Jim Westergard

ADDICTION TO TECHNOLOGY

2012-01-17T13:14:00.026-07:00

I'm learning some lessons about addiction to technology in this new year. Lesson number one started with my old desktop computer. Attempts to download some video and graphic files were failing because my software was out of date. When I attempted to update the software I learned the computer was too old to support the upgrades. Time to get a new one so I did. But I couldn't open my word or data files on the new one now. I have to find alternative software I can afford and find out how or if I can transfer files to the new software. It's frustrating to be confronted with a totally new way of doing what I used to do naturally. Now, the second lesson was about to start......
I was in the studio the other day working on a new wood engraving block with my trusty electric engraving tool. Suddenly the hand piece seized up. This had never happened before and I've owned this handy tool for at least seventeen years. I use it nearly every day when engraving a block and for many hours a day. I took the hand piece apart, even though I'm mechanically challenged. I had taken the thing apart before when there had been an electrical short. That was not the problem this time, so I twisted the little motor to see how it turned. There seemed to be some resistance but after turning it more it seemed to loosen up and spin freely. The bearings in this unit are sealed and don't need lubrication (according to the manual) so I figured I could put it back together and give it a try. I did, and it work... for about ten minutes, then it screeched to a sudden halt. I accepted the fact that it had reached the end of its rope and it had served me well.... very well. So I ordered a replacement hand piece from the manufacturer.

Until that replacement arrives, I am re-acquainting myself with my trusty hand tools. I've used hand tools all along, but only when it is necessary to have more tight control over the engraved line. This all causes me to reflect on how reliant we are on technologies and how we become so used to them that our manner of working is totally reliant on them. We reach the point where more direct methods of making things or making things happen become totally foreign. I'm now developing a higher level of respect for basic methods of doing things. But I'm still anxious to receive the replacement hand piece so I can work as I've worked before.

NEW YORK, NEW YORK

2011-11-29T19:44:00.055-07:00

I've just returned to Red Deer, after a wonderful weekend in Toronto where I was invited to participate in an event called "New York, New York", sponsored by TINARS (This Is Not A Reading Series) held at the Gladstone Hotel. "New York, New York" refers to two books published by Porcupine's Quill that tell two very different stories about New York. One book is a wordless book of wood engravings by George Walker titled "The Book of Hours". The book describes, in images with no text, the lives of people who worked in the Twin Towers during the hours leading up to the attack on the Towers. The other book is titled "Beasts of New York: a Children's Book for Grownups" by Jon Evans and illustrated with wood engravings by Jim Westergard. "Beasts" follows the life of Patch the squirrel as he awakens one early Spring morning, in his tree in Central Park, to discover his caches of food have been stolen. This discovery is followed by a series of crises, including squirrel clan wars and dangers from various beasts.

George Walker presented a short video of his images that took us dramatically through the day before and up to the attack on the Towers. I joined Jon Evans on the Gladstone Hotel ballroom stage as we fielded questions from Tom Smart, art historian, author and curator, about "Beasts of New York". Jon Evans presented a slide show of the locations in the New York area which are the sites of Patch's adventures. Mr. Smart also supplied questions directed at George Walker and myself about wood engraving and the role of wood engraving today. Books and prints were on sale. Don Black Linecasting Service set up a table of letterpress items and offered demonstrations of letterpress printing. It was a very enriching afternoon.

The flight from Calgary to Toronto took about four hours and was rather a routine flight. I took the Airport Express Shuttle into downton Toronto then took a streetcar from the Shuttle's final stop, the Sheraton Hotel, down Queen Street to the Gladstone Hotel. What I didn't know until I got on the streetcar was that there was construction near the Gladstone (1214 Queen St. W.) which forced the streetcar to turn off Queen Street at about the 1100 block. I figured it would be no big deal to pull my bag three blocks in the rain. When I had pulled the bag for a couple of blocks west of the Sheraton and started to look for an address I discovered the addresses were still in the 1100 range and gaining in very small increments. Obviously the system there was not what I was used to (each block increasing by units of 100). By the time I reached 1214 I was fairly wet, even though the rain was light.

The set-up for the event in the ballroom the next day began at noon and when it was opened to the public the time passed quickly. I met some wonderful people and enjoyed every minute. Please check out the photos and a video prepared by TINARS as well as a Porcupine's Quill blog.

My room at the Gladstone (above, taken the morning I left) was a white room called the "Map Room" (below) and I spent a cozy warm night there. The next morning, after breakfast, I returned to discover the temperature was 82 F (the thermostat was not metric). I tried turning the heat off and had the window propped open while I went for a walk.

When I returned it was still hot, so the desk clerk moved me to a red room (remember "redrum" in the movie, "The Shining"?). Each of the rooms in the hotel is designed by a different designer and art work is hanging in all the hallways.

The elevator is very old and works the old fashioned way, with a counter-weight and an operator. No buttons to push here.

Jon Evans, George Walker and I (l to r) posed for a photo.

All in all, I think a good time was had by all!

The Westjet flight back to Calgary was not as routine as the flight out to Toronto. I had watched the news the night before and saw the report of the hurricane strength Chinook wind that had blasted out windows in the buildings of downtown Calgary the previous day. It had also torn up trees, ripped roofs apart and blown tractor-trailers off the hiway. There was a scene of a Lufthansa airplane fighting the wind to attempt a landing at Calgary airport. That scene was on my mind as I boarded the plane.

I was seated in the second row, not far from the front entry of the plane and just a few steps from the toilet. When we were a few hundred miles east of Calgary and had been in flight for nearly four hours there was a distinctive sewer-gas aroma, getting stronger by the minute. I noticed a flight attendant hand something to one of the three ladies in the row ahead of me. Suddenly the sewer-gas smell was replaced with the aroma of fresh coffee. They asked her what it was and I heard her say "coffee grounds".

During the flight I ordered two glasses of red wine and had given my credit card to secure the tab. I settled the tab as we neared Calgary. When I was about to put the receipt away I noticed the charge was only for one glass. I asked one of the flight attendants to check with the attendant who had settled the tab. She came back and said the other attendant had wanted to buy me a drink! Imagine that! Yessiree, a good time was had by all!

Surprise Critic

2011-11-22T09:26:00.001-07:00

I thought things were progressing fairly well in the studio lately. When I came out this morning to start working I noticed that some art-critic bird had left a comment and shat upon my doorstep. Perhaps I'll take a second look at what I've been working on.

Alcuin Society Wayzgoose - Vancouver

2011-10-24T11:36:00.003-06:00

I flew to Vancouver over the weekend with Carol to attend the Alcuin Society wayzgoose at the Vancouver Public Library on Saturday. Heavenly Monkey, the press that printed the text and published my new book, ODDBALLS, gave me space at their table. I set out some prints and some trade books of mine and some that I had illustrated. This was the first time ODDBALLS was presented in public. A very good film called Making Faces: Metal Type in the 21st Century, about Jim Rimmer and produced by Richard Kegler, was shown at Simon Fraser University the evening before the wayzgoose. There were wonderful people participating in and visiting this event. It was a fascinating weekend. Carol helped take some photos while I was busy at the table and we enjoyed going around and meeting some of the other participants.

ANOTHER IDEA ABOUT CREATIVITY.

2011-08-30T15:27:00.002-06:00

I came across a TED Talk that brought back a thought I had and shared on an earlier post, about ideas and where they come from. This was a talk given by Elizabeth Gilbert, author of the book, Eat, Pray, Love. She describes her own experiences with creativity and the mysterious sources of ideas, as well as the experiences of others. I recommend the talk (it lasts about 19 minutes) and if you're interested and want to watch it, go to http://www.ted.com/talks/elizabeth_gilbert_on_genius.html

Evolution of printmaking

2011-07-25T13:09:00.014-06:00

I received an e-mail the other day from an art college student who is working on a degree in relief printmaking. He was conducting a survey amongst printmakers to find out what printmakers think about the technological direction of printmaking. I thought I would share it here and maybe even elaborate upon it more.
There were three questions.

Q: What quality do you consider hand pulled printmaking to have, to make it more of a niche and an unique medium?
A: The quality is already there. The answer is in your question: "hand pulled".

Q: What do you believe printmaking to be, and does this have boundaries or exclusions to technology or process?
A: I believe Printmaking to be a fine art, created by the hand of the artist. The debate regarding the role of mass production technologies in printmaking has continued since Senefelder introduced lithography for theatre posters and will continue as more of these "easy-to-create" technologies are developed.

Q: Do you feel competitions and awards are the key to awareness and the future durability of contemporary printmaking? If not, how do you feel print will progress and how will it need to evolve?
A: I don't believe competitions and awards are the key to either awareness or the future of contemporary printmaking; any more than "Britain's Got Talent" is the key to awareness or the future of the performing arts. I would never presume to declare what that key is, but educating the public about the difference between a mass-produced poster and a fine art print seems to be important. Some people simply don't care that the framed Van Gogh on their wall is a mass produced giclee poster with "realistic brush strokes".
I believe it's not necessary to mess with or influence the direction of the "evolution" of printmaking. And I definitely don't believe there is such a thing as "progress" in creativity and art. Artists who make prints will continue to make them the way they want to make them and the public that supports the artists by buying them will buy the ones they like for the varied reasons they like them. I don't believe fine art printmaking is an industry which needs to be manipulated to meet the demands of the "consumer", and it would be a big mistake for art colleges to teach students to anticipate fashionable trends in the print "market".

Another print technology that has been questioned in the past was silk screen, which first appeared in China ten or eleven centuries ago and was used in England at the beginning of the twentieth century as a means of creating wallpaper. When it became a common tool in the advertising industry, printmakers noticed it and began to create fine art prints with it. To move the process from advertising to fine art they christened it "serigraph". But as Shakespeare said, "A rose by any other name would smell as sweet".
The issue of technological boundaries is not new and will no doubt be around for a long time.

If the artist's hand was in control through the whole process of getting an image from a matrix to another surface, it should be considered an original print. But I believe the artist and the gallery owe it to the buyer and collector to let them know the difference between a reproduction of a painting or drawing and an original fine art print. An intelligent buyer could then make the decision whether to own a piece of fine art or save their money and go buy a poster or pretty calendar.

Robert Kroetsch

2011-06-22T15:28:00.000-06:00

I just learned of the tragic death of Robert Kroetsch from an automobile accident in Alberta yesterday. Robert was the acclaimed author of books of poetry, fiction and non-fiction and is revered as one of Canada's top writers. He was recognized with the Governor General's Award as well as the Order of Canada. The news is especially hard for me to accept, since I had worked on an edition of one of his books. I had been commissioned by the late Dennis Johnson to illustrate the Red Deer Press edition of "Seed Catalogue". I traveled to the Heisler area to get a feel for the location of the poem and was able to locate his former house and farm following the descriptions in the poem. While working on the wood engravings I communicated with Robert regularly and sent him sketches as I prepared for each wood engraving. I grew to admire and respect him and appreciated his guidance on this project, and especially appreciated his elegant and visual use of the language.

The nation and the world has lost a literary giant.

THIS HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH ART

2011-06-17T09:37:00.003-06:00

It's been a couple of days since the final Stanley Cup game in Vancouver. It's taken me that long to get my head around what happened out there, when Vancouver lost to Boston. I've watched, spellbound, as images of that night have been shown on the news and as the commentators have tried to explain what happened. It's impossible to avoid shaking the head and mumbling, "What the hell is going on? It's just a damned game for cryin' out loud!" And that's when I realized it had nothing to do with the game; whether Vancouver lost or won, there was going to be a riot. When thousands and thousands of people are invited to the streets to watch the game on large screens and to party, the mob mentality takes over. Of course, as the commentators have pointed out, there were instigators in the crowd with the specific goal of igniting this and they understand how a mob works. All they have to do is strike the spark and the mob of sheep take over. That doesn't excuse the mob, made up of hockey fans fired up with enthusiasm and booze and their inhibitions and common sense taking the night off. The same thing happens in soccer (football to the world outside North America). Britain has had their share of "lager louts", "skinheads" and "hooligans" who have created havoc throughout Britain and Europe.

I didn't grow up with hockey and I've had difficulty understanding the street fights which are tolerated on the ice during games. When I've tried to point out the radical difference between sanctioned violence and brutality in hockey and the quick removal of violence and brutality in other sports, die-hard hockey fans dismiss the violence as being "part of the sport". I was told once, by a relative that I should study hockey so I would understand! Even that idiot clown Don Cherry, who sees himself as Canada's authority on hockey, defends the violence and brutality. But the violence tolerated on the ice has nothing to do with the rioting and vandalism that went on Wednesday night in the streets of Vancouver. The brainless, pampered and spoiled idiots who tore up Vancouver had long since turned their brains off and let themselves be mindlessly led into that disgusting mess. I watched a reporter ask the mayor of Vancouver if there was going to be a ban on street parties during events like this in the future. I couldn't believe it when the mayor replied that street parties would continue to be allowed!

Kudos to those few individuals in the crowd who tried to reason with the idiots who were rioting and tried to calm them down. All some of those heroes got was what some hockey players get on the ice at the hands of sanctioned "enforcers" while the referees look on... a beating.

In the end I can't help comparing the riots I saw on TV, that took place in Egypt a while back, and the riot in Vancouver that I watched Wednesday night. There was a big difference. The rioters in Egypt were focused on overthrowing a tyrant and taking back there lives. The rioters in Vancouver were laughing and having fun, watching cars burn and breaking store windows and looting them.

Cultural Cool

2011-05-21T16:59:00.048-06:00

Turn a Blind Eye wood engraving 4 x 5 in.

The other day my friend Bill Starke sent me a link to a very good Wall Street Journal article written by Joe Queenan about Frank Gehry and the nature of "cool" trends. As is often the case when I receive e-mails from Bill, the content gets me thinking and this one was no exception. Not only did I agree and applaud everything in the article but it got me thinking past architecture, to art and culture in general and my own observations of the "cool" in art. The phenomenon of fads in culture and the rush to jump on the "bandwagon" is fun to watch. Those bandwagons move with the power of a runaway train, gathering passengers like a magnet gathers paper clips. Queenan's article discusses the rush by civic governments to "keep up with the Joneses". He says your city isn't "cool" unless it has a gallery or a library designed by Frank Gehry. I've noticed too, that if the city can't afford Gehry, then they find a second-rate Gehry wannabe.

This rush to be "cool" is part and parcel of culture. "Cool" sells. Hollywood is another place where the bandwagon is overloaded. If a movie makes it big at the box office you can expect years of other movies in that genre to follow in style or even story. And the original blockbuster can't just end there. Oh, no. If that first one is a blockbuster and sends the stockholders into fits of ecstasy, why not try another? How many more comic book super heroes, Terminators or Pirates of the Caribbean can this planet take? (I don't want to know!)

In university I took a painting class from a professor whose own painting style was abstract expressionism. There was indirect and implied pressure, from the professor, as well as other students, to work in the "ab-ex" manner. So I did. I would have preferred to work from life or nature but, as a 27 year old undergraduate with a wife and child and no idea what I was going to do with an art degree, I needed to keep my grades up. Plus, I was in school to learn and figured I may as well give it a shot and learn something.

The printmaking professor didn't apply pressure to conform to a style and I felt free to express myself. This may have been one of the reasons (besides the smell of solvents) I chose to take that route. Wood engraving wasn't a formal part of the class, but it was the process that fascinated me most and I studied examples in the course text and in the library (those were the days when you went to the library for information or images). Leonard Baskin was the artist whose work impressed me the most. There were others but nobody topped Baskin in my estimation. I needed to go on to graduate school because my goal was now to teach at the post secondary level. Some of the graduate students would get excited when the latest issues of Art in America or Art Forum arrived in the library, with articles about whatever was "hot" in New York. As soon as the latest issues were on the shelves, some of those "hot" styles and techniques would show up in class critiques.

Graduate students grow older and move out into the world, carrying what they've collected in school. There were moments in the 70s when, recognition by fellow faculty, art critics or gallery directors demanded the incorporation of the latest technology. If it wasn't made with some new and hi-tech material, it wasn't worth looking at. Then that gave way to making nothing at all. Art students were taught to talk about art instead of making it. Gallery walls were covered with typed descriptions of what the artist had been thinking about. If there was any thing in the gallery at all (a pile of molding food for instance) it had to be explained with typed pages of information that were impossible to understand because they were typed in "art speak", the pontifications of art critics. Some universities did away with courses involving the "making" of art. Some faculty at one of the schools where I was teaching wanted to eliminate drawing from the curriculum. A few of us fought against this and finally had to agree to a name change because the others thought "drawing" sounded too "traditional"! By the 80s universities were churning out graduates who couldn't nail two boards together or who didn't know which end of a brush or pencil to use. It didn't take many years of this foolishness and students began to realize that they were headed nowhere and they began to demand visual content. The universities and colleges woke up and started putting the visual back into art.

In the "art world" there is a rush to be in front, with the most innovative and creative ideas. If these ideas receive a following and are accepted in the mainstream they can take off like a rocket and they are "hot property", coveted and snapped up by collectors and investors. The owner of a gallery that once showed my drawings asked me to work larger. He said corporations wanted larger work and if I would work larger he could sell more of my work. I told him I do drawings and prints on paper and am comfortable with the scale I work at. I eventually pulled my work from that gallery (not because I was asked to work larger).

As I ponder the points raised in that Wall Street Journal article and think about fads and what's cool, what's hot and what's not, I can't help but feel relieved that this is a treadmill I've avoided. I've been very fortunate that I haven't succumbed to the pressure to conform to the style or trend of the day and have been happy in my ignorance. I can spend time in the studio creating for me, instead of spending time searching for the next fad du jour. Besides, it's asking a lot be creating flavor of the day when using the eighteenth and nineteenth century medium of wood engraving.

WHERE DID THAT COME FROM?

2011-03-28T07:58:00.000-06:00

I've been hanging out in the studio recently, since my last wood engraving was finished, reading over my notes and lists of ideas, drawing in one of my sketchbooks and generally struggling to come up with my next wood engraving. Authors call this struggle "writer's block". Every time I had something I wanted to work on and tried it out in the sketchbook there was something about it I didn't like. This recent "dry spell" isn't new. I've struggled through many of them before. Sometimes the only way to solve it has been to keep at it until it works. Occasionally an idea gets handed to me when a remark from a friend sparks an idea. Another solution that works is to just give it up and turn to a totally unrelated activity, like herding dust bunnies out of the studio or reorganizing the bookshelves or the filing cabinet. I call this the "nest-building" solution. When the mind is on housekeeping and not on finding a solution, the solution sneaks in. Then there are the spooky times when the idea sneaks up on me out of nowhere and I wonder, "Where the hell did that come from?" I've had a couple of them arrive while I was in the shower, with nothing on my mind except getting the spray to remove the soap from my arm pit.

The real spooky ones arrive at night or before dawn when I'm about to start dreaming or when the last dream has ended and I'm waking. If it's the former, I have to jump up and find a pen and paper and jot it down or it'll be gone in the morning. If it's the latter, I have to jump up and avoid going back to sleep or it'll be gone when I wake again. There seems to be no way to control these arrivals. They're independent and wonderfully spooky.

Third Day of Spring

2011-03-22T11:56:00.000-06:00

I don't think this needs an explanation.

First day of Spring

2011-03-20T12:48:00.000-06:00

On this first day of Spring, 2011 I tromped through a few inches of falling snow, entered my studio and sat, wondering what sort of joke mother nature was playing this time. Yesterday was the second day of mild (read: above freezing) temperatures we were just beginning to enjoy. When the backed-up storm drain at the end of the block had created a lake at the intersection, with tides influenced by the full moon, and just as we were hoping to be able to see over the mountain range of snow between our driveway and the neighbour's, Spring arrived. The lake is now a glacier, the mountain range has grown in altitude requiring oxygen to reach the summit, and the snow is falling thick and almost as fast as the mercury in the thermometer.

But... at least I have a nice warm studio in which to continue my hibernation.

Beasts of New York Suite

2011-02-22T13:15:00.005-07:00

Beasts of New York is a unique and captivating book, written by Jon Evans. The Porcupine's Quill is publishing an illustrated edition of the book (2011) with reproductions of wood engravings by Jim Westergard. Rollin Milroy at Heavenly Monkey has put the original wood engravings into ten folios. Eight are available for sale. This suite of all 11 engravings includes a title page and descriptive colophon set and printed by Rollin. Each suite contains an original pen-and-ink signed drawing of one of the "beast" from the book. The engravings were printed on Zerkall, the text printed on Arches Wove, and the drawings done on Arches watercolour paper. Each of the engravings (which are reproduced by photolithography in Evans' book) were printed in editions of 25. These ten complete suites are assembled uniformly from numbers 16 - 25 (with the last two being reserved for the artist's personal use). The sheets are wrapped in a printed chemise of Reg Lissel's handmade paper, and contained in a slipcase with printed spine label. The Beasts of New York suite is priced at $800.00 and is available from Jim Westergard.
These are images of the Beasts of New York suite and the slip case it is presented in:

The photos below are supplied, courtesy of Rollin Milroy

The colophon page in the composing area of Heavenly Monkey.

This suite (24/25) includes the pen and ink drawing shown at the top left.

WINTER TRAVEL PLANS

2011-01-14T13:49:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, as the snow kept falling and getting deeper and my arthritic joints ached more and the sting of previously-frostbitten toes kept the shoveling sessions short, I started thinking how nice it would be to get out of this cold climate for a little while. Two years ago, in February, I flew with Carol to San Francisco for about a week, to attend the CODEX book fair at University of California Berkeley and since the CODEX and the San Francisco Antiquarian book fair are scheduled within the same week this year we started looking into the possibility of doing the trip again. There was an Air Canada seat sale available which was to end last night so we had to act fast. It's always been one of our favourite places to visit. Carol is from the Bay Area and we met there and had many memorable dates in "The City". In fact I proposed to Carol in my 1949 Chev one evening, parked on the Marina, looking out on San Francisco Bay. We both thought this was a great plan. We checked on a few hotels and finally picked one we had not stayed in before, then sat back and did the calculations. We calculated the seat sale (which hid the massive amount of taxes and fees and the baggage charges). We added that to the cost of the hotel for four nights (we wanted seven, but knew that would be out of our budget). We added the hotel cost in Calgary the night before (our flight was to leave early in the morning). We added our hotel in Calgary upon our return (our return flight would arrive too late to drive home to Red Deer). Then we added the parking fee for our car in Calgary while we were gone and the food and transportation costs in San Francisco and Berkeley and the then we totaled it.

The total was a figure that was over what we could afford without putting it on plastic. We winced and groaned and told each other how disappointed we were that we couldn't do it and then we tried to convince each other that it was for the best. But we both knew we still had doubts about the decision to cancel the plans and deep inside we both probably felt the debt would be worth it. Think about how nice it was two years ago in the Bay Area, with only a little mild rain once or twice and seeing live trees and green grass, while our driveway was filling up with snow back in Red Deer!

It was best to get our minds off this regret so we settled in front of the TV and turned on the news. One of the first items we saw was a story about an eighty year old British Columbia woman who was filing a complaint with the Canadian Air Transport Security Authority about her treatment at the Calgary airport when she was returning to her home in BC. The security person must have thought she looked like she may be a possible terrorist who was packing some explosives, because the security person started feeling her breasts and embarrassed the poor lady by dislodging her breast prosthesis. She had had a mastectomy in the past and was extremely emotionally sensitive about it and broke into tears there. Of course that meant nothing to the security personnel who were only "doing their job". That job seems to be to fool all of us into thinking, if security "cops a feel" before passengers get on the plane, it will make us safer.

Right then and there we decided we made the right decision to cancel our travel plans and we decided we would save our travel for better weather when we can drive.

WOOD ENGRAVING PROCESS

2011-01-11T11:24:00.003-07:00

My friend Bill Starke, suggested I should display some photos to illustrate the engraving process and I thought that was a good idea. So, as I was about to start engraving a new block in the series See What I'm Saying, I took photographs of the block as I worked. This print went through a number of title changes. I started with the phrase, Change Your Mind, then Change Her Mind, then, Bill suggested Headlock, which I thought was good, but did not reflecting my motive (he wasn't aware of my motive behind the image). The title I've finally given the print is My Mind is Made Up. The first photo shows the ink drawing on the block and the block was stained, so I'd be able to see, more easily, where I engraved. The blocks I use are end-grain hardwood, similar to butcher blocks, only with a very smooth and flat surface. In this case it's a maple block. I stained the block by brushing oil paint lightly over the surface with a dry brush.

I started engraving and moved into more than one area to get a feel for the relationships between areas. These early areas are usually places in which I am fairly confident of what I want to achieve. The surface which is removed in the engraving process cannot be replaced so I need to be sure of my decision before removing it. Ink will be rolled over the surface of the block during the printing process and since the untouched surface of the wood is what will print, I need to be sure of my decisions before removing an area. Wood engraving is a process of bringing light out of darkness.

By this stage I hadn't printed a proof yet and wasn't sure what I would be doing with the area around the head. It was time to see what I had. It was time to print the image. Quite often I start proofing earlier than this, but this one went differently.

I usually print two or three proofs so I can draw on them with white paint or manipulate the proofs in some way to get some visual feedback as to how my plans for the print will look. It's safer to mess up a print than mess up the block. The middle proof in this photo has had the paper around the head cut out with a razor knife and a piece of white paper set behind, so I can see what it would look like with the wood removed from that area. I decided I wanted some major white areas around the head, but still didn't remove it all. I kept drawing on proofs between engraving, until I arrived at the final stage. This is the final print, My Mind is Made Up.

You can see the other prints from this series, as well as other wood engravings and drawings on my website: http://www.telusplanet. net/public/jimwest

Oddballs: the book

2010-12-03T14:50:00.008-07:00

I don't look after this blog site very well. I intended to use this as a means of letting people know of my projects and what I was doing in the studio, but I continually forget to go back to it and keep it up to date.

I've been working on a number of projects over the past year. Some of them are my own and some are commissions. The largest project, and my own, which I've been working on for a few years, is called Oddballs. I have printed editions of the forty prints in this series. Another, that I'm still working on is called See What I'm Saying. There have been a couple of commissions to illustrate some books for Porcupine's Quill Press of Erin, Ontario, including Suit of Nettles by James Reaney and Beasts of New York by Jon Evans. Beasts of New York will be released in early 2011.

I've come to an agreement with Rollin Milroy, the proprietor of a quality book press in Vancouver called Heavenly Monkey Press. He will be publishing the Oddballs in a limited edition book of thirty, to be released in the spring of 2011. The text will be printed on handmade paper and the images were printed by me on Zerkall mould made paper which will be tipped into the book. The binding has yet to be selected.

There endeth my update of current projects. I hope everyone has a safe and peaceful Christmas!

Summer? What Summer?

2010-09-21T17:14:00.002-06:00

This has been a summer I will never forget. Or, better yet, a summer I will want to forget. I doubt we have had more than five days this whole summer here in Red Deer, Alberta, when it was warm enough to put on shorts and go outside. If it wasn't overcast it was overcast and raining and in both cases it was chilly. In August, when we are normally using fans to keep cool, the furnace would kick on! I don't want to hear any more about "global warming". "Global climate change"? OK. But not "global warming"!

Now, with that bitching out of my system, I can get on with how I spent my summer. Besides escaping south of the border to enjoy the warmth in the good ol' US of A for a few weeks, I've been staying warm in the studio and working on a number of projects. Usually I scan work as I finish it and put the images up on my website, but this summer I've let that slip. I haven't uploaded anything since last February. I'm not computer savvy and I fumble my way through these things at the best of times. When I finally got around to the project it took me nearly all day because I had forgotten many of the complicated (for me) steps.

I added two wood engravings that are part of my series called See What I'm Saying? which I worked on over the Summer.

Last Spring I was offered the opportunity by Porcupine's Quill Press to create a series of wood engravings for a book titled Beasts of New York by Jon Evans and after I read it I couldn't wait to get started. I finished the last one a week or two ago and the Beasts of New York wood engravings are now on the website as well.

Colorado or Bust

2010-06-05T10:34:00.013-06:00

The Durango to Silverton steam train arrives in Silverton.

Fritz and Jim at the Silverton Station

NA Graphics building in Silverton

Main Street Silverton, Colorado

Bill Starke at the Hyatte Regency in Denver, with his sculpture on the wall in the background.

Three days after I returned from Erin, Ontario I was packed and ready for another trip. The two form rollers on my Vandercook press were looking a bit "long in the tooth", so I decided Carol and I would take a road trip to Silverton, Colorado where NA Graphics is now located. NA Graphics is the company which has taken over the Vandercook press inventory. This trip would give us an opportunity to visit friends and family along the way. We had lived in Denver when I taught at Metropolitan State College for five years. Sculptor, Bill Starke and his wife Judy are still living there. During our stay at Bill Starke's studio, he and his wife Judy took us to the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Denver where we saw his sculpture, The Climbers, installed in the lobby.

Our route to Silverton was west of Pueblo, Colorado and eventually over Monarch Pass, where we drove through a Spring blizzard. Then, before arriving in Silverton, there were miles of tight hair-pin curves to negotiate over other passes. But the occasional jolt of fear that these roads gave us was all worthwhile in the end when we saw the quaint town of Silverton. The next day we met Fritz Klinke, the owner of NA Graphics and we toured the facility. He also took time to show me how to install the bearing blocks for the new rollers. Since Fritz is a narrow gauge steam train enthusiast he was more than happy to take us to the station in time to see the Durango to Silverton steam train come in before we had to leave.

Made of Wood Exhibition

2010-06-05T07:55:00.009-06:00

Tim Inkster of Porcupine's Quill Press suggested I enter a competitive exhibition in Erin, Ontario called "Made of Wood". When I looked at examples of entries from prior years and the description of the exhibition, it seemed to me that my use of wood, to create wood engraving prints on paper, would not qualify me to enter. As it turned out, 2010 is the first year wood engraving was included, so I entered and was accepted. There was a weekend event planned in Erin to present examples from the exhibition and to offer demonstrations of the various processes. Wesley Bates and I were scheduled to spend a couple of days at a charming boutique on Erin's Main Street called Renaissance. We were to meet with visitors who wanted to know more about wood engraving. Wesley had brought his antique table top vertical platen press to demonstrate the printing process and I stood around in awe of Wesley's presentation, with very little to offer but moral support. It was a marvelous weekend filled with wonderful people. On my way back to the Toronto airport I stopped in Steinburg to see the McMichael Gallery and to meet Tom Smart. Tom plans to organize an exhibition of wood engravings in 2012 at the McMichael, in which I've been invited to participate.

The Rat Gave Up

2010-03-23T18:21:00.005-06:00

It had been nearly two days since I had received an e-mail from Stan, so I figured I should send him a "fish-or-cut-bait" e-mail:
Stan, I thought you wanted that drawing for your new apartment and that you were in a hurry to get it. I haven't had any response after my repeated requests that you send me the address you want it sent to (California or the UK?). I'm afraid I've had another request for the drawing and I can't hold onto it much longer. Do you want it or not? You had first request, buddy, so I'm giving you a chance if you want it, otherwise I gotta go with this other request. Jim

Now another day has passed. He had been so anxious to get the drawing and so insistent that we get on with our transaction, his silence makes it apparent that he has moved on, to spend his time conning some other artist. My most entertaining customer has dropped me! So, I decided to send him a farewell message:
Stan,
I guess you don't really want the drawing as badly as you claimed. So, how about it; let's be honest with each other, Stan. After all, we've had this trusting relationship and we're both responsible people (as you said earlier) so you can tell me the truth now. You didn't want my drawing at all, did you? You were just after the money you could get from my refund cheque which you were going to ask me to send you, because you were going to send an overpayment in a phony money order. Right? Come on, tell me the truth. I know all about the cons you guys are running. They're all over the news over here on this side of the world. And you don't live in California either, do you? You aren't getting transferred to the UK, are you? You're in Nigeria, aren't you? I saw the record of your visits to my website and I've got your IP address.

While I'm waiting for you to tell me the truth, I'll tell you the truth. You did this con so badly I had you figured out with your second e-mail. Here's some other truth: I've shared this con of yours over the internet with others. I've shared the information with lots of others; with artists and the police. I know at least one other artist who received an e-mail from you which was an exact copy of the e-mail you sent me. So give it up and get an honest job, Stan. We're wise to you and your organization and it's not going to work any more. You might think the internet is a convenient vehicle for you to use to steal easy money but it's also a convenient and effective means of communication and a way of warning others about you.

There, I've been honest. Now, tell me something truthful for a change and stop bullshitting me, Stan.
Jim

Rat Bait

2010-03-23T09:14:00.009-06:00

Sunday came and went without another e-mail from Stan. On Monday I made that call to the RCMP then sent Stan this e-mail:

Sorry I didn't get back to you, Stan. I took the rest of the weekend away from the studio. I think I have a solution for us which might satisfy both of us. Actually two solutions.
1- You could pay me through PayPal and I will cover the cost of packing and mail from the $3430.00 US. That is simple and easy. Do you know how to use Pay Pal?
2- The other method could be for you to send me the bank cheque for $3430.00 US and I will take it to the bank. I will not send the drawing until my bank assures me that your bank cheque has cleared.
How does that sound?
Jim

Then, not many hours later (those guys in that Nigerian boiler room must never sleep) I received Stan's response:

Its okay,i will prefer the check,do consider the pieces sold and get back to me with your name and address with your phone # for me to proceed with the payment.
∂Will await your message.

No real surprise there, about Stan's choice of payment. And did you notice how he's reassuring me that he REALLY wants the drawing and he's hitting that request for my address and phone again (which I've told him before are on my website).
I thought I would push it a bit and see how much I could get away with in my response to that:

Stan,
My address and all the information you need is on my website. What I need from you before we go any further is your mailing address. I will pack the drawing in a safe tube and have it addressed and ready for when the cheque clears. I want to prevent the drawing you want from getting sold while I wait. By the way, you were mentioning that you were being transferred to the UK, so you will need me to send it there, won't you?

Stan came back with a short one:
nope my shipper will be coming to your place for the pick up

I like that "nope" touch. Sounds almost like someone else is writing this one for Stan. It sounds too, like they're getting impatient with me so I decided to remind him about the mailing. I notice Stan ignored my question about his being transferred to the UK:

I thought I made that clear, Stan. I am going to absorb the cost of the packing and mailing.

Now, I would never write to a purchaser of my work with that tone but I was trying to see how much sarcasm Stan could read into this and whether he could tell I was stringing him along. Stan didn't seem to pick up on the sarcasm, but he did finally catch the message that my address and phone number are on my website because he sent this:

can you send me your site again i want to confirm something.

I'm thinking that the "something" is my address. Strange, that he wants my drawing so bad but he can't figure out how to get back to my website. Oh, I forgot to mention that the subjects of his e-mails have been changing. The first subject was the title of the work he wanted and the next group of e-mails was titled "Interested", then the last batch have been titled "Payment/Pickup" as if they are being pulled from a file of sequential topics. I answered his request for the site this way:

You first, Stan. I mentioned earlier that I needed your address to prepare the packaging and you haven't cleared up that issue of your move to the UK. First you said you were in California then you said you were out of town and you were being transferred to the UK. This is going to necessitate a difference in the way I pack the drawing.

I've been hoping Stan sends the cheque and I can frame it and put it on my studio wall. I got an e-mail from Ron Lines with the most brilliant suggestion yet:

Why don't you tell Stan to send you the bank draft. When he does, keep it until a Nigerian "Government Official" needs your help to get money out of the country then send Stan's bank draft to them. Sweet revenge.

I figure if Stan hasn't caught on by now, he never will. My last message to Stan was sent yesterday late afternoon and there hasn't been a response to that. Maybe Stan, or his supervisor finally caught on. I may have played with the rat too long. I'll give him time for one more nibble and see what happens.

More about the rat

2010-03-22T10:16:00.005-06:00

There have been no more e-mails from Stan the rat, but there have been some developments in the story. I decided to send Stan an e-mail today with a proposal which I suggested might be a solution to our stand-off. I suggested two solutions. One was that Stan pay me on PayPal and the other was that Stan send me a money order and when the bank lets me know that the money order has cleared, then, and only then, I would send him his drawing. I suggested that I would do the packing and mailing and would waive the charges to avoid using his own personal shipper. There has been no response from Stan.

Now, here's where it gets interesting. I was checking the statistics on my website stat counter this morning and noticed a visit to my website which occurred very close to the day and time of Stan's first e-mail. The statistics indicated that there were multiple visits to my website from this computer and that there had been a referral link to my site from a gallery in the US. The computer used to visit my site was located in Nigeria! I've seen and read news items about the many fraud schemes coming out of Nigeria. Of course there is no absolute proof that Stan is in Nigeria (he has a gmail address and claims he's in California and moving to the UK) nor that he is at the computer shown in the statistics on my website.

But wait, that's not the end of it! Over the weekend I notified Bill Starke, a sculptor friend of mine who lives in Denver, about my exchange of e-mails with my buddy, Stan. This morning I received an e-mail from Bill and he included a copy of the following e-mail he had received this morning:

Hello,

Good day to you over there, My name is Stan thomas i'm from California and i hope this message finds you well.I was going through your works and my eyes caught...., i will like to have it for my new apartment this month. please let me know if the piece is available, if yes let me have the detailed price and more information about it. i will be waiting to read from you asap.

Stan.

The exact same e-mail I received a couple of days ago. Word-for-word, letter-for-letter, including the string of periods after the phrase "and my eyes caught....," in which, if Stan had the intelligence and wasn't so lazy, should have contained the title of the work of art he was interested in.

I consulted an office of the RCMP crime prevention unit and was told that Stan's con is very common and results in the con sending a phony money order or bank draft worth more than the amount required. The victim of the con is then asked to deposit the money anyway and send their own bank money order for the amount of overage. Of course in the case of Stan the art collector, the victim also loses a piece of art work. Although I doubt that will happen because Stan will probably never give an address for the art work to be shipped to.

So, all you artists out there, look for an e-mail from Stan and it's seller-beware! And Stan, if you're reading this, you gotta do better than that, man. You're so bloody transparent a child would know you were about to steal his candy. I hope nobody takes your phony bait!

I smell a rat

2010-03-21T07:39:00.003-06:00

I received an e-mail yesterday from a person named Stan, who had a gmail.com address. Stan had apparently been on my website and had seen a drawing of mine that he said he wanted to buy right away for the wall of his new apartment. Stan had also visited the page on my website which gave purchasing instructions because he followed my suggestion to copy and paste the title of the work in the subject of his e-mail. Since Stan mentioned that he was in California I looked up the current exchange rate between the US and Canadian dollars and I replied to Stan with the price of the drawing in US dollars and I requested that Stan give me his address so I could calculate the cost of shipping, to add that cost to the drawing.

Here is Stan's reply:

Thanks for the message, I am very happy to know that the Pieces is still available for sale. i must tell you i am very much interested in the immediate purchase.I will like to let you know that your payment will be in form of a Certified Check.You dont have to worry about packing, insurance and tax because my shipper will be in the best position to do that as soon as you get the payment.This is because i will be traveling out of the country any moment from now for a business proposal.So get back to me with the information needed to send you the payment I:E :
Full Name
Standard Address
Phone number
Asking price reconfirmation

so that i can proceed in the payment arrangement, consider it sold get back to me asap with needed information.
Thanks

OK, now red flags came up and I started to smell a rat. There was something not quite right here. First of all the structure of this answer sounded more like an automated response from a business, instead of a purchaser completing a purchase. Forget, for a moment, the clumsy spelling, grammar and phrasing. The insistence that I supply my name, address and phone number seemed to add more stench to this transaction since it was obvious Stan had already visited the page of purchase instructions which contained my name, address and phone number. In each message there was this "asap" urgency as well.

I responded that I've never heard of a purchaser sending their own shipper to my studio to collect the work and said I prefer to pack and ship purchases to clients myself. I said if he was still interested in purchasing the drawing I needed his address. Stan's reply was short. He said I didn't need his address because his shipper would be coming to my "place to pick up the pieces" (remember, I'm in Canada and he says he's in California). I replied, again, that I didn't do business that way and I suggested he supply me with the name and phone of his shipper.

Here is Stan's reply:
Hello,
Thanks for the details which Ive noted down and have also forwarded it to my shipper.He's due in the US sometime next week and will definitely be getting in touch with you for the pickup.The truth is, I would have handled this much differently if i would be at home but Im a bit pressed for time myself. Im moving to the UK this month as im being transferred.As it is, I'm sending you an overdraft which will include my shippers fees as well.He has asked for an upfront before coming and since I have no access to a lot of cash, Im trying to kill two birds with a stone.So, once you've received and cashed the check, deduct your funds and PLEASE help me send the remaining funds to him(shipper).I'll forward his contact details to you once you've received the payment.Now I'm concluding you are a responsible person and I can therefore entrust you with this arrangement.Ill let you know Immediately the check is sent out to you so you should be looking out for it.

P.S:I`ll require that a reconfirmation of your address is done for me now. I await your reply.

Now there's more than the smell of a rat. I smell an outhouse in August. His shipper has been out of the US and will be returning next week. Well, Stan, I am out of the US, in case you haven't picked that up yet, so your shipper will need to turn around and get back on the plane! You betcher sweet bippy Stan is "trying to kill two birds with a stone". He's trying to get one of my drawings and giving me an "overdraft" (this is an admission that his check will bounce). I'm still trying to figure out why I should bail Stan out of his cash shortfall by paying "him(shipper)" Stan's bill.

That is where I've left it. If there's anything more from Stan I'll let you know. Stan may have concluded that I am a responsible person and that he can entrust me with this arrangement of his, but the feeling is not mutual. Folks, if it's too good to be true; chances are, it isn't. And this one has the smell of something that definitely isn't.

Fashion?

2010-02-16T08:58:00.000-07:00

Since when has fashion been a concern in the Olympics? Apparently the American snowboard dudes take it very seriously. They are claiming that all snowboarders competing in the freestyle race should dress in the baggy costume worn in skateboard parks and recreation slopes. Now they're criticizing the Canadian snowboard dudes for wearing pants too tight and too aerodynamic! GIVE ME A BREAK! I thought the object was to cross the finish line first and fair, not who looks the most "cool". What's next? Helmets on sideways?

Obsession with fad can apparently distract from the issues at hand as easily in sport as they can (and do) in art.

Power tool recovery

2010-01-04T12:02:00.002-07:00

The Foredom people responded promptly to my question about parts replacements. Meanwhile I was curious what my local small appliance repairman, Don, would have to say about the broken wire covering. Yes! We still have someone in our city who will repair things! In about thirty minutes he had shortened the wire by about two and a half inches and had re-attached the same connectors. When I put the hand piece back together and plugged it back in, it worked beautifully! I'm back in business, and at far less cost than buying new parts or a new hand piece. All that was thrown away was two and a half inches of braided copper wire.

Having spent a day back on the block with my hand tools, I have a different perspective on working with the power tool. I realize how I miss the control and slower pace of the hand tools. I believe I will find myself distributing the work between the power tool and the hand tools a little differently from now on.

A case for hand engraving tools

2010-01-03T14:28:00.005-07:00

I was made aware today of the value of simpler technologies. I started engraving a new block a few days ago and was returning to work on the block this afternoon. I picked up the hand piece of the Foredom micro motor I rely on for the majority of my wood engravings and was about to turn it on. Then I noticed the covering of wire which comes from the hand piece was cracked and I could see the copper wire. Both stands! If they touched I doubt it would be a good thing. I have no idea how long the break in the wires had been there and I suppose I'm fortunate I spotted the damage before they touched.

I tried to take the hand piece apart to see if there was a means of making a repair but wasn't able to gain access to the point where the wire connects to the hand piece. I went immediately to the Foredom website to see if there was a replacement hand piece listed. The model number of the hand piece I own is not listed now. The machine is apparently obsolete. If I want to continue engraving I must use my hand tools for the remainder of the block. Waiting to solve the problem of the disabled part is not an option. I must continue to work.

This incident got me thinking about how we rely on technology for so much in our lives and when technology breaks down or is unavailable, how panic sets in and things shut down. I don't know if I'll ever be able to get the hand piece fixed or replaced but I do know I need to continue engraving and the hand tools I use for some areas will replace the power tool and will return as my main tools... until I find a solution in my spare time.

Loss of prints submitted to group exhibitions

2009-08-14T13:29:00.002-06:00

In 2003 I submitted a wood engraving to Euro Art Centre in Vaxju, Sweden for the Mini Print de Sarajevo exhibition and it was accepted. There was a website which showed photos of the exhibition and the events surrounding the opening. An e-mail arrived in 2004 from a G.Wahlin of the Euro Art Centre which let me know that my print was to be returned to me in May of 2004. I was busy with other projects and forgot the print until October of 2005 when I wrote G. Wahlin. There has never been a reply. I tried numerous ways of contacting G. Wahlin and the Euro Art Centre with no results. I can't seem to even find any sign that this Swedish Euro Art Centre still exists.

A similar experience was had with the Townhouse Gallery in Belfast, Northern Ireland and their International Small Print Exhibition in 2003, only in this case they responded and insisted submissions had been returned. I'm still waiting.

I have long since written these off as losses which go with the business, but I was thinking recently that there may be printmakers out there who know about these institutions and may have had similar experiences. Sending work to offshore international exhibitions always contains an element of risk. These two are the only losses I have experienced in years of submitting to group exhibitions. There was one case where a drawing was returned from an exhibition in Eastern Europe with poor packing (not the secure container I had sent) and was so severely wrinkled it had to be destroyed.

Has anyone got any thoughts on this subject they're willing to share? Does anyone know anything about the Euro Art Centre or the Townhouse Gallery in Belfast? It would be interesting to hear what other horror stories there are out there and perhaps there are even lists of organizations to be avoided which could be published.

SUNRISE

2008-11-02T12:16:00.009-07:00

One of the perks of getting to work in the studio early in the morning is the chance to see a magnificent sunrise when it happens. This morning was not only one of those chances to see a magnificent sunrise but to experience something reminiscent of the "Twilight Zone".

I usually start the morning with a look at the e-mails and this was no exception. I was sitting at the computer, reading an e-mail at 7:15 AM when I heard a rapping on the door (or maybe it was on the window, now I'm not exactly sure... the door is metal and the knocker makes a hard sound). I thought it was strange because friends don't usually show up that early without calling first and my wife usually comes right in without knocking. I turned around and walked toward the door and through the window I saw the most magnificent sunrise I think I've ever seen. I had no idea this sunrise was happening because it had been dark and there had only been a slight hint of dawn when I entered the studio. I remember thinking that whomever was knocking wanted me to see this beautiful sight. When I opened the door nobody was there, just the neighbor's cat. I went into the house, which was still dark and quiet, and tip-toed to the bedroom. The bedroom door was still closed, as I had closed it before taking a shower, and my wife appeared to still be sleeping. So I got my camera from a drawer and took a couple of pictures of the sunrise. When I went back into the studio and sat down at the computer to download the pictures, the knocking happened again. I opened the door and again... there was just the cat. I called out, "Hello! Anyone there?" but there was no response. I looked over the fence (the gate had not been unlatched) and walked to both sides of the studio and saw nobody. There wasn't a breath of wind this morning and the cat wasn't able to reach the door knocker, so those were ruled out. I went back to the computer and sat down and in a minute there was another knock. I didn't turn around this time but just said "Come in!". Nobody came in. Later, when my wife was up and we were having breakfast, I tried to see if she had somehow been the one who knocked on the studio. She swears it wasn't her. Whoever it was, real, imagined or supernatural, I'm grateful for the heads-up to see that sunrise.

NOTE: Dear reader, if you were the one who knocked this morning... thank you! And when we meet again, don't say anything about it. I want to pretend there really is a "Twilight Zone".

Narrowness of Mind

2008-08-03T12:39:00.017-06:00

While searching for something on the Internet the other day, I stumbled (tripped is more descriptive) across a website of an organization called Art Renewal Center or ARC for short... http://www.artrenewal.org/ I paused to browse and read a little bit and what I saw in this ARC site was the most bizarre attitude about art I have ever come across. I can't believe that an institution, which claims to include education as one of its mission statements, would spout such hateful vitriolic venom about some styles of art. There is an article on one of the pages by a man named Fred Ross who appears to be the originator of this organization. In this article he attacks various movements of art, which have gone in directions other than the realist movements he admires. His attacks are reminiscent of conservative, evangelical fundamentalist religions who believe they are right and everyone else in the world is wrong.

As anyone who knows my work or visits my website can see, I work with subject matter and I frequently use life or photographic references as a source for images. I am an advocate of the basic fundamentals of design and believe drawing from life to be an important asset in education. I am amused and confused by "art-speak" and the language of some contemporary art reviewers. All of which should indicate that I am not critical of ARC's support of realism. What astounds me, however, is the fear evident in the text of this ARC website. It's as if ARC and the authors on the site are afraid that, somehow, abstract art or any form of art which is not realist-based is threatening them and their artistic tastes. There are even three or four sections devoted to a vicious attack on the work of David Hockney, to an extreme which would suggest that ARC is declaring a fatwa and sees Hockney as their Salman Rushdie.

ARC appears to believe there is an organized and coordinated conspiracy on the part of non-realistic visual artists to eliminate any form of visual art prior to 1800. The only visual art acceptable to ARC is that which "represents" something three dimentional and in a very limited style. The painter, René Magritte explained this situation in his painting of a pipe, titled "La Trahison des Images", which, in English means "The Treason of Images". The inscription below the pipe on Magritte's canvas translates to "This is not a pipe". The message to ARC here is that a painting is paint on canvas, not a pipe or a person, or a landscape.

There's plenty of room in the world for all directions of artistic expression to exist and thrive without the need to resort to evangelical attacks against "non-believers". Just as there is room in the world for different religious and political beliefs. It would be a very boring world indeed if everyone thought and acted the same way. It has always seemed to me that when someone has to launch a personal attack against someone else for the way that other person believes, lives or behaves, the attacker is very insecure.

Lighten up, ARC! The "aliens" have landed, learn to live with them!

2007-10-10T12:32:00.002-06:00

People often ask me about that little electric engraving tool shown in this picture. Some want to find a tool that will make engraving easier and a few have asked me if the tool would be kinder to arthritic hands. It's made by Foredom and it's called a micro motor. It spins at extremely high speeds and works the same way a dentist's drill works (it sounds like one too). There are other tools that work, but this one is the best I've found. There is no flex-shaft to struggle with. The hand piece is smaller than other brands, so engraving with it is like drawing with a fat pen or pencil. It's very handy when removing large areas of material. It's expensive and, like any other power tool, it can be dangerous. If the operator is distracted or relaxes, the bit (I use an inverted-cone shape) can bite into the material and pull the tool with it, out of control.
I use the power tool for most of my engraving. When I want total control and I'm working in a small delicate area, I use hand tools. For the most part, I can't finish engraving a block any faster with the power tool than with hand tools and I can't say that the power tool is any easier on my hands, arms or back than using the hand tools. I have no answer for the question: "Then why use it?".

More Ergonomics of Wood Engraving

2007-10-07T08:44:00.000-06:00

I constructed a stand out of plywood (left), with a slightly inclined surface for the block and a lower shelf in back for a lamp. I covered the sharp edges of the stand with foam plumbing pipe insulation (the gray strip at the top edges) and adhered them with acrylic contact cement. To keep the stand from slipping on the Formica work counter I used a piece of rubber nonskid sheet beneath the stand.
This system has been working very well, with no complaints from my back or neck. Then a few months ago I began noticing my right shoulder was aching and as time went on it was getting worse. I couldn't figure out what was causing the pain until I realized it was because my arm was constantly raised as I engraved. The stand is putting my shoulder in an awkward position for hours at a time, day after day, week after week, and causing the pain.
I've learned that I need to change my working position periodically. I've changed back to a conventional chair and am working at the level of the work bench and the pain in the shoulder is gradually disappearing. I plan to change between these two work positions monthly, to eliminate the stress.
"A change is as good as a rest."

Ergonomics of Wood Engraving

2007-10-07T08:39:00.000-06:00

I often engrave on a block during an eight, ten or sometimes twelve hour day, with breaks for lunch and dinner. A few years ago I began to experience back and neck pains and figured it had something to do with the way I was sitting at the work bench. I realized my back was straining as I leaned over the block to engrave and I remembered seeing an unusual chair at Simon Brett's studio in Marlborough, England. He told me then that it helped his back and I figured this might eliminate my back ache as well, so I bought one at a local office supply store.
When I sat in the "kneeling" chair with my butt on the upper pad and knees on the lower pad, and my back straight, my work bench was too low. I could see that I had to raise the work surface to keep my back straight. Old phone books and piled up sand bags weren't secure enough.

THE SURFACE OF BLOCKS

2007-05-21T07:49:00.003-06:00

Printing an engraved block in a press requires a block that is consistently level and finding an end-grain block which is level and truly flat is not easy. Most blocks I purchase have low spots and sometimes the different segments of the block are at slightly different levels. This is a problem when printing on a press because the ink and the pressure are less in the low areas. I solve this problem by sanding all the blocks I use before doing any engraving on them. I've mounted plate glass to a high work table in my studio, upon which I attach carborundum sand paper in three grits (100 to 400) with rubber cement. For larger blocks I butt two sheets of the same grit together. The sand paper mounted tightly to the flat glass gives a very even surface.

I set the block on the sandpaper and, with modest pressure, I work the block in a small circular motion, moving it over the sand paper, making sure the block stays within the edges of the sandpaper. I try to keep the pressure I use evenly distributed over the back of the block. Periodically I rotate the block so I'm not applying more pressure to one area than another. At intervals I use a small hand vacuum to keep the grit of the sand paper from clogging with sand dust. Wood dust is easily removed this way. But "Resingrave" clogs the sand paper more and this synthetic material is very difficult to remove. I have found nearly all Resingrave blocks to have uneven surfaces. The Resingrave block surface has a smooth "skin" and, when sanded, small pits, which seem to be caused by air bubbles in the synthetic solution, are exposed.

I pick the block up every now and then and I look at the block at eye level, holding the block toward a strong light source. The pattern of sanded and unsanded portions of the block are apparent this way. When the entire surface texture of the block looks the same it means the high surfaces have been sanded down to match the low areas. I move then to the finer grit paper and repeat the process.