Buena suerte y cuidate (good luck and take care, for
the Spanish-impaired).
Health to all,
Maria

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From: James G Mundie <jimandkatemundie@juno.com>
Date: Thu, 21 Oct 1999 12:50:40 -0400
Subject: [Baren 6340] more woodcut sites 

Greetings, all.

I was playing on the web today and came across some "new"  woodcut
artists at the following sites:

http://www.angelfire.com/ut/serena/wood.html
http://www.geocities.com/Paris/Tower/3477/prints.html
http://www.cityart.com
http://www.foxbronzeart.com/Mickelson_Woodcuts_1.html
http://www.israelartguide.co.il/hoffman/wcs.htm

and lastly, saucy German girls (in a style somewhere between Lucien Freud
and Patrick Nagel) and lush Italian landscapes by Ulrich Winter at:

http://www.artefax.de/pordruckgrafik.html and
http://www.artefax.de/etoskeins.html

Happy surfing,
James Mundie
Philadelphia USA

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From: Vollmer/Yamaguchi <jy6@columbia.edu>
Date: Thu, 21 Oct 1999 21:40:44 -0400 (EDT)
Subject: [Baren 6343] Balance 

Juan Guerrero, I am totally envious of your trip to Japan! I must figure
out a way to visit myself. It often seems that there is so much to hanga
woodcut that I can never find here. It is great that Dave can share his
insider's look. I look forward to hearing your report next month after you
return!

Great to hear more about Dave and Matt's visit. Sounds wonderful. And of
course the questions you raise are the ones I ask myself every day...how
closely do I want to imitate the technique of the Japanese masters? They
did everything so well, I want to take advantage of their knowledge, but I
still want the work to be my own. I don't want the technical details to
dominate the expressiveness, of what is (for me) contemporary American art.
But I don't want to dismiss the expertise of those great craftsmen I can
learn so much from! Keeping that balance between old and new, Japanese and
American, technical precision and artistic license, is what keeps me
fascinated with hanga!

April Vollmer, NYC
http://www.ulster.net/~vollmerf/april/

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From: "Philip Smith" <smithart@pacifier.com>
Date: Thu, 21 Oct 1999 21:39:17 -0700
Subject: [none]

Maria,....did you get a response from the online magazine,...??? I know 
it would be a bit of work,..but if you do aquire this property,...and I 
can assist in some way,..please let me know......I would say something 
in Spanish but I am one of the groups impaired!!! Good luck,....Philip

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From: David Bull <davebull@woodblock.com>
Date: Fri, 22 Oct 1999 19:09:46 +0900
Subject: [Baren 6346] Various replies .... 

Juan wrote, 
> I won a fellowship to travel to Japan for a month. 
> ... about a week in Tokyo. Welcome any suggestions
> to "what to visit, whom to see"  ...

As you're an art teacher and artist, I think that a visit to Tama Art
University would probably be a pretty productive thing to do ...

http://www.tamabi.ac.jp/wsc/default.htm

Why not write to them and see if you can arrange something?

***

Horacio wrote:
> I had the opportunity to include some more prints.

http://www.analisevital.com.br/xilograv.htm

I see you've joined the 'colour' brigade!  This seems like quite a big
step for a 'black & white' man ...  Why did you decide to do this,
Horacio?

***

Elizabeth wrote:
> It would be a learning time for all of us if you could recreate 
> some of the discussions point by point on your difference of methods,

It would be interesting for _me_ too ... if I could remember only a
tenth of what passed between us!

One that comes to mind at the moment, a topic that we 'bumped up'
against but didn't really attack head-on, was the question of how an
artist creates a _coherent_ body of work.  I for example, choose my
surimono prints one by one.  After a number of years of doing that
series, when I stand and look back at them all, will they represent a
coherent body of work, or just a random assemblage of pictures whose
only common point is that David liked them?

For me, this really isn't perhaps such an important point, because I'm
not an artist, but for an artist like Matt, I think it is vital to
consider this question.  

It could be that there really is no issue here; after years of work ...
after a _lifetime_ of work ... when one looks back on the prints
created, there will obviously be some kind of coherence, if only from
the stylistic similarity that will be present in the prints.  But what
I'm afraid of is that this stylistic similarity isn't enough.  Without
some kind of (don't laugh ...) _philosophical_ basis to the work, I
wonder if the collection of prints wouldn't be just a collection of
'pretty pictures'.

_Why_ is this print being made?  Why _this_ scene instead of
_that_ one?  What message is being communicated here?

Am I worrying too much about this?  Maybe 'pretty pictures' is what 
we are all making.  Somehow though, I'd like to think that there was 
more to it than that ...  And if there is, then I'd like to get it figured 
out _now_, not when I'm 99, and it's too late to start!

Dave

P.S.  A couple more pictures of Matt's printing room during our
little 'demonstration' last week are up at:
http://woodblock.com/temporary/mattsroom01.jpg
http://woodblock.com/temporary/mattsroom02.jpg

Note all the jars of pigment in the first photo ... and those skylights!
In the second photo, the little bench with the hanging brushes just
behind me is one of Matt's printing benches ...


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End of Baren Digest V9 #752
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