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Message 1
From: FurryPressII # aol.com
Date: Mon, 12 Dec 2005 09:16:32 EST
Subject: [Baren 29523] Re: How did you discover woodblock printing?
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How did I get into printmaking?

Well at one time I was a painter? Who could have guessed.

I did my first wood cut back in high school but was only a printmaking minor
when I first went to college. (1968-72) It was not until I stopped being a
painter when I was taking grad school classes at Northern Ill. U. and met
David Driesback who had the most influence of any college prof.. When I was in
his class I became interested in Wood Engraving through Lynd Ward's work God's
Man.


Much later I went back to grad school for my MFA at the Columbia
College/Chicago Book & Paper Center. Which was the most important effect on my art.
Before I went there I was making photo realist color reduction wood engravings,
later my work looked more like Albrect Durer meets Roschenberg.

It is hard to understand your obsession.

John Center

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Message 2
From: Shireen Holman
Date: Mon, 12 Dec 2005 09:49:05 -0500
Subject: [Baren 29524] printmaking beginnings
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My start in printmaking - the first print I made was a linoleum print. I
carved the block without a bench press, and made a nice cut in the vein on
the inside of my left wrist. I thought - this is what people do who are
trying to commit suicide! But I lived, and still have the scar from about
35 years ago. After all that, it seemed quite miraculous to see a print
come out of it. Then I decided that linoleum was too lifeless; I wanted to
try wood. When I first started doing printmaking seriously I did etching
for many years. I liked the sense of images emerging, sort of growing, from
nothing. After that I made monoprints, and finally went back to woodblocks.
I enjoy carving wood and I like working with the grain - I really do feel
there's a life in what I'm working with, and I can try to put that into the
work as well.

Shireen

***********************************************
Shireen Holman, Printmaker and Book Artist
email: shireen@shireenholman.com
http://www.shireenholman.com
***********************************************

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Message 3
From: Cate Fitt
Date: Mon, 12 Dec 2005 10:00:40 -0500
Subject: [Baren 29525] how I got started
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Ansei Uchima taught printmaking at Sarah Lawrence College and I learned
moku-hanga from him in the late 1960s. I still have some of those
prints. After college, no more printmaking until about 3 years ago when
I spent a week in the Virginia mountains at a monotype workshop. Made
one monotype then began carving lino and I haven't stopped. In between
I have been deeply immersed in textiles and some painting. All my
brushes from college have long since been moth eaten and tossed but I
would love to take a workshop to get me started again in moku-hanga.
Next step for now is to switch from lino to wood.
I'm enjoying this thread.

Cate Fitt (Annie Fitt's sister)
Richmond Virginia

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Message 4
From: baren_member # barenforum.org
Date: 12 Dec 2005 15:02:47 -0000
Subject: [Baren 29526] Test and question.

Message posted by Dale Phelps didn't go through.

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Message 5
From: baren_member # barenforum.org
Date: 12 Dec 2005 15:02:47 -0000
Subject: [Baren 29527] Test and question.

Message posted by Dale Phelps didn't go through.

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Message 6
From: baren_member # barenforum.org
Date: 12 Dec 2005 15:05:15 -0000
Subject: [Baren 29528] Test and question.

Message posted from: Dale Phelps

I have been having trouble messaging the forum and Gayle has suggested this route. Thanks for all your attention, Gayle.
My question is: What suggestions do you all have about establishing a web site? I just graduated and im looking into setting one up but really don't know where to start.

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Message 7
From: Dan Dew
Date: Mon, 12 Dec 2005 10:09:39 -0500
Subject: [Baren 29529] Re: Sticking of paper to block.
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I use Hosho almost exclusively, bad habit I suppose.
I've encountered the sticking problem more times than I can count,
especially with Speedball inks.
Solutions I've found:
- Add extender or retarder to the ink.
- Clean the block.
- Apply paper towels or newsprint to the block and remove as much ink
as possible, then rub down to remove fibers.
I have not encountered the problem near as much with Graphic Chemical
inks.


d. dew

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Message 8
From: Tyrus Clutter
Date: Mon, 12 Dec 2005 10:35:30 -0500
Subject: [Baren 29530] Re: How did you discover woodblock printing
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Aside from one linoleum block in high school, I never did any printmaking
until I was in my MFA painting program about ten years ago. I started
working with printing as an alternative way to think through my ideas in
painting. I did one reduction linoleum and another one color woodcut in my
first class and then relief printing took a hiatus for a few years.

Once I started teaching in Idaho I had to teach all the printmaking
techniques (or at least the ones I was somewhat familiar with) in my print
classes so I started experimenting with wood and lino again. I was on the
Prints-L listserv at the time and there was some crossover with Baren. I was
really interested in doing an exchange, so my first real forays into woodcut
really began with my first Baren exchange. That is only about five years
ago, I think. By the second exchange I had developed my somewhat "signature"
style.

It is kind of funny because I always tend to think of myself as a painter,
but the prints I have done through Baren are really how I am mostly known to
people. These are the images that often get reproduced in books and
magazines, too. Who would have thought that was going to happen? Thanks
Baren.

Tyrus


Tyrus Clutter
Director, Christians in the Visual Arts
255 Grapevine Road
Wenham, MA 01984

978-867-4128: Office
978-867-4125: Fax
www.civa.org

Christians in the Visual Arts is the premier visual arts organization
connecting the artist, the Church, and the culture.

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Message 9
From: Diane Cutter
Date: Mon, 12 Dec 2005 08:09:48 -0800 (PST)
Subject: [Baren 29531] Re: Test and question.
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Dale...

If I had to go it over again, I'd go the blog route instead of a website. It is easier to set up and maintain and doesn't require a lot of expertise.

Diane
www.dianecutter.com

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Message 10
From: Mike Lyon
Date: Mon, 12 Dec 2005 10:34:19 -0600
Subject: [Baren 29532] Re: Test and question.
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Dale Phelps wrote:
>My question is: What suggestions do you all have about establishing
>a web site? I just graduated and im looking into setting one up but
>really don't know where to start.

Dale -- your inquiry is totally off-topic for Baren -- so I'll
replying with suggestions OFF-LIST!

-- Mike


Mike Lyon
Kansas City, Missouri
http://mlyon.com

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Message 11
From: L Cass
Date: Mon, 12 Dec 2005 11:48:59 -0500
Subject: [Baren 29533] Re: Margaret Preston Exhibition & Moku Hanga Tips
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>Thanks to Jan for mentioning the Margaret Preston Exhibition. I hadn't heard
>of her before. I found this link to an article about her with some examples
>of her work:
>http://www.nga.gov.au/preston/

Thanks to Annie for finding the link to Margaret Preston with some examples
of her prints and thanks to Jan for mentioning her in the first place -
M.P. must have been a very interesting character and I certainly wouldn't
call her work "primitive by today's standards" -technical innovations may
not be all that is required and although the art world is driven to strive
for ''The New' surely well drawn, well designed and expressive images
attract and endure -it seems from this article that this artist's work may
have been a bit too popular or commercial but there is still a fine line
drawn between 'commercial' and 'fine' art. It's also likely that M.P. must
have acquired knowledge of techniques and tools of her times in her travels
to the U.K. and the East - I believe the art movements in Australia and New
Zealand in the 1920' sand 30's were similar to what was happening in Canada
- discovering new somewhat primitive worlds but being aware of styles
coming from Europe and the East, etc.

I guess I can relate a bit to this Australian artist as I still cut on
thick mostly pine blocks - this goes back to my days at the Montreal
Museum's School of Art and Design (a very 'bohemian' milieu in the days
before art studies were relegated to the university) I started off doing
sculpture which I abandoned later in favour of painting -I then went to The
Central School of Arts and Crafts in London, England which had super
artists teaching painting and printmaking - did etching there where
students were not allowed to operate the presses - they had a master
printer on hand. I believe I did my first woodcut which was a copy of a
Mantegna madonna (my web site is soon to be redesigned and updated and I'll
have to search for a copy of that print to post). I was in a hurry to make
Xmas cards and discovered that this was a wonderful way to get back the
'feel' of sculpting. I abandoned painting for some time for academia and
when I returned to it, making woodcuts became a regular part of my
life.-albeit working in a somewhat primitive style. I'm grateful to the
American Print Alliance for leading me to the Baren Forum when they asked
for a contribution to the 9/11 Memorial Portfolio. I hope to eventually try
moku hanga - perhaps at next year's summit.

A word to the person with slow drying of ink problems - if you used the not
too favoured Speedball waterbased inks - they dry very quickly enabling
overprinting within the hour.

Apologies for such a rambling letter -I don't post too often so will end
with extending Holiday Greetings to all and thanks for all the interesting
and informative discussions.

Louise Cass

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Message 12
From: "Ramsey Household"
Date: Mon, 12 Dec 2005 08:58:59 -0800
Subject: [Baren 29534] Re: Test and question.
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Is this really off topic? If we want to show or sell our work on-line, it
is an important subject, one I would also be interested in.

Carolyn

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Message 13
From: "Jean Womack"
Date: Mon, 12 Dec 2005 11:38:15 -0800
Subject: [Baren 29535] How Did You Discover Woodblock Printmaking
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[Baren] Daily DigestI discovered woodblock printmaking at the Richmond Art Center in 1965. I don't remember the teacher's name. However, he was very clear about what he wanted us to learn. For one thing, Gauguin was the artist to be admired the most in woodblock printmaking. He showed us the wonderfully crudely cut, yet exquisitely composed woodblock prints of Gauguin. He gave us pine boards and let us know that we were not to avoid printmaking because we thought we lacked the materials necessary to make a beautiful print. Any kind of material would do. We printed in black and white.

I still have those blocks, believe it or not. One was a woman looking at herself in the mirror. She is pregnant and sitting before an open window. The shape of the mirror is echoed by the shape of the moon in the sky. Guess what, you're right. I was pregnant at the time, with my one and only child. Yes, I was always looking at myself, wondering if I was attractive enough for people to like me, if they would approve of me. I have matured so much since then, thank goodness. Now I know that a happy, cheerful, outgoing personality is much more attractive than physical beauty. I knew it back then too, but I had no idea how to get that, how to be that person.

I completed my degrees at San Francisco State. I had to choose which art field to specialize in. I wanted to learn something new, so I chose printmaking. (I'm one of those people who would have been kicked out of painting also) It was a great choice for me. For one thing, I always thought something was more real if there was more than one of it. The vast range of artistic marks one can make in printmaking is so enjoyable to contemplate. The technology is endless. If one burns out on the images, the color, the form and line, etc, of moku hanga, one can always recharge one's batteries by exploring a new form of matrix-making, such as collagraphy or monoprints. Last summer, I made a series of etchings of gesture drawings I did at the race track and I'm looking for a place to show them. Now I'm working on race horse relief prints.

I like to contemplate that all the printmaking forms were once a means of mass communication, now obsolete and relegated to the realm of fine art. After graduation I became more and more interested in non-toxic printmaking using water-based inks. I met a group of printmakers called the California Society of Printmakers and learned very much about the art world. They were just like these people here on Barenforum, but I got to sit with them in person once a month, as I volunteered on the board. It was a great, eye-opening experience. I have a lot of gratitude to CSP and Baren for keeping me working in my printmaking.

Jean Womack

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End of [Baren] Digest