Baren Digest              Sunday, 10 February 2002      Volume 18 : Number 1714


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From: heather nichols <pinefeather@yahoo.com>
Date: Sat, 9 Feb 2002 20:52:24 -0800 (PST)
Subject: [Baren 16909] baren exchanges 

hello all...

just adding my input to dan's discussion.

I am a fairly novice printer compared to many of you
out there.. and my woodblock techniques are very new
and I am constantly learning from everyone here and
from the exchanges I have been in (#8 & #10). The
baren exchanges keep me going with my printing! I
strive to improve with each print I do and value all
the feedback I get. I am full of excitement when I
learn my print is included in an exhibit or show...
proud and nervous that people everywhere are being
exposed to what I can do... my work and the wonderful
world of prints! In a nutshell that is why I am here
and even though I lurk more than not I am always
absorbing what wonderful things the people involved in
baren have to offer.

Heather Nichols



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From: barebonesart <barebonesart@attbi.com>
Date: Sat, 09 Feb 2002 22:16:29 -0800
Subject: [Baren 16910] Re: Baren Digest V18 #1712 

Dan,
I guess I should have added, about the off register business, that one clue
is whether the register is off around the edges of the blocks.  Of course,
if it is, then it was most likely either a mistake or just plain bad
technique, or maybe bad eye-sight, but probably not intentional! If
everything is lined up in a some places and off a little in others, it is
more likely intentional. I was always taught never to write on the back of
the print for any reason other than to sign a bleed print and then very
carefully along the bottom edge. I guess one could mention it on the
disclosure statement if it was felt necessary. It all comes back to the old
saw, "There are as many ways to make prints are there are printmakers."

Thinking back on what Monsieur Ritchie said, I well remember those days of
the aesthetic of the 60/70's, too and still consider any finger prints
around the edge a non-issue if the image is good art. If it is fantastic art
then they get even more insignificant! But, all in all, if given my druthers
I'd just as soon have a clean print that is terrific art - of course, I've
always been willing to settle for nothing short of everything.

It is late and here I am on my soap box and there is no getting me off, it
seems. As for public funding of the arts, it seems to me there has, until
modern times, always been public funding in one way or another whether it
was the church, the Medici & their equivalents (they were the counterpart of
large corporations in their day), or the rest of the tribe who did the
hunting and gathering while the Medicine Person painted or chipped away in
the caves or on the rocks. The Pharaohs & Kings & Queens and their courts
(government) were the ones to commission the paintings on the tombs and
decorations on the urns and sarcophagi, the Grecian urns - same deal. So,
art has always been subsidized until the 20th century, when suddenly we are
all supposed to be able to make it on our own - but, arts education has
largely been left out of the schools, so the average person doesn't know the
difference between a reproduction and a print and see's no reason to want
original art, let along think they NEED it. Most of them don't even know
what it is! So, who is supposed to purchase what we produce??? Not the
corp's - they are too worried about the bottom line & the stock holders, not
the government - that would be a subsidy, not the wealthy - they are too
busy - not the (well you see where I'm going to go forever & I see the
eyelids drooping - - -)

Thanks to all who had the patience to read through this missive -
Sharri 

Sharri



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From: barebonesart <barebonesart@attbi.com>
Date: Sat, 09 Feb 2002 23:18:53 -0800
Subject: [Baren 16911] Re: Baren Digest V18 #1713 

I'd like to cash in on the side of Dave. I find the amount of time allotted
for each exchange to be too short for me, too. I did one for #12 and thank
god it was a small block or I would never have finished on time. As it was,
it was touch and go to the very last minute. Last year I couldn't have done
it because of other committments. I will not be signing up for other
exchanges in the near future because 3 months just doesn't allow me to cut,
print, proof, cut, add colors, etc. Guess I move too slow - I'll keep to the
right. But, if you decide to do one with a year to work on it, let me know!

As for content: that, too, takes time to develop. As I used to tell
students: your first idea will not usually be your best idea. It will be the
same one everyone else thinks of. Do 25 sketches and then start culling and
modifying. In other words, dig a little deeper for your images and you will
end up much more satisfied - and so will the viewer. You will have evolved
something worth their time to investigate.

Craftmanship is part of the game. It behooves us all to submit our best
work, and I don't know why anyone would do otherwise. Participation is every
bit as representative of you and your work as a sale. Maybe more so, because
you are free to do some things you might not be if restricted by a perceived
need to satisfy a market.

My two bits worth. Now I'm going to be quiet and lurk for a very long time.
I think.
Sharri



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From: Kim Medina <topcogs@yahoo.com>
Date: Sun, 10 Feb 2002 01:33:33 -0800 (PST)
Subject: [Baren 16912] Re: Baren Digest V18 #1712 

I must agree with Dave S. about the time frame for the
exchanges.

As more groups start offering exchanges, our time gets
pulled in different directions, depending on how many
exchanges we are participating in at one time.

So, I think the solution could fall on either Baren or
the participants:

1.  Baren can offer three exhanges per year, with a
four-month deadline
OR
2.  Members can be more selective in their
participation of exchanges.

Kim Medina



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From: Kim Medina <topcogs@yahoo.com>
Date: Sun, 10 Feb 2002 01:38:15 -0800 (PST)
Subject: [Baren 16913] Re: Baren Digest V18 #1712 

Congratulations on your articles in Printmaking Today,
April!

I got my copy yesterday in the mail and was thrilled
to see your work, in _color_ in their publication.

Cheers,

Kim Medina


http://www.aprilvollmer.com/digitech.html
Hey, I'm famous, at least in small circles...my
article on the digital 
show
I had last summer finally came out.. see the link
above. I've been 
using the
computer a lot, to make images, and also to plan
woodcuts. I think it 
is so
funny to combine such distant technologies!

Also my review of Rebecca Salter's Japanese Woodblock
Printing (2002)is 
in
the same issue of Printmaking Today. It's a great
book, with much 
useful
advice for hanga printers.


Kim Medina 


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From: FurryPressII@aol.com
Date: Sun, 10 Feb 2002 07:19:12 EST
Subject: [Baren 16914] Re: Baren Digest V18 #1712 

here is my two cents on the exchange issue;

on time frame of an exchange;
1.  if it is an open subject there is plenty of time as i can send in work 
that i am already working on,  even I don't know how many uneditioned blocks 
i have maybe 100s  I am working on two large projects right now one a looser 
interaction of money as art which is were the flora themed print came from 
(boy was i lucky there as i don't generally do art with flora as subject) and 
the other project is a block book  (a block book is one were all of the text 
was cut in wood blocks and printed generally before the introduction of 
movable type) of the Passover haggodot   100 pages of text and illustrations.
If the exchange has a theme it can take longer for the ideas and work to 
appear but as I am obsessive in my printmaking I will not have problems in 
getting the work done on time but it will be a little harder than an open 
theme.

I now understand the hard work it is to be a coordinator of an exchange.  The 
deadline should be more than a suggestion  (lol)

on subjective matter i have no comment

On printing craftsmanship the end goal is to put forward your best work.  I 
have seen work from the early years of artist prints were the printing skills 
were horrible but the art work was wonderful. A now adays so much published 
work by print publishing houses were the printing is beyond perfect 
(pristine) but the art is a cold dead wet fish.  No life what so ever.  An 
example of this foolishness would be to print a small print on a huge sheet 
of paper and make a big deal about that. Might be that the size of the sheet 
would preclude an artist from printing it themselves.    My favorite print is 
A. Durer's meliconalia I the copy i saw of it was trimmed to the plate mark.

tip for sloppy prints start with a sheet larger you want and after you are 
done trim it thus leaving the finger prints in the dust bin of history.

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End of Baren Digest V18 #1714
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