Exchange #17 - War & Peace Jeanne Norman Chase, Coordinator
Medium: woodblock print (hand rubbed or pulled on a press, B&W or colour, any pigments, any paper)
Theme: War & Peace
Paper: o-ban size - about 10 x 15 inches (about 25.4 x 38 centimeters). Paper must be less than 10 1/2 x 15 1/2 inches (26.6 x 39.4 centimeters) vertical or horizontal orientation. .
Paper type: no restriction
Registration period: One month starting April 1, 2003 (or until 30 participants are enrolled)
Work period: Three months starting May 1
Deadline for finished prints: August 1st, 2003
September 25, 2003
Hello you patient people out there...
Since the prints have started going out a batch at a time, I would just like to express my appreciation to you. It has been a long wait but well worth it. You took the theme quite seriously and there are certainly a lot of sensitive messages in the prints! Just too bad that we had so many drop outs, and some at the last minute.
I have enjoyed being your Coordinator. This is the second one I have Coordinated. The first was when the Baren was a very small group of woodblock printmakers. We have certainly grown since then.
Bye for Now,Jeanne N. Chase, coordinator
A message from David Bull...
After more than four years of experience with these Exchanges, one pattern in particular has started to become apparent. The members of the (Baren) group do their best work when faced with a specific theme for their prints. Perhaps that's not such a surprise, the members do sign up for an Exchange voluntarily, and of course they only do so for themed exchanges when they feel that they have something relevant to say on that topic.
And what a topic this time - War and Peace! For thousands of years now, artists have been taking up this theme, and one might be excused for perhaps thing that there cannot possibly be anything left to express on such a topic, but of course recent events have taught us that the field will remain a fertile one for some time to come!
Whether or not this little portfolio of prints from the (Baren) group has succeeded in saying anything important or relevant to our world problems will be a matter for you, the viewer, to judge. For the people who took part in this Exchange though, it was enough that they try to grapple with such a theme... That's why they make prints in the first place.
David Bull
Founder, [Baren] Forum
Tokyo, October, 2003