Today's postings

  1. [Baren 39020] Re: New Baren Digest (HTML) V47 #4835 (May 26, 2009) (Marilynn Smith)
  2. [Baren 39021] Baren Member blogs: Update Notification (Blog Manager)
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Message 1
From: Marilynn Smith
Date: Tue, 26 May 2009 14:51:15 GMT
Subject: [Baren 39020] Re: New Baren Digest (HTML) V47 #4835 (May 26, 2009)
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I have about a dozen or so more year of the OX to run and want to
wait to send out any more until they are at least run to be sure the
colors match up. I guess I am unusual because when we get home we
open 6 months worth of mail and it was a shock to have so few year of
the ox cards to open. When I checked it out I found only 4 who have
not mailed a card in the last three exchanges. Of those four, three
are very active Baren members. So I figured they deserved a greeting
anyway. I just did not want to see our list taken advantage of by
people wanting to collect free art and really not in the spirit of
giving in this fun little exchange. As usual Baren members shine in
their wonderful caring ways. Nice to see a few extra cards not on the
list, Bea that is a sweet thing to do.

Marilynn

Digest Appendix

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

Subject: [Forest in Summer - 1] : Next print begins ...
Posted by: Dave Bull

Time to get going again!

I mentioned in the post a couple of days ago that I was kind of procrastinating with the next design, and so I was, but there's a limit to just how far I can carry that sort of thing. Yesterday I finally got started on some serious work on it. The impetus for getting moving was looking at the calendar for the next few days: some guests are due here Friday, I've got to head to Tokyo on Saturday for a friend's guitar concert, and I'll be over in Sadako's garden on Thursday helping her bring down some trees (Tree killing! Shades of last week's 'A Story A Week'!).

So if I don't get something down on paper soon, it'll be another 'week' before I get back to it ... Having a few 'days off' coming up though, does have one benefit for the work, in that if I do get something down on paper before I take that break, then it'll mean that I get a chance to see the design with a slightly fresh eye when I come back to it. As we've seen many times during this series, there are nearly always obvious improvements that come to light after the cutting is well under way.

So anyway, what's this one going to be all about?

It's a forest scene, and I have to say these have been far and away the most difficult for me, for a number of reasons (maybe I've talked about this before, I don't remember. And there is no way that I can find anything in this damned RoundTable!).

1) For both the river and the seacoast, the very breadth of view has meant an infinity of possible scenes - from immediate close-up, all the way up to wide panoramic views. The forest (at least this forest) offers no such diversity. No horizons; no panorama. Just trees, trees and more trees.

2) Mid-range trees and leaves are tough to do in woodblock. Just look through your Hasui book to see that this is so. Distant mountain slopes covered in trees? Completely no problem. A few leaves closeup? No problem. But the in-between range - where individual elements are still visible, but far too numerous to be sensibly carved - resists easy interpretation. Many (most) of the 20th century sosaku people who created prints requiring such mid-range greenery did so with the use . . .
[Long item has been trimmed at this point. The full blog entry can be viewed here]


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