Today's postings

  1. [Baren 39666] RE: Exchange 43/Ray Hudson (Eileen Corder)
  2. [Baren 39667] Re:    Baren Digest (old) V48 #4955 (JosephT280 # aol.com)
  3. [Baren 39668] Re: karen Kunc workshop video (cjchapel # casco.net)
  4. [Baren 39669] Baren Member blogs: Update Notification (Blog Manager)
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Message 1
From: Eileen Corder
Date: Fri, 11 Sep 2009 02:01:08 GMT
Subject: [Baren 39666] RE: Exchange 43/Ray Hudson
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Reduction print with at least three colors sounds good to me. (I'm assuming
this includes oil -- no?)

When I suggested typography I did NOT mean an alphabet. I only meant for the
prints to include letter and/or number shapes (in any language).

I have no problem with either or both of these restrictions.

BTW I seemed to have missed info re Ray Hudson's show. Is there something
online about this?

Peace,
Eileen
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Message 2
From: JosephT280 # aol.com
Date: Fri, 11 Sep 2009 02:46:45 GMT
Subject: [Baren 39667] Re:    Baren Digest (old) V48 #4955
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Hi Everyone,

I'm sorry to have been out of the loop but I've been out of town (out of
studio) working on getting my parents house ready for market. I have no
access to email and it is driving me nuts. I have one more print to gather and
the colophon is looking good. I hope to get it all coordinated for
everyone this weekend when I get back to civilization and if I can't mail it then
I'll get it off on Thursday of this week.

Thanks for understanding. It is a very nice batch of printing.

Joe T
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Message 3
From: cjchapel # casco.net
Date: Fri, 11 Sep 2009 02:50:12 GMT
Subject: [Baren 39668] Re: karen Kunc workshop video
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Thank you so much for posting the Karen Kunc video. She had a show
here last year and I wasn't able to attend her talk. Thank you Thank
you.
C. Chapel

Digest Appendix

Postings made on [Baren] members' blogs
over the past 24 hours ...

Subject: The Labor of Art
Posted by: Annie B

ADaysWork
Progress as of yesterday

What a ridiculous amount of work to carve all these letters just to make a few prints that look like John Eliot's Bible. Why not use a photographic process like screen print or solarplate and get on with it? I guess it's because I want to "own" the work, I want to make it mine. I want to experience in some small way the hardship that John Eliot endured to make this translation of the Bible into the native language.

Philosopher John Locke talked about this transformative power of work in the late 17th century when he put forward his labor theory of property. Simply stated the theory says that when a person works, their labor enters into the object and so the object becomes their property. I'm not sure about the property part of the argument, but I do have the experience that when I work on a woodblock print my labor enters into the artwork.

This is a sensation I've always enjoyed and valued. When I was a child, I used to love to copy artwork or photographs that pleased me. As I became a young adult, I vowed to purchase only items whose origin I could identify, a vow I of course couldn't keep, but that I hold as a kind of touchstone still when I evaluate the value of an object.

Work by Molly Springfield

There are other artists who seem to feel this same way about deeply laboring. I recently became aware (via curator Elizabeth Schlatter) of an artist named Molly Springfield whose project Drawings of Photocopies of Books seems to embody this same spirit of obsessively recreating texts. In her project, completed over three years, Springfield meticulously recreates xeroxed texts in graphite, including all of the strange shadows and lines and artifacts of the xerox process itself. A woman after my own heart.

The question is, does that labor -- the hundreds of hours, the thoughts and feelings experienced while working, the music the artist listened to -- does any of that actually get communicated by . . .
[Long item has been trimmed at this point. The full blog entry can be viewed here]

This item is taken from the blog Woodblock Dreams.
'Reply' to Baren about this item.


Subject:
Posted by: Diane Cutter


'Open Window' ~ Monoprint ~ 'Ventana abierta'
Woodcut with watercolor ~ Grabado con acuarela
Size / Tamano: 7" x 10" / 18 x 25 cm


I read all Belinda Del Pesco's blog entries. She is a fine printmaker and very active artist who inspires a lot of us, especially with her watercolor enhanced ghost prints.

This is my recent 'From My Window', which I printed without ink on a piece of watercolor paper... a ghost print. Then I had fun going back in with watercolor. Because there were some stray ink marks on the white areas, I used an exacto knife to cut out the colored area and mounted that on a piece of Arches 88.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Siempre leo el blog de Belinda Del Pesco. Ella es una excelente artista, muy activa con pinturas y grabados quien inspira a muchos de nosotros, especialmente con sus grabados 'ghost' en que se usa acuarela.

Este es mi grabado recien 'Desde mi ventana', que hice sin tinta en un pedazo de papel acuarela... un grabado 'ghost' o 'fantasma' porque no se ve muy bien. Entonces me diverti aplicando acuarela. A causa de que habian unas manchas de tinta en las areas de blanco, use una navaja tipo 'exacto' para cortar la area de color y la monte en un papel Arches 88.

This item is taken from the blog The Itinerant Artist.
'Reply' to Baren about this item.


Subject:
Posted by: Diane Cutter


'From My Window' ~ 'Desde mi ventana'

Woodcut ~ Grabado en madera

Edition/Edicion: 46

Image size/Tamano del imagen: 7"x10"/18x25 cm



This woodcut is my recent contribution to the Baren Forum relief print exchange #41... 'My Window'.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Este grabado en madera es mi contribucion al intercambio no. 41 de grabados en relieve 'Mi ventana'.

This item is taken from the blog The Itinerant Artist.
'Reply' to Baren about this item.


Subject: I have trouble thinking of titles!
Posted by: Sue


I have awful trouble thinking up zippy titles to my blogs, which usually means I end up naming them something pretty lame like 'Progress!' and 'More progress!' Sigh........

I have stolen some more engraving time from my 'ordinary' work schedule and the block is taking shape. I rather enjoyed doing the texture on the stonework of the foreground cottage. At the base of it I have decided to add some dark foliage, as if there's a sunken courtyard garden down there.

I must away now and sharpen my burins, it's amazing how quickly they lose their edge.

This item is taken from the blog Studio Window.
'Reply' to Baren about this item.


Subject: Grandad's Japanese Painting
Posted by: Mark Mason



I think I mentioned in an earlier post that my late Grandad, Stanley Mason had an interest in Japanese art. I didn't really know about this until recently when I was talking to my Dad about him, and the pictures I remembered hanging in his house.


One of those was one which I was suprised to hear he had painted himself in the late 1950's. It's now owned by my Cousin, but she was kind enough to email me a copy, which you can see here.


I've been told he was friends with a Japanese gentleman he knew in Liverpool at the time (I wish I could trace him) who helped him.



He also took a lot of landscape photos, mainly in the Lake District and wanted his compositions to have a Japanese style to them (most probably Hiroshige) and as such never wanted people to be looking into the camera, but rather looking into and responding to the landscape around them. Much to the annoyance of my Granny, apparently.


So, the question arises, is there any connection between my Grandad's interest in Japanese art and mine? Is it just a coincidence? Lot's of people who aren't related to me obviously like it; but is there, perhaps, something in the way my Grandad's brain and mine that made us almost predisposed to be attracted to Japanese art and prints, and for us both to want to create our own art based on it?


I don't know. I have a vague, unformed theory of something I call Hereditary Memory. Memories or feelings, which, like physical and mental attributes are perhaps passed through the generations. The reason why some people feel inexplicably called to the sea or the countryside because our ancestors were probably either farmers or fishermen. My Grandad's father was a printer and print compositor as well.

My Grandad was a fascinating man. While living in Liverpool he was very closely involved with the Folk music clubs and, so I have been told, helped arrange Paul Simon's first UK visit as a young unknown. My cousin . . .
[Long item has been trimmed at this point. The full blog entry can be viewed here]

This item is taken from the blog Curiously Drawn.
'Reply' to Baren about this item.


Subject: Woodblock Print Cost Calculator
Posted by: Mark Mason

One of the biggest questions for anyone produces artwork is 'how much do I charge?'

With animation the answer is always, 'How long is a piece of string?'

There are a myriad of things which can alter the cost of animation: complexity of design or action, illustration style and deadlines are just really the tip of the iceberg. You need as much information from the client as possible in order to calculate the cost.

With woodblock printing it's a little different. You have the materials, your time and what you consider your artistic worth.

So, how much do you charge for a print? What is the break even point where, even if you don't make a profit, you can cover the cost of materials and your time?

I wanted to work this out in a way that I can apply to all the prints I've produced to date, and the ones in the pipeline, and so I've put together an Excel spreadsheet 'Woodblock Print Calculator'.


Here's a screen grab of part of the first page.
I've tailored it to work the way I work, which I've standardised to make the packaging and shipping of prints easier. At the moment my prints either fit A4 or A5 cello bags, although the actual print size may vary.
As you can see, I can enter the title of the print, how many prints I intend to produce, how many blocks I will use, and how many colours (or impressions) there will be.
An 'A5 Twin' is my name for 2 prints cut on the same set of blocks, which cost less to produce than 2 A5 prints on separate blocks.
Based on this information and prices of blocks, paper and other materials which I've added, the spreadsheet works out the actual cost of materials to produce an edition, and a single print.
It will also work out my packaging costs, and my labour costs (based on any yearly income and hours you input) for the whole process from design to slipping the finished print into the cello bag.
. . .
[Long item has been trimmed at this point. The full blog entry can be viewed here]

This item is taken from the blog Curiously Drawn.
'Reply' to Baren about this item.