Baren Digest Wednesday, 3 July 2002 Volume 20 : Number 1884 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: "Maria Arango" Date: Tue, 2 Jul 2002 07:50:42 -0700 Subject: [Baren 18586] RE: Fifth American Print Biennial Thanks John! The print in question was Maze http://www.1000woodcuts.com/fullsize/maze.html Also thanks for the Journal of the Print World reference, I went to their website and subscribed. I was totally ignorant of their existence. Maria <><><><><><><><><><><><><><> Maria Arango Las Vegas, Nevada, USA http://www.1000woodcuts.com maria@mariarango.com <><><><><><><><><><><><><><> - -----Original Message----- >From: owner-baren@ml.asahi-net.or.jp >[mailto:owner-baren@ml.asahi-net.or.jp]On Behalf Of John Cleverdon >Sent: Monday, July 01, 2002 10:49 PM >To: Baren Woodcut Forum >Subject: [Baren 18584] Fifth American Print Biennial > >Congratulations to Maria Arango for getting in the 5th Annual American Print >Biennial, organized by the Marsh Art Gallery, University of Richmond >Museums. The juror was Richard S. Field, Curator Emeritus of Prints and >Drawings, Yale University Art Gallery. Maria was one of 44 artists selected >from entries submitted by 224 artists. > >The show ended this past Saturday (June 29th). It was written up in the >spring issue of the Journal of the Print World, which I finally got around >to reading tonight. > >If there were any other Baren members in the show I apologize for not >mentioning your names. > >John Cleverdon >Point Clear, AL ------------------------------ From: Julio.Rodriguez@walgreens.com Date: Tue, 2 Jul 2002 11:15:17 -0500 Subject: [Baren 18587] Re: Oregon Show - Print Pricing 07/02/2002 11:17:16 AM There is a writeup on the last issue of the Barensuji newsletter with stuff about Barbara Mason's Oregon show. There is also a link to the Oregon Japan Summer Fest. Good luck with the exhibit. http://barenforum.org/newsletter/issue08/issue08.html Welcome to Carol Wagner and all the other new members. Be sure to visit the Baren website !!! Thanks Mike Lyon for putting up the Music prints online and to Barbara Patera for coordinating the exchange, an incredible group of prints ! Anyone interested in contributing an article or photos for the July/August newsletter, the time is now ! All entries welcome as well as news about upcoming events in your part of the world. thanks.....Julio Rodriguez (Skokie, Illinois) ------------------------------ From: "Jean Womack" Date: Tue, 2 Jul 2002 09:20:06 -0700 Subject: [Baren 18588] Re: Baren Digest V19 #1882 Regarding composition: I learned composition at Swarthmore college way back in the '60's, in a class called "Design in Drawing and Painting." It was a different kind of composition than that which is taught now, which focuses on balance of geometric objects and blocks of type. Back then, it was based on figurative paintings of the Rennaissance. A triangular composition was focused on three heads, usually mother, angel, and baby, or mother, father, baby. A rectangular composition was four or more heads defining a rectangular arrangement. And so on. The eye was always drawn to the head. Recently I learned that the eye is always drawn to the lightest spot in the painting. I guess it just depends on which school you went to. Back then competition for grades in math class was rough. Now competition for art teaching jobs is really rough. Thanks for including my print in the show, Barbara. Jean Eger Womack ------------------------------ From: "Bill and/or Lynda Ritchie" Date: Tue, 2 Jul 2002 09:45:22 -0700 Subject: [Baren 18589] Mundie's more Munch I second J. Mundie's recommendation of F. Eichenberg's book, and comment that Dr. Eichenberg borrowed my slides of the Bathing Man dozen images. I made the slides when I was a scholar resident at the Munch Museum in 1969. The series caught my eye because it exemplified printmaking's connection to the new media arts. At that time it was video art, and I included the Bathing Man in a talk I gave at the World Print Conference in SF in '81. If Munch had a second life, he'd have spent time in a video special effects studio, and today he'd have both a digital printmaking system alongside his painting easel AND his press. The variable editions are by his hand, mostly; he was a terrible printer--incompetent, really when it came to lithos. He mastered his physical and mental illnesses up to a point and then, like John Nash, had to get help. He emerged healthier, his mental and physical life saved (but also his art was tamed and domesticated, IMHO). Bathing Man is not his most expressive woodcut, but is an excellent illustration of the expressive power printmaking and other media art gives to artists, like American Jazz and concrete poetry gives to our sister arts, music and literature. If Eichenberg had lived, by now his entire book would be on-line, I think. Now we need a DVD of the 12 variations of Bathing Mann. Shall we wait for the Munch Museum to do it? It will be a long time. Indeed, it took a very long time for the City of Oslo to decide what Munch had "left" the city was worth anything at all! Sigh. PS: I destroyed my slides of Badende Mann this year, along with thousands of others during a Slide Purge. Someone needs to get a grant, partly to go to Oslo, stay in their scholar's apartment if it's still there, and do it over. That's an opportunity for a graduate student or new printmaking teacher at an institution someplace. - - Bill Mailing address: 500 Aloha #105 Seattle WA 98109 Professor's page: http://www.seanet.com/~ritchie Virtual Art Gallery: http://www.myartpatron.com First Portal to Ritchie's Game: www.artsport.com Telephone: (206) 285-0658 ------------------------------ From: "marilynn smih" Date: Tue, 02 Jul 2002 09:50:31 -0700 Subject: [Baren 18590] Re: Baren Digest V19 #1883 Moku Hanga, well after boot camp I have some idea how to do this. we used waterbased inks and a baren. From what you are saying hanga can be done with oil based inks?? Would this mean than that the method is only using multi blocks, kento registration and carving in wood??? Some how i thought it also meant water based inks and a baren. Well If Dave Bull wanted to promote this process, it reached me, i would never have tried it if it were not for Baren. Marilynn ------------------------------ From: "Linda" Date: Tue, 2 Jul 2002 10:38:54 -0700 Subject: [Baren 18591] Exchange 15 and Hanga Someone the other day mentioned something about there might not be enough people for an all hanga exchange. I for one would like to try it out, but I've never tried, never seen it done, and may get hopelessly lost in the printing part. I also can't afford the time and money to go to BootCamp or even to the KC get together, so I'm pretty much stuck. Either I learn it on my own or I don't. I don't think I'm alone in this. But this hanga exchange is a real good opportunity for the hanga experts to help someone like me learn the process. I was thinking of something along these lines. Set a date after the sign-up period and say that all the new hanga people should have their blocks ready to go by that date. Then slowly step us through the printing process one weekend. (I assume that I could learn to print one color in one weekend -- the other colors would be left up to me on my own.) Whoever the expert is would need to be online that weekend, so, for example, I could mix up the paste, run into problems, and quickly email the expert for instant solution. Kind of like having a someone to hold your hand, if only in cyberspace. I would think this would be a good way for more people to try out hanga printing. Unless of course, you hanga people don't want others playing in your sandbox. [;-)] (Sorry, I couldn't help myself!) Linda ------------------------------ From: "Lee and Barbara Mason" Date: Tue, 2 Jul 2002 10:59:32 -0700 Subject: [Baren 18592] Thanks, Baren Marilyn, You are so right about this list teaching people about moku hanga. I certainly had never done woodblocks before I found it. I wonder how many lives Dave's list has changed??? I don't think oil based inks can be used for Japanese woodblock, the whole premise is waterbased pigments and paper especially made to accept these pigments. But I sure use the registration method when I use oil and I have sure printed oil with a baren, so I guess as artists we take the best of what we learn and make it work for us! Best to all, Barbara > Moku Hanga, well after boot camp I have some idea how to do this. we used > waterbased inks and a baren. From what you are saying hanga can be done > with oil based inks?? Would this mean than that the method is only using > multi blocks, kento registration and carving in wood??? Some how i thought > it also meant water based inks and a baren. Well If Dave Bull wanted to > promote this process, it reached me, i would never have tried it if it were > not for Baren. > Marilynn ------------------------------ From: Wanda Date: Tue, 02 Jul 2002 11:15:38 -0700 Subject: [Baren 18593] Re: Exchange 15 and Hanga Linda wrote: > weekend, so, for example, I could mix up the paste, run into problems, and > quickly email the expert for instant solution. Kind of like having a > someone to hold your hand, if only in cyberspace. > > I would think this would be a good way for more people to try out hanga > printing. Unless of course, you hanga people don't want others playing in > your sandbox. [;-)] (Sorry, I couldn't help myself!) Linda, I think that anyone on Baren would be glad to help you with your hanga experiment. Also, be sure to check out the stuff on http://barenforum.org There are whole books printed in the library section! I found the Hiroshi Yoshida book to be the most help to me in explaining the actual printing process. Very illuminating! I've even printed the whole book out to carry around with me. I'm constantly finding more little tips in it. I think most people get too carried away with the carving & then have nightmares getting the registration to come out right. I know that is what I did on my first hanga blocks. I have never been able to get that thing to print like I wanted - even now that I have more experience. I'm not an expert yet - but I'm working on it! I love hanga - it is so full of possibilities and so portable and so easy to clean up after. Very efficient way to produce prints. Wanda ------------------------------ From: "Lee and Barbara Mason" Date: Tue, 2 Jul 2002 11:22:07 -0700 Subject: [Baren 18594] Moku Hanga > I would think this would be a good way for more people to try out hanga > printing. Unless of course, you hanga people don't want others playing in > your sandbox. [;-)] (Sorry, I couldn't help myself!) > Linda This is the whole idea, for all to learn it a bit. The first thing to do is go to the encylopedia and read all the one point lessons, then read everything about doing this in the rest of the encyclopedia. Start with a black and white piece. This is the best way and how everyone starts. It is hard to learn without seeing it done, but you can do it! Everyone here will help you! so go for it! Lots of room in our sandbox! go to woodblock.com and look at all the blocks Dave has carved. Go to the webcam and watch Dave print..... Barbara ------------------------------ From: Chris Bremmer Date: Tue, 2 Jul 2002 11:30:23 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Baren 18595] Color woodblock question Hello, I've got a simple question that I've never really known the answer to. It's kind of hard to explain so I've made a graphic here http://www.clcmn.edu/colorwoodcut.jpg to try to make it easier to understand. Basically, do you cut out the inside of the "B" in the blue block and worry about registration issues when printing the black block... or do you print just a blue circle and overprint the black. Now did I really confuse everyone? [:)] Thanks, Chris ------------------------------ From: Mike Lyon Date: Tue, 02 Jul 2002 14:13:47 -0500 Subject: [Baren 18596] Re: Exchange 15 and Hanga Hi, Linda... My first attempts at hanga were made as 'practice' pieces before a two week workshop Hiroki Morinue led. I'd made lots of prints, but not many woodcuts, and NO hanga before. I was pretty nervous before the workshop because I thought everyone else would already have printed and I didn't want to hold the group back. So I started practicing. I got pretty interesting results -- not good Japanese printmaking technique -- but I still enjoy looking at those prints !! To make it easy on yourself, just carve some wood -- I used birch plywood for my first blocks -- found out later that it is pretty hard to carve, but didn't know any better at the time and didn't mind at all -- I soaked some cheap chinese "rice paper" (I think !!horrors!! that it actually said "rice paper" on the package) in my bathtub for about 1 second and it disintegrated when I tried to pick it up again. Then I soaked some mulberry paper and some kitakata I had on hand the same way and those held together in spite of my total mis-handling. Then I blotted the paper as if I were making an etching. Then I soaked the blocks (I'd read something about kento registration, and amazingly got that part 'right' the first time) applied watercolor with a watercolor brush, struggled with the paper and the kento, rubbed the paper (which immediately soaked full of color -- fuzzy color running for about 1/2 an inch outside the block) with a cheap plastic 'baren' from the art supply store and amazingly, there was my image... Even though the color had feathered far outside the printing areas, I dutifully inked and printed the other three blocks on the same sheet and the print wasn't half bad! For a few days, I experimented with drier and drier paper and drier and drier pigment, but it turned out that even though I was pretty happy with the results, I was printing with everything pretty much soaking wet! By the end of the two week workshop I had learned a LOT, but still printed too wet and my results were never what I intended. Still, I LOVED the process! And I think I am still improving technically if not artistically with every print. So just JUMP IN, I say! Bring your other print making experience to the table and try it. Carve a few small blocks now and print a dozen sheets over and over. Experiment with both transparent water color and with gouache. Try everything you can think of and see how it works! It's always SO SURPRISING to pull prints, especially hanga... And if the color isn't deep enough, print the same block and same color and same paper again and see what you think! Read either of the Yoshida (one by the father, Hiroshi, and the other by the son, Toshi) books on Japanese Wood Block Printing -- the Hiroshi Yoshida is available on-line at http://www.woodblock.com/encyclopedia/entries/011_07/repeat_frame.html <-- this is actually the middle of the book where he discusses printing grain...) Good luck! The most control over results in the technique is in the printing, not the carving. A good printer can obtain exciting results from ANY blocks! Just practice a bit and try, try, TRY to keep everything MUCH drier than you think you should (and you'll probably still be too wet!). When you start printing and have a question, just post it to BarenForum -- there are PLENTY of experienced and accomplished hanga printers regularly on-line and I bet you'll get surprisingly quick suggestions! Tell you what... I'm not the best example (not even a 'good' example) of printing technique, but if you like the idea then send me your snail-mail address off-list (mikelyon@mlyon.com), and the next time I'm carving and printing I'll make you a video tape and try to explain what I do as I go along... Can't wait to see your prints in #15! Mike At 10:38 AM 7/2/2002 -0700, Linda wrote: >Someone the other day mentioned something about there might not be enough >people for an all hanga exchange. I for one would like to try it out, but >I've never tried, never seen it done, and may get hopelessly lost in the >printing part. I also can't afford the time and money to go to BootCamp or >even to the KC get together, so I'm pretty much stuck. Either I learn it on >my own or I don't. I don't think I'm alone in this. Mike Lyon ------------------------------ From: Mike Lyon Date: Tue, 02 Jul 2002 14:25:52 -0500 Subject: [Baren 18597] Re: Color woodblock question Nice examples, Chris! I think I'd overprint the solid blue with the black carved 'B' in this case. If you wanted a light blue 'B' instead of a black one, I'd overprint a solid light blue circle with the deep blue with the 'B' carved out. If you wanted a red 'B' in a blue disk, then I'd print them the 'hard' way. But there are NO hard and fast rules here, and other ways give interesting results, too... For example, a black 'B' in a blue disk could be printed as a larger solid black disk with your example 'A' in opaque blue/white on top. If there was some wood-grain in example 'A', you'd get some interesting textures, too. Mike At 11:30 AM 7/2/2002 -0700, Chris wrote: >It's kind of hard to explain so I've made a >graphic here >http://www.clcmn.edu/colorwoodcut.jpg to try to >make it easier to understand. > >Basically, do you cut out the inside of the "B" >in the blue block and worry about registration >issues when printing the black block... or do you >print just a blue circle and overprint the black. Mike Lyon mailto:mikelyon@mlyon.com http://www.mlyon.com ------------------------------ From: "Jeanne N. Chase" Date: Tue, 2 Jul 2002 15:30:46 -0400 Subject: [Baren 18598] Re: Exchange 15 and Hanga Linda There is a book out called Japanese Woodblock Printing by Rebecca Salter. It gives step by step lessons and is very clear. I use oil based ink and after reading this book (it is new to me), I am going to give it a try. Of course David Bull gives excellent virtual lessons on the Baren and his web page. I am a bit intimidated by the hanga method but I think it will be worth the effort. Jeanne N. ------------------------------ From: "Linda" Date: Tue, 2 Jul 2002 14:17:49 -0700 Subject: [Baren 18599] Hanga Question #1 >From Wanda: > Linda, I think that anyone on Baren would be glad to help you with your hanga > experiment. .... I figured they would, but I want company in learning this. I hate being alone in asking 'stupid' questions. (With a group of people, you can sit back and hope someone else asks the question for you. Hahaha!) But I seem to be alone, so, here goes. 'Stupid' Question #1: One of the problems I have when printing relief blocks is getting ink in the cut away background, which then shows up on the paper because the paper sags or gets smushed (VERY technical print term!) into the cut-away area. I know cutting these areas deeper would help, but there's limit to that. Now, I looked at the photos of David Bull carving a block and his doesn't look all that deep. And then when he prints the key block, the pigment is all over the block. Yet the print is 'clean'. Why? I suspect it has to do with the pigments drying and only being rewetted by the paper and pressure of the baren, but.... well, I don't have a clue. Okay, one question down, 5 billion to go!!! (Just kidding -- can't be more than 2 million left!) Linda ------------------------------ From: b.patera@att.net Date: Tue, 02 Jul 2002 21:06:55 +0000 Subject: [Baren 18600] Re: #13 - MUSIC EXCHANGE IS ON-LINE Hi Mike, Just came from the Baren site. Thanks a million for posting the prints. In fact, double thanks .... as I actually, don't have a clue as to how you posted those pictures. Speaking of the bear. He/she has been back. Not as frightening with the door closed.... not that a glass slider would stop it from entering... but it would give us time to get upstairs. Anyway,it shows up about every other day and has taken to lounging on the deck. Will probably end up calling the State Wildlife people but am putting it off. They often end up shooting the bigger animals( bears, cougars). Tried to scare it off the other day... ran around shouting and banging things... felt pretty foolish when it lay down and looked at me like I was nuts. Barbara P. > The wonderful prints from [BAREN] Exchange #13 are now viewable on-line at > http://www.barenforum.org/exchange/exchange_13/exchange_frame.html > > Thank you so very much Barbara Patera for your masterful, gentle, > un-BEAR-ably relaxed coordination !! What joy! > > -- Mike > > > ------------------------------ From: Julio.Rodriguez@walgreens.com Date: Tue, 2 Jul 2002 16:19:01 -0500 Subject: [Baren 18601] Re: Hanga Question #1 07/02/2002 04:20:59 PM Okay, Linda, you asked for it....here is a couple of One-pointers from the site that answer your question. These will get you started, but you are going to get more help from others too... http://barenforum.org/encyclopedia/entries/onepoint/018_03/ 018_03_frame.html and... http://barenforum.org/encyclopedia/entries/onepoint/018_26/ 018_26_frame.html It is important when using the baren to keep it flat across the block, any accidental dipping or angling will cause the baren to press down into the "messy" areas carved away. Here is where the baren tool is worth it's weight in gold... a 4 - 5" baren will allow you to excerpt pressure evenly w/o dipping....something you could not do with a spoon or a smaller tool. enjoy...Julio ps. there are no more "stupid" questions to be asked.....I have asked them all already. ------------------------------ From: "Linda" Date: Tue, 2 Jul 2002 14:39:00 -0700 Subject: [Baren 18602] Re: Exchange 15 and Hanga >From Mike: > I soaked some cheap chinese "rice paper" (I > think !!horrors!! that it actually said "rice paper" on the package) in my > bathtub for about 1 second and it disintegrated when I tried to pick it up > again. Oh I like horror stories!!! Hahaha. > Can't wait to see your prints in #15! I can't wait to see them too! Actually, after seeing hanga prints in person (in exchange 13), I'm convinced that it should work for a lot of ideas I have, if only I can learn how to do it. But I'm young, dumb, and willing to give it a try! Linda ------------------------------ End of Baren Digest V20 #1884 *****************************