A CASE FOR ENGRAVING ON WOOD

I've always preferred to engrave on wood. I've tried Resingrave, Corian and other synthetics for various reasons, including curiosity and cost (creating a large wood engraving on end-grain wood can be quite expensive).  Each time I've used synthetics I've been dissatisfied with them. The chipping of the Resingrave, when using hand tools was my main objection to it. When I heard that the formula for Resingrave had been changed to eliminate the chipping problem I tried it again.  I use a power engraver (Foredom Micromotor) for the majority of the engraving I do.  Resingrave is basically a plastic and when the engraver bit is cutting through the plastic it creates a powder that clings to everything and is impossible to clean up. Have you ever tried to dispose of those foam "packing peanuts"? It's like that. Despite the change in formula, the static electricity remained a problem. So, I have a few synthetic blocks that sit on the shelf year after year.

I'm currently working on a series of small portraits. I'm calling the series "The Quotables" and these include, so far, Mark Twain, George Carlin and W.C.Fields. They're "The Quotables" because I'm also using the images on my line of letterpress printed cards, where I'm including some of the things these people have said that have been quoted and passed down to us. A week or so ago I decided to start a portrait of Groucho Marx and when I went to my storage of small blocks I noticed a couple of lonesome synthetics sitting there. I decided to try a Corian block that someone had given me to try out. Corian is a material manufactured primarily for counter tops, I believe. This 2 X 3 inch block of Corian was mounted to a piece of plywood to bring it to near type high. When I started running trial proofs of Groucho there were some low areas that weren't inking evenly and I added pieces of paper to the back of the block as make-ready to bring it level. This is common, even on end-grain blocks. I proof and print on a Vandercook SP-15 proofing press and I added a piece of paper to add pressure before doing some more engraving. I reached a point where I made the final decision that enough work had been done on the block and it was time to print an edition. One small little area at the bottom of the block needed a narrow slip of paper added to the back of the block and it was "good to go"!

I placed another sheet of print paper in the press and rolled the carriage over the block and ... "POP!"  I was stunned. This was one of those "S**T!" moments. I knew that sound and I knew the block had cracked! (I had heard that sound years ago when I was a guest artist at Wake Forest University and a graduate student and I were printing a block of mine on an intaglio press. The rollers on the press had been set too low.) My press is made for printing from this thickness. The block only had three or four thin pieces of paper added to the back and it was not too high for the setting of .918 of an inch. That crack shouldn't have occurred. But it did.

You can see the crack in the photo here, running horizontally through Groucho's moustache.

I'm not going to mess around, trying to figure out how to fill a crack in Corian. So, as they say: "Back to the drawing board". Only this time, on wood.

WHO'S CONNING WHO?

I suppose I was too cocky and shouldn't have shared my "Debbie from New York" story with the world on my blog. Perhaps that's what gave me away. Maybe "Debbie from New York", "Stan from California" and "Jon from Norway" and the other con artists who are conning artists, are sitting around reading blogs in their spare time and they came across my blog in which I described that I was trying to con them.  Maybe that's what made them give up and stop their con before it was finished.

Even if I hadn't read about the "refund" con I think I would have smelled a rat.  Who ever heard of anyone with their "own shipper" who is supposed to come and pick up the purchase? Nobody in their right mind would send a legitimate bank draft or money order for an expensive item, made out for an amount over the price by a ridiculous figure and then ask the seller to send them a bank draft for the over-payment. Of course there won't be a shipper who ever arrives to pick up the purchase. Debbie doesn't want the drawing. Debbie wants my refund of the overpayment.

If I receive another e-mail from a "George from Toronto" or "Paulo from Brazil" (Isn't it interesting how their middle names are always "from" and their last names are a city or a country?) I'll resist the temptation to share the story and I'll wait until I have their phony money order or bank draft framed and on my studio wall. Then I'll share the story with you!

"THE CHECK IS IN THE MAIL"

I can sense the tension in the air! You've all been waiting on the edge of your seats to read the finale. Well, it's been a month since "Debbie from New York" wrote that the check was in the mail and the check hasn't arrived yet.  My last move to try to see this scam of "Debbie's" work I've sent the following e-mail:

Dear Debbie from New York,
I have a request from a client to sell the drawing "Thunderpeek III". You offered to buy it and said you were sending the cheque. That was on September 12, 2012. Your cheque has not arrived. I thought I would notify you first, before selling the drawing, since I promised to sell it to you.

I will await your decision. If I don't receive an e-mail response from you in two days I will consider our arrangement cancelled.
Jim

The ball's in your court, Deb!

DEBBIE'S UPDATE

Here's the latest from "Debbie from New York":

Dear Jim,  Thanks for your response, i really appreciate your help and honesty. I'll get the check prepared and have it sent out to you asap.Then i'll let you know as soon as i have it sent to you. Kindly consider the piece sold to me and pls do take it off market.  Thanks and i'll talk to you soon, Debbie. Hmmmmmmmm?! Take it "off market"? I don't think so, Deb. Not just yet, anyway! No need to send a response to Deb. She/he knows I'm honest and wouldn't sell it out from under her/him. But wait! I wonder if she/he will go to my website and check? Y'think? Naw! She'll/he'll be too busy buying the other works for her/his new digs in South Africa.

MORE FROM "DEBBIE FROM NEW YORK"

Deb seems to be keen on buying my drawing and has given me final instructions. This is "her" latest message:
Jim,
I'm just reading your email now as I have been so busy all day preparing for the conference in the office,it starts this week. 
 Actually, my shipper should be in town sometime next week and will definitely be getting in touch with you for the pickup and also to inspect it for me.
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 South Africa this month as Im being transferred and Promoted. 
 As it is, I'm sending you check 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 have received and cashed the check, deduct your funds and PLEASE help me send the remaining funds to him(shipper). I will forward his contact details to you once you have received the payment.
 Now I'm concluding you are a responsible person and I can therefore entrust you with this arrangement.I'll let you know Immediately the check is sent out to you so you should be looking out for it.
Many thanks and talk to you soon,
 Debbie.
P.S: I can't find any address at the bottom of any of your e-mail response.

And here's my response to Deb:

Debbie,
My address is here in the logo.











What I am expecting and what I've learned when I originally called the police to ask about this scam, is that the con artist will send me a check and it will be for a greater amount than necessary. A much greater amount. When I contact the con artist and point out the mistake I will be instructed to send a money order or bank draft for the overage. In "Debbie from New York's" scam she is having me do essentially the same thing by paying the overage to "her" "shipper" and then I'll wait for the "shipper" to arrive to pick up the drawing. Only I'm not stupid enough to send money to the "shipper" and the "shipper" will never arrive. I plan to frame "Debbie from New York's" check and hang it on my studio wall. 

Stay tuned.

METHINKS ME SMELLS YET ONE MORE RAT!

If you've been following my various aromatic adventures of smelling rats, you might be interested in what (I think) is yet one more. If you haven't been following this line, of course you're free to move backwards through my blog entries (I don't put too many of them up) and check out the previous ones.

I received the following e-mail, titled "Thunderpeek III" (title of one of my drawings), a couple of weeks ago:
Hi,
My name is Debbie Walker, from New York. I hope this message finds you well.I was going through some of your works and my eyes caught this particular piece, I'm interested in purchasing it as I'm moving to a new apartment this month.Please let me know if you still have the piece available, if yes let me know and it's final price and more information about it. I will be waiting to read from you.

Regards,

Debbie.

As you can see from my previous posts on this subject, there's a similarity in the content of this message. This one contains fewer spelling and syntax errors than some of the previous ones I've received. My answers to the previous ones have shown suspicion on my part, resulting in the rat ending the correspondence and going back into its hole. I hope this time to keep the bait out there and get the rat on the hook. I doubt very much that the rat is interested in my website (other than a way of getting in touch with the "mark"... me) and I doubt "Deb" will follow the link to this blog and discover that I'm on to "her". 
Should this person turn out to be a legitimate client (which I doubt) I will have "stepped in it" royally, as they say.

I was about to go on a road trip, so I sent "Debbie Walker from New York" (aka "Stan from California" or "Jon from Norway") the following:
I am out of the studio for two weeks but will answer your message as soon as I return.
Thanks for your patience.
Jim

"Deb" responded:

Okay. I'll be waiting to hear from you.

When I returned a couple of days ago I sent "her" this:
Hi, Debbie Walker from New York,
I've returned to the studio and can now respond to your request. The piece is still available and is priced at $3500.00 Canadian plus shipping and packing (unframed). When you supply me with your address I can calculate the cost of shipping and packing and I will let you know the total cost.
Thank you for your interest in my work,
Jim

"Deb" answered:
Jim,
Thanks for your prompt reply.
Unfortunately, I'm on my way to France on an official trip(I'm a marketing Executive) and wont be back for another two weeks.
 If you'd like to know, Im relocating to South Africa soon and I'm trying to gather some good stuff for my new abode. Im buying yours amongst others,quickly! before someone else grabs it.So, I'll arrange to send you payment ASAP.
However, I'll have to notify my shipper who's helping me move my stuff to get set for the pickup of the piece from your place as I MIGHT be delayed depending on how things goes.
PS: In the mean time, kindly get back to me with your contact address and also your phone# so I can get in touch with my Bank to get a check prepared and have it mailed out to you right away.

My reply today:
Debbie,

My address has been included at the bottom of each of the e-mail responses I've sent you. But I don't understand this shipper arrangement you describe. The normal procedure is for me to send the work to the purchaser. I can send it by courier to arrive by air if you wish. I just need to know your address so as to calculate the cost and add to the price of the drawing. The drawing will be unframed and will not weigh very much, and it will be in a secure container.

Thank you,

Jim

And that's where things sit at the moment. Stay tuned.

Screenwriter/Author, Jason Brink created a short video in my studio

HOW THE SMELLY RATS WORK

The scam that Stan and Jon and all their buddies use is fairly easy to spot. They contact an internet seller expressing an interest in buying an item, usually a high-end item like a boat or a car (therefor Jon wants to make a "list" of the many cheap wood engravings he wants so the total figure is jacked up). Stan and Jon say they have "shipping agents" who will pick it up (but there aren't any such agents who ever show up), which puts the seller's mind at ease. Then when the seller receives a check it is way over the amount needed for the purchase. The buyer responds by saying he made a mistake, so he instructs the seller to simply deposit the check and then send the buyer a cashier's check for the overpayment. This works for the scammer if the international exchange of the fake check he sent is slower than the refund check sent to him.

I SMELL ANOTHER RAT

Back in March of 2010 I started posting a description of my lively correspondence with "Stan" from California (although I suspected he was from Nigeria).  Now I think I smell another rat.  I received an e-mail from "Jon Rosberg From Norway" who wanted to buy something from me (notice he doesn't mention what he wants, nor does he know what I have to offer).  He also adds spice to the bait by hinting that he will supply me with a shopping "list" of what he wants, if I would just be so kind as let him know the address of my website!

Here's what Jon Rosberg From Norway wrote:
Good Day, I'm Jon Rosberg From Norway.I want to place an order and i know the difficulties encountered when shipping internationally,But that will not be a problem because i am registered with a shipping company which I've used severally times without any delay nor damage.Before i place the order,i want to inform you that i will be making the payment with my Mc/Visa cards because as for now i can only make payment with my US credit card account information,so if it's okay by you kindly get back to me with the contact details and please reconfirm your website so as to know if I'm right with the site.I awaiting your swift response so as to list out the items needed. Malin-Da-Store Th. Owesens gate 35, N-7044 TRONDHEIM, Norway. Telephone: + 4773825300 Telefax: + 4773515704 Warmest Regards, Jon.


The first red flag that came up when I read the e-mail was that Jon didn't express what he was interested in, nor did he even know my website!  Then, of course, the other red flag was one I had seen before.  Jon, like Stan, is "registered with a shipping company".  I'm sure, if Jon answers my e-mail at all he will tell me he doesn't need to have me ship it to him because his shipping company will pick up "the merchandise".  As far as Jon's method of payment goes, I've heard of McNuggets, McDouble and McMuffins, but I've never heard of a McVisa.  I'm afraid that wouldn't work for me.  Then I googled the address and found it is actually in Trondheim Norway and is a company called Q Free ASA which is in the business of traffic management.  Their phone number has the first six numbers included in Jon's e-mail but it seems Norway doesn't divide its phone numbers in the same way as ours (first three is the area code).  I first thought 477 had been the area code and it would have been in Leon Mexico.  There were also links on the Google results which were to websites dealing with scam e-mails.  When I brought one up on the screen there was a copy of a letter with the very same wording as the letter I received, only another name, not Jon!  It's possible this is Stan again or one of his Nigerian Mafia cronies.

So, in the spirit of sharing with one and all, here is my response to Jon:
Good day Jon Rosenberg from Norway,
Thank you for your interest in my work.  There are no difficulties shipping internationally at all.  I only accept payment through PayPal.  Please let me know which work you would like to purchase.  As soon as you tell me your address, I can calculate the shipping charges to add to the cost.  Then, when you have made the payment of the cost of the work, plus the shipping to PayPal and I have received notice of payment from PayPal, I will ship the piece to you.  If that works for you we can proceed.

Sincerely,
Jim


Stay tuned, folks!

ADDICTION TO TECHNOLOGY

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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?

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

I don't think this needs an explanation.

First day of Spring

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

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

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

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

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!