Baren Digest Sunday, 3 August 2003 Volume 24 : Number 2326 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Lezle Williams Date: Sat, 2 Aug 2003 07:27:57 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Baren 22405] Re: Baren Digest V24 #2325 What a fun question! I hope we get a lot of responses... Mine is: Rockwell Kent. Great work and an amazing life - if any of you have had a chance to read his books I recommend them. Lezle > > From: FurryPressII#aol.com > Date: Fri, 1 Aug 2003 13:38:24 EDT > Subject: [Baren 22396] hello just wondering which artist was your > first influence > ===== Lezle Williams Laughing Crow Studio http://www.laughingcrow.org ------------------------------ From: "Jeanne N. Chase" Date: Sat, 2 Aug 2003 11:26:23 -0400 Subject: [Baren 22406] Favorite Artists Great question!!! When I was in school and lived a block from the LA Museum I fell in love with an artist called DeErdely. I am not sure of the spelling. Cannot find anything about him. But he did very strong black and white paintings and drawings. Very influential at the time. Also a favorite of mine is Isabel Bishop. Her prints of people in everyday life got my attention about 30 years ago. And then there is the genius William Blake and of course the colorful mystical prints and pastels of Odelon Redon. So many!!! Jeanne N. ------------------------------ From: "Bill H. Ritchie, Jr." Date: Sat, 2 Aug 2003 10:15:17 -0700 Subject: [Baren 22407] Re: hello just wondering which artist was your first infl... Mine was Leonard Baskin "Man with Forsythia". Also I liked Antonio Frasconi, but I can't remember a title. Professional Career Site: www.seanet.com/~ritchie First Emeralda Portal Site: www.artsport.com Snail Mail: 500 Aloha #105, Seattle 98109 e-mail: ritchie#seanet.com ------------------------------ From: Emkaygee#aol.com Date: Sat, 2 Aug 2003 13:41:26 EDT Subject: [Baren 22408] Re: Baren Digest V24 #2325 Hi John! What a great question.....it really got me thinking. So many artists creep into my thoughts for different reasons....... I think that the most influential printmaking artists for me would be Kathe Kollwitz (for the raw emotion that she infuses into her work) and Mauricio Lasansky (talent and innovation!). Ahhhh........to achieve 1/4 what they have ......... Hope everyone else is staying dry this summer! Mary >From soggy Cleveland, OH ------------------------------ From: Emkaygee#aol.com Date: Sat, 2 Aug 2003 13:43:44 EDT Subject: [Baren 22409] Re: Baren Digest V24 #2325 BTW John......come to think of it.......Lasansky was the son of an Argentinean banknote engraver........right up your alley! : ) ------------------------------ From: Mike Lyon Date: Sat, 02 Aug 2003 13:23:44 -0500 Subject: [Baren 22410] Re: hello just wondering which artist was your first infl... The first woodcuts that I recall making were in the early 1960's when I was around age 12 or 13. I remember one in particular because I made a gift of it to my favorite 9th grade English teacher, the late Virginia Scott Minor. Here's one of Mrs. Minor's poems: Lilacs are a brief affair, A practicing for roses, As beautiful as young girls are Before youth closes. I remember her as very small, powdery pink, white haired and elderly -- older than my grandmother when I was in 9th grade. I made a three block color wood cut of a pine tree in front of a mountain which she said was Mt. Fuji. She told me it was her favorite picture and displayed it prominently in her classroom at least until I graduated high-school. I must have seen and been influenced by one of the Hokusai views of Fuji at the time, but I'd have to say that Mrs. Minor's approval was one of my early influences in block printing. Block to block registration for that early color woodcut was done "by eye", I believe. I recall that when I was very young, my parents had a series of postcard-size German or Dutch wood engravings -- not prints, but rather the blocks themselves. White had been rubbed into the engraved parts and the surface had been inked black so that the image was easy to see. These were images of 18th or 19th Century ladies and gentlemen at work and play. I often took the blocks down and wondered how the dense heavy wood had been carved, and how they were able to draw the figures so charmingly and realistically. In high-school in the late 1960's my favorite woodblock print artist (by far) was M.C. Escher. My mom bought me a couple of books of reproductions of Escher prints after I started decorating all my school book covers with interlocking animals and people in pen and ink. I thought Escher was SOOOooooo cool then. My mom still keeps my 1968 "Moby Dick" on her bookshelf. It's orange front and back covers were torn (by my adolescent self) half off and in the uneven torn space are drawn happy whales, happy bald men, happy roosters, happy naked huge-breasted women, happy etc. all interlocked, the contour of one figure shared by all the others around it. And the inside pages are full of stick figures drawn in the margins so that when you flip through the pages, they run and throw balls at one another and jump and pole vault and do flips. I saw Drew Carey on TV the other night. He joked, "How many ADHD kids does it take to screw in a light bulb?" OK, how many? "Hey! Wanna go ride bikes?!?" In art school in the early 1970's, I became a huge fan of Constantin Brancusi sculpture, especially "The Kiss", "Bird in Space", and all the "Endless Column"s! Also Alberto Giacometti's sculpture, drawing, and painting. Later, when I began painting, I was overwhelmed by the work of Paul Cezanne and, to a lesser extent, Rembrandt Van Rijn. Also Franz Halls. When I first learned to make Japanese style woodblock prints a few years ago (actually, 1996), I looked at Hiroshige's 100 views of Edo which became the model for my first moku-hanga, "The Fisherman and His Wife" http://www.mlyon.com/prints/relief/fisherman_&_wife.htm -- red yellow blue primary colors, use of black line, unusual perspective, bokashi... Most recently I've become totally engrossed by early 19th century Osaka artists, especially Hokushu and Shigeharu, but many others as well. WOW! DELUXE printing! They're my current biggest influence, I think, plus Chuck Close's master printer for woodblocks, whoever that is! Also those beautiful Helen Frankenthaller woodcuts! Oooooh, baby! - -- Mike Mike Lyon ------------------------------ From: Aqua4tis#aol.com Date: Sat, 2 Aug 2003 15:52:30 EDT Subject: [Baren 22411] Re: hello just wondering which artist was your first ... listening to all of you talk about all of these wonderful artists printers and otherwise i realize how hard it is to pick just one or even a handful at different times of my life ive been influenced by different artists and each time it felt like a love affair i would buy every book i could find on them and go to any shows that i could find i would be obsessed i would try to learn from each one of them they were and are wonderful teachers i would love raphael and fra fillipo lippi one week and the german expressionists the next or georgia okeefe to egon schiele to eric gill i still do this only now i include illustrators as well especially childrens book illustrators this may sound silly but these people have become something of a family to me as have all of you we speak the same language in a very basic way georga ------------------------------ From: b.patera#att.net Date: Sat, 02 Aug 2003 20:04:44 +0000 Subject: [Baren 22412] Re:favorite artists Great question....so many to choose from. Fell in love with cave drawings on the first class trip to Chicago's Field Museum. Even at the age of 6 or 7 I found them fascinating, the drawings so beautiful, full of meaning. And the hand prints really got to me...just thinking about someone from so long ago actually leaving such a mark still sends shivers down my spine. Now, after a further 60 years of living and looking, they are still my favorites .... along with Nolde, Baskin, Kollwitz, and some of those early, unknown printers of martyrs. When it comes to painting, my favorites are Holbein, Van Gogh, the painters of Russian Icons, and America's folk/outsider art.... both urban and rural. Barbara Patera ------------------------------ From: Lynita Shimizu Date: Sat, 2 Aug 2003 17:38:22 -0400 Subject: [Baren 22413] Re: Favorite Artists Fun to see the wide variety of favorites artists and first loves. My first art purchase was a woodcut, bought before I ever "knew" woodcuts, back in '71 or so. The print is called, "Boxes" and was made in '69 by someone whose name appears to be Hanns Creaver? or Hanne Creaver? Anyone know anything about him? or her? I thought I had seen the name once in an art book but now can't find anything. I still love the print, a picture of children making box cities in the shadows of a setting sun. Soon afterwards, I started looking at Japanese print books in the college library. I loved the lines of Harunobu's and Hokusai's waterfalls and rain and with the help of masking tape, started painting huge abstract acrylics inspired by the prints. I think the artist who influenced me the most, though, is Kiyoshi Saito. I went to an exhibit of 170+ of his prints in Tokyo in the late seventies and have been pouring over a couple of his show catalogs ever since. Speaking of pouring, thunder is rumbling so time to unplug. Best wishes, Lynita ------------------------------ From: FurryPressII#aol.com Date: Sat, 2 Aug 2003 19:32:21 EDT Subject: [Baren 22414] Re: Baren Digest V24 #2325 i have some of kents wood engravings a collection of his book plates etc i prefer lynd ward though more lively john center ------------------------------ From: Chromoxylo#aol.com Date: Sat, 2 Aug 2003 19:41:35 EDT Subject: [Baren 22415] Re: Baren Digest V24 #2325 Fascinating to know that all the editions of Rockwell Kent's engravings were printed from electrotypes of his woodblocks by professional printers. It's amazing how much his signature is worth!! Paul Ritscher ------------------------------ From: FurryPressII#aol.com Date: Sat, 2 Aug 2003 22:57:06 EDT Subject: [Baren 22416] other end of the prespective least fav. artist or art movement. This is a bit harder but the other end of the equation which artist or art movement is your lest fav.? My least fav art movement is one of two soviet Stalinist socialist realism and or nazi state sponsored art. art in the service of evil John "furrypress" Center ------------------------------ From: G Wohlken Date: Sun, 03 Aug 2003 00:53:23 -0400 Subject: [Baren 22417] Inspired by The artist who drew Felix the Cat inspired me toward black and white bold design. When I do woodcuts, the comic books of my past seem to prod me to work the way I do. I like poster style woodcuts, design that carries across the room and pulls you to it. That said, I like William Blake for his mysticism. Gayle/Ohio ------------------------------ From: Cucamongie#aol.com Date: Sun, 3 Aug 2003 06:59:24 EDT Subject: [Baren 22418] Lynd Ward John, Lynd Ward was someone who I found to be a great inspiration also (though not a direct influence, as my style is totally different). In the first printmaking class I took, the teacher showed us his "Wild Pilgrimage" book. I thought that book was so amazing! I also loved the idea of a woodcut novel, no text, just pictures. Finally a couple of years ago I was able to locate a copy from one of the online book sellers that was not too expensive. happy printing, Sarah ------------------------------ From: FurryPressII#aol.com Date: Sun, 3 Aug 2003 07:43:10 EDT Subject: [Baren 22419] Re: Lynd Ward I have been collecting Lynd Wards books so far I have three plus a number of books he illustrated for limited editions club and a couple of years ago I got a copy of the Abrams book Storyteller Without words even though it was printed in the 1970s by a trade printer it cost more than a first edition copy of God's Man printed in 1929. Ward style of cutting was rather simple and direct and that allowed me to enter wood engraving something I could not have done if I only saw the commercial wood engravers of the 19th century. After a few years doing woodengraving & wood cuts I could go and study the commercial woodengraving of the 19th century. I stand in awe of woodengravers such as Tim Cole. His work is not know so well out side of wood engraving circles but it should be. He started working in commercial wood engraving near the end of its use as a commercial printing process so in coemption with half tone printing (dot screen) he became something most of the commercial engravers weren't he became much more artistic and creative. Both in his subject matter, style of cutting and composition. As his work appeared in high end mag. the cost did not matter were it did in newspapers, and general printing were half tones much cheaper cost drove the wood engraves out of work. When woodengraving entered the artististic world it entered in the same fashion as the "creative print" movement in Japan did were the artist did all the work and most were self taught as well. It is interesting to note that the organizational structure of 19th century wood engraving and Japanese woodcuts are identical the artist did not do the engraving/woodcutting, the engraver/cutter did not do the printing, and after the prints were made the work was owned by the publisher. Recently I found out that two countries (Canada & Israel) whose new money I greatly admired were engraved by the same engraver (Slonia) and that there are people out there who collect his prints, not the original proofs (which you generally will not find as they are under tight control) but the money and stamps printed from his engravings. Money fits the def. of a print edition known number of copies, all are numbered and has a signature. john "furrypress" center ------------------------------ End of Baren Digest V24 #2326 *****************************