Today's postings

  1. [Baren 44002] Re: New Baren Digest (Text) V56 #5718 (Aug 23, 2011) (regnaterrn # comcast.net)
  2. [Baren 44003] gripe, sorry ("Maria Arango Diener")
  3. [Baren 44004] B&W discussion ("bobcatpath # 207me.com")
  4. [Baren 44005] Japan prints (Linda Beeman)
  5. [Baren 44006] one more thing on the blotter matboard rubber blanket thing ("Maria Arango Diener")
  6. [Baren 44007] A question (Carole Dwinell)
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Message 1
From: regnaterrn # comcast.net
Date: Tue, 23 Aug 2011 14:07:00 GMT
Subject: [Baren 44002] Re: New Baren Digest (Text) V56 #5718 (Aug 23, 2011)
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Hi Joan,  I am using wheat paste and am just starting to experiment.  Have you ever tried water based ink with chine colle and how much pressure are you applying with your press?  Any other gems that you think worked well with this method of 'color' paper added to your work that you are willing to share,  would be greatly appreciated.  Ruth
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Message 2
From: "Maria Arango Diener"
Date: Tue, 23 Aug 2011 15:21:41 GMT
Subject: [Baren 44003] gripe, sorry
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Hello all, let me preface this by saying that the forecast for this week
calls for record highs at over 110 and record lows at around 90 so I'm a
little cranky this morning.



Not directed at anyone in particular, just read my morning RSS cadre of
blogs around the internet (not necessarily Baren member's blogs) and keep
finding the same thing over and over, especially in art-related blogs. It is
extremely likely that the proverbial "wheel" has already been invented and
even more likely that the wheel in question has already been posted
somewhere else in the internet, probably in an art forum somewhere.



Well, that was a little vague, wasn't it. Let's get down to specifics then.
I see over and over how artists, in an understandable effort at building
readership and followers, just rehash someone else's inventions and just
plop them down on their blogs as their own. Hey look I just came up with
this!!! It is customary for the world at large and especially should be for
artists and craftspeople to give credit where credit is due.



I myself believe that there is nothing in the studio that we haven't seen
somewhere at some time before and somehow stuck in our minds. Then we need
"it" and we come up with a variation and there is that temptation of making
ourselves and others believe we just "invented" it without so much as
mentioning: "this is a variation of a widget I saw someplace" to qualify a
bit where the sudden stroke of genius came from, let alone give a good
effort to look up the source(s) and mention it within the article.

Self importance is the first step into the nebulous world of arrogance.



That was harsh, I know, but I see this in forums on the net everywhere and
nobody so much as mentions that perhaps, just perhaps, they saw it someplace
before, let alone mention the real source of the information, be it a book,
a workshop, another artist, a website, a studio...



I said I was cranky.



Maria



[=o=][=o=][=o=][=o=]

www.1000woodcuts.com

www.artfestivalguide.info

[=o=][=o=][=o=][=o=]
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Message 3
From: "bobcatpath # 207me.com"
Date: Tue, 23 Aug 2011 17:38:08 GMT
Subject: [Baren 44004] B&W discussion
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yes to Doug Haug's comments on B&W

and it IS amazing that such a lively discussion
could evolve out of a simple compliment
from one B&W woodcut artist in the USA
to another B&W woodcut artist in INDIA !

that is what make the BAREN so special

Gillyin in Maine
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Message 4
From: Linda Beeman
Date: Tue, 23 Aug 2011 17:52:22 GMT
Subject: [Baren 44005] Japan prints
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Hello Bareners,

I (Linda) have just opened the package from Barbara with all of your prints for the Japan Benefit exhibit.
They are, in a word, stunning! I feel so lucky to have them all in my hands and am trying not
to drool on them.....
Michigan has a Sister State in Japan, Shiga prefecture. Our Sister State board meeting is the week before the
exhibit here in Lansing. Members are coming from all over the state so I am taking a set to the meeting
and hope to sell most of one set there. A letter has gone to the board to let them know to bring their
check books with them!
Ruth and I are very excited to "represent" all of you during this exhibit and thank you again for your
thoughtful images and generosity!

Linda Beeman and Ruth Egnater
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Message 5
From: "Maria Arango Diener"
Date: Tue, 23 Aug 2011 18:49:02 GMT
Subject: [Baren 44006] one more thing on the blotter matboard rubber blanket thing
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I forgot to add that every woodcut or wood engraving or linocut or whatever
will demand a different treatment. So just because I do it some certain way
doesn't mean there aren't another 100 ways to do it and get similar results.



There is no "formula", in other words, just experiments that have worked for
some of us in various circumstances.

I'm printing a boxwood engraving as we speak (or type) that is so
user-friendly it just needs its rubber blankie and nothing else. Other
engravings are bitchy by nature and require more attention. 'Tis the
adventure of life in printmaking!



Maria



[=o=][=o=][=o=][=o=]

www.1000woodcuts.com

www.artfestivalguide.info

[=o=][=o=][=o=][=o=]
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Message 6
From: Carole Dwinell
Date: Wed, 24 Aug 2011 08:32:25 GMT
Subject: [Baren 44007] A question
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Or two. I have just realized that I now have quite a collection of old
blocks. My first question is how do you all store these blocks. Both
wood and linoleum. Do you wrap them up? Separately, if there is more
than one per edition? Or just all together. Please be specific about
materials if you wrap them. I was thinking perhaps sheets of
cellulose? Or is that a bad idea? Cloth?

Then, second. Is it a custom or an okay thing to reuse part of an
edition for something new? Sometimes I see a whole new work in an old
block, where part of it could be used for something else, with work
like trimming part of it down, recarving new lines and adding maybe
other blocks to reposition different colors. Is it sacred? Or can one
just have at it and use it/them for something altogether new?

Thanks, oh wise ones. I await your call on this. Note that I am BIG on
reuse, recycle, redirect so it would not be out of character...

Best,
Carole
dwinell.carole@gmail.com
http://caroledwinell.blogspot.com
www.caroledwinell.com
"Today is the day to DO it!"