Today's postings

  1. [Baren 44940] Re: morbid subject (Hannah Skoonberg)
  2. [Baren 44941] It is hard to sell art (Marilynn Smith)
  3. [Baren 44942] Re: morbid and selling work ("Bea Gold")
  4. [Baren 44943] Re: morbid and selling work (Graham Scholes)
  5. [Baren 44944] artwork post death (SUSAN KALLAUGHER)
  6. [Baren 44945] artwork post death (SUSAN KALLAUGHER)
  7. [Baren 44946] Q? about storing woodblocks ("Suekallaugher # comcast.net")
  8. [Baren 44947] Re: Q? about storing woodblocks (Barbara Mason)
  9. [Baren 44948] Re: Q? about storing woodblocks (Graham Scholes)
  10. [Baren 44949] RE: Q? about storing woodblocks ("Maria Arango Diener")
  11. [Baren 44950] Printing on Birch Bark rather than paper? (Pinto Lawrence)
  12. [Baren 44951] Baren Member blogs: Update Notification (Blog Manager)
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Message 1
From: Hannah Skoonberg
Date: Fri, 06 Jan 2012 13:56:40 GMT
Subject: [Baren 44940] Re: morbid subject
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I think you bring up a really good question. I think that I would like my
family and friends to have as many of my prints as the they want and then
donate all the rest to a printmaking studio. I am a member of the Atlanta
Printmakers Studio and they have a collection of prints that have been
donated over the years and sales directly support the studio. And
specifically the Atlanta print community.
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Message 2
From: Marilynn Smith
Date: Fri, 06 Jan 2012 14:58:36 GMT
Subject: [Baren 44941] It is hard to sell art
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"It is hard to sell art in Mexico" Guadalupe, I think it is hard to
sell art anywhere, not just in Mexico. We have galleries in our down
town sector, an art district, here in San Jose del Cabo and the
pacific side of the southern Baja has a town called Todos Santos. A
gentleman from the southwestern US settled there many years back and
became the first of many to form an artist community. His name was
Charles Stuart and he did sell a lot of art work. Location does have
something to do with how well your art sells. I had a friend who moved
from San Francisco, California to Portland, Oregon. She found selling
her work in San Francisco easy and very hard in Portland. Perhaps it
is easier here as we are a tourist area, people go on vacation and buy
things they do not buy at home.

I am fortunate that my kids want my art work.

Marilynn
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Message 3
From: "Bea Gold"
Date: Fri, 06 Jan 2012 17:17:34 GMT
Subject: [Baren 44942] Re: morbid and selling work
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I am 84 years old, a member of the Silver Lake Art Collective and on the board of a very busy senior center I've been part of the Baren for twelve years and I consider it an important part of my life (thank you David Bull for starting it and all the Baren managers for keeping it going so well) . For me, the topic of death is not odd. It also is not morbid unless we're talking about young people who still have lots of unfinished business. I think often of those people who died while they contributed to our exchanges, Wanda , Karen Birkenhault and Barbara Patera. I don't know if there are others. Being of my age and engaged with other people from age 50 to 100 makes you realized the inevitability of death. I am a painter and woodcut artist. I also am a writer and learned today that my book, Tell Me a Story, has been published. The book consists of 36 one page stories of my childhood in old New York that took place in the 30s and 40s and 36 paintings illustrating the stories. The paintings and stories were shown at three art exhibits. In 2007, for my 80th birthday, I had a retrospective show of paintings and wood cuts done over the years. I was able to get my paintings back from all over the U.S. for the show. It was wonderful. I am experiencing a surge of interest in my work and I don't know if it's because I am old or the exposure has peeked interest. I do commissioned portraits (paintings) and I have had one commission after another on the easel since the shows. There was a studio tour during the last exhibit and my studio was open. I sold 8 woodcuts, all different during the tour. I grew up an artist when you never expected to be able to live on money you earned from your art. You had to have a day job. The nicest thing about being an artist is knowing that people own and enjoy your work and that you will be remembered after death. I worry less about what will happen to my left over paintings and prints and more about how to keep 12 years' worth of "Year of the" and all those exchanges. How do you keep them?
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Message 4
From: Graham Scholes
Date: Fri, 06 Jan 2012 17:52:19 GMT
Subject: [Baren 44943] Re: morbid and selling work
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Congratulations Bea.

I can relate to your post as I have a very dear friend, Betty who is the same age and she too is busier now than in the young days. Always has a commission or two on the palette. Betty and I painted, figurative work, together for 15 years and we both wonder what to do with the work. I regularly go through the newer stuff and pitch.... but never the less I still have about 15 inches of stacked drawings done on assorted acid free papers. Some of our grandchildren want the work, which is grand. Like so many of us I have collected pieces for 60 years.... as the guys who attended workshops at my studio will attest they are hanging side my each in very room of our house. The kids want them.... problem solved.

So good that you got a publisher for your book... this is such an important step in an artist career. At present times it is most difficult to get a publisher to take you on. Again congratulations on the happening.
Here is a little heads up.... if the publisher comes to you after the book is on the market and asks for another to be written .... do it. I hesitated when Watson Guptill NY ask me to put another book together. I just didn't feel I had it in me. When I was ready with another book .... they had closed their doors and are no longer. Spend almost 2 years putting together the "how to" video on moku hanga. That was a fun project.
Working on a new book now (3th year off and on) and should have it out there in a year.

Carry on as though you are normal....
CREATE-Cut-Print
Graham
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Message 5
From: SUSAN KALLAUGHER
Date: Fri, 06 Jan 2012 23:54:23 GMT
Subject: [Baren 44944] artwork post death
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Lynita,
You might consider contacting Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum at Ohio State University, they curate & care for donated cartoons (http://cartoons.osu.edu).
I don't know if this applies to all artworks or just cartoons but estate tax is due on the market value judged for the surviving art.
So it's probably a good idea to make donation arrangements to be carried out
to avoid burdening your relatives if you kick the bucket.
Sue Kallaugher
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Message 6
From: SUSAN KALLAUGHER
Date: Sat, 07 Jan 2012 00:01:55 GMT
Subject: [Baren 44945] artwork post death
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Repeat of above message
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Message 7
From: "Suekallaugher # comcast.net"
Date: Sat, 07 Jan 2012 00:06:30 GMT
Subject: [Baren 44946] Q? about storing woodblocks
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Forgive me if this topic has been discussed, I am new to the group. The interesting discussion on properties of different wood for blocks led me to wonder what are the best ways to maintain & store your blocks after you have run all your prints? Do different woods have different requirements for storing?
My thanks
Sue Kallaugher

Sent from my iPad
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Message 8
From: Barbara Mason
Date: Sat, 07 Jan 2012 00:18:15 GMT
Subject: [Baren 44947] Re: Q? about storing woodblocks
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You can warp them in paper and stand on their sides like books...that is what I do...and they seem fine. The paper keeps them dust free and standing sideways keeps them from changing shape due to weight if you pile them up. I found butcher paper to be pretty acid free, at least I stored metal plates in it for years with no ill effect.
My besr
Barbara
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Message 9
From: Graham Scholes
Date: Sat, 07 Jan 2012 00:41:05 GMT
Subject: [Baren 44948] Re: Q? about storing woodblocks
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Just to clarify.... Stand them so the end grain is on the bottom and top.
Any other way....(on their sides) you could get warping.
Like a piano.... never store them on an outside wall...

Graham
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Message 10
From: "Maria Arango Diener"
Date: Sat, 07 Jan 2012 00:44:54 GMT
Subject: [Baren 44949] RE: Q? about storing woodblocks
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In the Southwest desert we keep our humidity to the precise less-than-6%
that is required to preserve wood.
The ones I intend to use again are wrapped in newspaper (or something
breathable) and stored on edge on a shelf in my studio.
More humid climates may require other methods?

Maria

[=o=][=o=][=o=][=o=]
www.1000woodcuts.com
www.artfestivalguide.info
[=o=][=o=][=o=][=o=]
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Message 11
From: Pinto Lawrence
Date: Sat, 07 Jan 2012 03:57:34 GMT
Subject: [Baren 44950] Printing on Birch Bark rather than paper?
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Dear Bareners,

I work in Northern Ontario where there are many white or "paper" birch
trees (Betula papirifa), including many that have recently been blown
down by severe storms, and I went collecting loose birch bark. The
thin, outer bark, not the hard, thick inner bark where the living
tissue of the trunk is found, and that canoes are made from. I soaked
it for a few days in the bottom of our laundry sink with some weights
on top of it and then dried it off a bit and printed it with sumi and
a lot of nori and a ball bearing barren and shoulder force. It was
difficult to keep it from moving on the block because it seems a
little slipperier than paper.

To my amazement, it seemed to work and the ink didn't fall off after
it dried. The horizontal lenticils of the bark give a nice texture for
the print I'm working on (ice and snow).

I looked on google but didn't find any references to people who have
used birch bark in this way, but I certainly can't be the first. The
people who live around here think this is great, but they have a real
affinity for the few species of trees that are able to grow here.

Does anyone have any experience with this?

Thanks,

Larry

Digest Appendix

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

Subject: Mystique #18 - back in the saddle!
Posted by: Dave Bull

After more weeks 'off' than I care to think about, I got back to the bench this morning for the first carving on the final print in the Mystique series. Here's a Woodblock Webcam snapshot:

As you have seen from the images in the previous post, there is a fair amount of detail in this image, and most of the work will be done right down there at the tip of the blade - difficult for webcam viewers to see clearly I guess ...

(entry continues here ...)

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


Subject: Room for Growth in the New Year
Posted by: Elizabeth Busey

Spirals are a common theme in many of my works, because nature seems to favor this pattern of growth.  My latest prints are both spiral-inspired, but from very different places on Earth.  The chambered nautilus actually builds a new section of its shell each time it outgrows its current home.  In early spring, fiddleheads appear in my garden, poised with plant kinetic energy, ready to unfurl new fern leaves.  


Growth for me as an artist is difficult.  It is sometimes hard to challenge myself to do something that is different, more difficult, out of my comfort zone.  Some of my art group friends lament the loss of art class assignments which spurred them to action.  In these two prints, I tried to challenge myself to consider not only my subject matter, but also clearly focus my attention on the role of the tools I used.


Elizabeth Busey, Ship of Pearl, Linoleum Reduction Print, 18 x 18in,  2011.
In Ship of Pearl, I used only a small u-gouge, allowing the viewer to see my marks as I carved and shaped the shell.  It became a meditative exercise to imagine the curvature of the shell . . .
[Long item has been trimmed at this point. The full blog entry can be viewed here]

This item is taken from the blog The World in Relief.
'Reply' to Baren about this item.