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Message 1
From: Marilynn Smith
Date: Sun, 15 Mar 2009 13:12:50 GMT
Subject: [Baren 38413] Re: New Baren Digest (HTML) V46 #4744 (Mar 14, 2009)
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Gayle, I too have the same problem. If it is indeed a problem??? My
husband knows that if I am working to stay away or I might throw
something at him!!! Nothing dangerous mind you, just a paint brush or
something. One time I was in a fairly public spot and wanted to be
alone drawing because I was problem solving. I climbed way up on a
rocky out crop so that people that might be around would know to stay
away. This woman came running up the rocky cliff hollering an artist
an artist. I said to her, there is a reason I am in a hard to get to
place, I want to be left alone! Most of the time I don't mind if
people watch when I am in public, but there are definitely times when
I want to be LEFT ALONE!

Be kind to one another. Even my little doggie responds better to
praise than to shouts or hitting. The wisest thing one of my art
teachers told us was to never criticize another artists work, it makes
you look small.

Marilynn

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Message 2
From: ArtfulCarol # aol.com
Date: Sun, 15 Mar 2009 13:17:01 GMT
Subject: [Baren 38414] Re: the appropriation thing was it - the King of Pop Art
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Julio mentioned the Endangered Species of Warhol. You can Google that and
see those really beautiful screenprints. They were commissioned by dealers
interested in ecological issues.

Baren did a beautiful creative exchange on Endangered Species in 2001, #9
and #9a.
_http://barenforum.org/members/lyons/exchange_9.jpg_
(http://barenforum.org/members/lyons/exchange_9.jpg)

Not to diminish any art, but
When an artist has a "name" or influential sponsor they can do ANYTHING.

Carol
Lyons

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Message 3
From: Charles Morgan
Date: Sun, 15 Mar 2009 14:16:38 GMT
Subject: [Baren 38415] Re: the appropriation thing was it - the King of Pop Art
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Julio,

You need to fix the date on your computer. Please note the date on your quoted message below. Since incoming messages are arranged according to date and time sent, your messages get shunted to the bottom of a very long list of retained messages and are easily overlooked.

Cheers ....... Charles

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Message 4
From: Charlie overshoe
Date: Sun, 15 Mar 2009 14:18:16 GMT
Subject: [Baren 38416] RE: Working in Silence -- or in the presence of others
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Need silence and space most of the time ... not a problem when my husband was working or when my studio was in the garage. But he has been retired for years now and my bones can't take garage dampness anymore... so I find myself working in the early a.m.. Just me and the mice..... their wheel makes a soothing sound..... and that first solitary cup of coffee when the dawn comes is wonderful especially if the mountain is out.



However, for deadlines and purely mechanical press work there is Queen , Zappa , or Beethoven's 5th.



Suns coming up .... gotta go get my coffee



B.P.

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Message 5
From: Graham Scholes
Date: Sun, 15 Mar 2009 15:07:00 GMT
Subject: [Baren 38417] Re: Working in Silence -- or in the presence of others
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Gayle Wohlken wrote:
> I've got a question for everyone. Since we're talking about skills,
> does anybody here have a hard time working (especially the thinking
> part of working) when others are in the room asking you questions or
> commenting on what you're doing before you have the main elements
> figured out? I've noticed I get irritable if I'm in the thinking/
> planning part of a woodcut I want to do and I'm interrupted. I
> don't like this about me, but I can't seem to change it.

Mostly this is the case with us when we need to be able to stay
focused without disruption to do the job properly. There are some,
and usually the younger persons that can cope. Some teachers have the
ability to handle it.
I use to be able to when teaching. I taught watercolours for 12 years
at hundreds of towns and villages using the demonstration method with
a portable overhead mirror.... (a wonderful way for everyone to see
what was going on)... so each on looker had equal chance to see the
happenings without some one‘s head in the way. I always invited
questions during the demo which involve doing a painting from start to
finish within my self imposed time limit. This was never easy but I
did manage. Could I do this now.... not a chance.

So how is the patting the head routine going guys.

Graham

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Message 6
From: "Mindy Wilson"
Date: Sun, 15 Mar 2009 15:47:15 GMT
Subject: [Baren 38418] Working in Silence -- or in the presence of others
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I work at night or early am most of the time. I am typically up at 5am and leave for work at 7:30, but I can devote an hour and a half to pure creation. I do a lot of printing during the 12-1am hours. But, my family is home and that seems to be key for me. I will pace nearly all day long when my family is out and at school but as soon as they arrive, and are fed I can spread everything out on the table and work. My husband can be outside working, kids milling around or hubby could be napping with one eye on the History channel, and all is good. I need them home. I actually love the times when the whole house gets turned upside down with his and her projects. My husband builds lamps from elk and deer antlers (amazing) but they take up a lot of room. That combined with some of my own crazy creations makes for some intense chaos!

I'm pretty distant in our little group here, illustrating a book for Arnica Creative in Portland, OR. But, this is a topic I deal with daily as well as all of you. I had to chime in!

Mindy Wilson
http://www.mwilson.etsy.com Lamps! And, check out the big giveaway!!
http://www.artwanted.com/mwilson Misc. Illustrations
http://www.groovyinclinations.blogspot.com

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Message 7
From: "bobcatpath # 207me.com"
Date: Sun, 15 Mar 2009 15:52:54 GMT
Subject: [Baren 38419] interruptions/drawing/collages/0x-bull
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i had a very clear demonstration of what Gayle brought up
re: what interruption does to me
while i was carving my OX card

the phone rings and, against my better judgement, i answer it
a brief exchange with neighbor and back to work
but, the first thing i did upon taking up my tool,
was to cut off the left hand and half of the stick the ox- driver is holding!!

this is why it it hard for me to carve anything at art shows/fairs-i am very apt to make mistakes
i can and do carve out large sections of mindless white background and the like

when i am totally zeroed in on those tiny pieces of maple, ,
and know which are going, which are staying,
i need to keep carving til i finish that area
otherwise i lose the connection to each tiny slice on the block

i don't like to share unfinished work with most people-some other artists are ok
because they know not to comment
but allowing anyone else to criticize it, can stop my own creative intuition from flowing in that piece

i most of all need the uninterrupted stretches of time
knowing that i WILL NOT be interrupted is key
to feeling free to do what I feel with no judgments

and friends or loved ones who say
-"oh, i'll just be very quiet, i wont bother you" etc
are missing the point that we need to be alone-- period

music for printing definetly-upbeat
but for designing and carving i prefer silence
interspersed with the occasional raven and crow calls
the wind , chickens cackling , etc

quite frankly this has caused me to choose to live by myself
except for cats and dogs
and love it


backing to the drawing discussion -

i have commented to my artists friends ,
many times since acquiring an IMAC then years ago,
that the computer/ scanner and digital camera have
eliminated the need for anyone to know how to draw

if i take a picture and make it the exact size of the block which i am about to carve,
then affix it to the block
one may then take a knife and simply carve/draw through the paper -
achieving the outline of your picture in knife- lines in the block.
one may then carve at will ,
having achieve a "drawing" on the wood block, without ever having drawn it !

this is the method that old time wood engravers used to carve all those detailed engravings
they glued a drawing to the block and carved through

i have always done this with my own drawings on tracing papers
and now that i use computer/scanner i can used any photo i have taken even more easily

i make very large collages of wood cuts
but
i am using MY OWN woodcuts
to reinvent into new combinations

to take someone elses images and collage them
then sign your name -
i think thats a stretch
to call it your own

all this is not to say that artists will NOT draw anymore
just that they wont HAVE to draw

i have never thought of wanting to search through other people images to USE in my work
i am much more interested in my own images /ideas

i will ,however ,look at a million pictures
of say-- animals-- to get references for making crediblie drawings

--now a little knit-pick to lighten the mood?

two of the last OX cards i received
were BULLS
and i was just asking an artist neighbor the other day -
can there be "male" oxen?

well the definition of an OX is-- a castrated bull

but in the wild -say- the MUSK OX--
then, i guess, there ARE male ox

i love the Brahma and the snorter, but-
Lana and Terry 's creatures both have testicles -

so i guess probably

that's alot of BULL

gillyin in maine usa

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Message 8
From: Lester Doré
Date: Sun, 15 Mar 2009 16:23:00 GMT
Subject: [Baren 38420] SGC conference, and yes, a lot of artists still draw.
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Hi everyone

I will be in Chicago at the same time as the SGC Conference, but can't
afford to go to the conference proper. I will be attending, however,
at the free "Satisfaction Town" (Friday March 27 at Columbia
College )event coordinated by John Hitchcock, who teaches relief and
screen printing at UW-Madison. Attendees will participate in a
collaborative printmaking process. And the next night, Saturday March
28, I will be at the opening of a group show I helped organize: Art
Surge: Global Instigations, which will be mostly prints--some of them
relief prints. There's more information at

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=85545466040&ref=ts.

Some of you who are interested in political art might want to check
out a new network:

Art of Democracy at http://artofdemocracy.ning.com/

Lots of printmakers there.

And as for drawing, there's been a renewed interest in drawing over
the past ten years or so, according to John Hitchcock, who's way more
involved in the academic and gallery worlds than I am. There's still a
lot of interest in Rauschenburg type layering of photographic images,
but there's plenty of wonderful drawing-based printmaking going on.

I myself carry a sketchbook everywhere, and am still finding
inspiration for prints from my collection of sketchbooks from the past
30 years. I find that etching and lithography enable me to draw
directly on the plate and expect my prints to be very close to the
drawing. The intermediate step of removing material that won't print
from relief blocks can take away some of the immediacy of the drawing,
but then I can "draw" with my chisels and gouges and gravers and
burins to do things I can't do with pen & ink or graphite or crayon.


Lester Doré
5710 Forsythia Place
Madison Wisconsin 53705
lhdore at wisc.edu
www.wanderoo.net

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Message 9
From: Sharri LaPierre
Date: Sun, 15 Mar 2009 17:12:05 GMT
Subject: [Baren 38421] Re: Working in Silence -- or in the presence of others
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I think Betty Edwards said it best in her book "Drawing on the Right
Side of the Brain". When engrossed in our work we are in our Right
Mind where there is no concept of time and little or no language.
Have you ever started a drawing, design or anything needing complete
focus early in the morning and the next thing you know people are
calling or showing up wanting nourishment (aka supper time) and to you
it seems as if you have just started? As artists I think this happens
to us all the time, I know it does for me, but when I was in school
taking (shiver) Algebra, it would happen when I was deeply into my
homework. At first, I thought this was contradictory until I realized
that algebra is also creative problem solving just as is art. So,
there you have it: my 2 cents worth again. At this rate I will be
broke by the end of the week.

And yes, it is very difficult to work and talk at the same time when
teaching. It is definitely a learned skill, even for those of us who
talk a lot!

Cheers ~
Sharri

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Message 10
From: reneeaugrin # aol.com
Date: Sun, 15 Mar 2009 17:31:47 GMT
Subject: [Baren 38422] Re: Working in Silence -- or in the presence of others
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I concur completely! ÊI use Betty Edward'sbook for my drawing class
and it is a great reference. ÊSometimes I will start a demo, and will
talk about what I am going to do and describe the process of laying out
where the focal point is, and how to direct the eye throughout the
drawing, etc. etc. and then I start to do the drawing and the 'left
brain' (language, logic, linear, temporal thinking and all)' leaves the
building'. ÊI have gently trained that pesky logical brain to leave
when I ask -- well most of the time -- so I can concentrate on the
visual aspects. ÊIt can be problematic when teaching, but I just
explain to my classes that it is the sensible thing to do for a visual
task. They find it pretty humorous to watch me draw as my words kind of
just fade out. ÊThen someone will ask a question and it brings me back
to 'reality'. ÊI love to have those quiet days without interupption
when I am drawing or painting, but I like to listen to music or a good
story when I am printing or carving.

Cheers,

Renee

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Message 11
From: "Dan Dew"
Date: Sun, 15 Mar 2009 18:02:32 GMT
Subject: [Baren 38423] Fw: Invitation to view Daniel's Picasa Web Album - Movies
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Thought I'd share.....

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