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QUEST: 1,000 Woodcuts Update
Fall 2002 -  168 completed
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I kicked off the Fall season in August and so far it's been fun! Funny how as exhausting as art festivals are, there is a tinge of addiction that makes me miss them dearly when I'm working in the studio. Anyhow, there will be absolutely no room for missing anything because it's full throttle from here on out.
Here is the remaining schedule: http://www.1000woodcuts.com/exhibits/exhibit.html

If per chance you can't make it to any exhibits, there is always the web site. With so many prints and only so much space in my tiny traveling booths, I decided to also put some small prints up on EBay, just to have an additional way to keep the house from becoming a "ware" house. You can get to them by going to the front page of my web site and clicking on Best Deals.
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New Stuff:
An engraving based on a poem by John Muir:
http://www.1000woodcuts.com/fullsize/timberlinetraveler.html
Here is the poem, as soon as I read it the image of a bristlecone in the wind came to my head:
"It has been said that trees are imperfect men, and seem to bemoan their imprisonment rooted in the ground.  But they never seem so to me. I never saw a discontented tree.
They grip the ground as though they liked it, and though fast rooted they travel about as far as we do.
They go wandering forth in all directions with every wind, going and coming like ourselves, traveling with us around the sun two million miles a day, and through space heaven knows how fast and far!"
-John Muir

And two puzzle woodcuts,
http://www.1000woodcuts.com/fullsize/bebiendolaluna.html
http://www.1000woodcuts.com/fullsize/bajolasombra.html

These puzzle things are a lot of fun to make. Although the preparation
involved is a bit like a brain-teaser, when you pull a multi-color print in
one pass, the fun begins! Basically I cut the block into the pieces that make up each color and then I ink each color separately. I assemble the puzzle and print.

Almost forgot! I now have quite a few blocks that are ready to fly the coop. I do hate to see them go, but I also enjoy giving them to someone else. You can preview them here:
http://www.1000woodcuts.com/galleries/blocksgallery/blocks2001.html

Quotes and Diary entries:
http://www.1000woodcuts.com/1000woodcuts/quotes.html
http://www.1000woodcuts.com/1000woodcuts/diary.html

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Thoughts and Ramblings
At art festivals I get asked quite a bit about the way I go about how I do all this crazy stuff. Well, here is how I work:

First, I have no prepared design, so the mentally grueling part is deciding what to do. Not being short on ideas, I first decide which one I want to tackle next, then I draw right on the block. Right at the moment I have a blank block, some little human models dancing in my head and I'm drawing a new concept which exists nowhere, at this point not even in my own mind. As the wood grain speaks to me (I'm not flaky-- it does!) and the drawing proceeds, some of that brain pain starts subsiding and soon a drawing is born on the block.
The drawing right now looks sketchy, a mere collection of lines and shapes, sometimes following the wood grain, sometimes striking out on their own. At this point, the idea is laughable and fairly unsophisticated. I suffer because I don't know how it will turn out; I don't like preliminary drawings, I don't like strictly following a concept that exists already. >>I don't cut reproductions of my drawings<<, I make original woodcut prints which _to me_ means the thing isn't born until the ink goes down on the paper for the first time.

Then the carving begins, more precisely, I draw with chisels and gouges. Carving is a continuation of the drawing, the image changes as I cut, demanding compositional changes here, some light over there, a balance of dark everywhere...The "energy" lines that have become part of my prints don't get pre-drawn, they appear as the print acquires energy.
I'm more like a painter with chisels: a few strokes here, back up, what does it need? no, no, no, that area is too dark! (thank goodness, because if it were too light I'd be in trouble), bring out that shape, recede that arm into the background, where the heck is the sky! open the sky for crying out loud woman! ...and so on... I really do yell at myself during this process until it's finished. I trust myself with my marks at this point; I have no other choice. I proof sometimes, but rarely, usually with a darkened block I can pretty much tell; proofing would ruin the anticipation. Since I have no exact pre-conception of what I want, I usually readily accept the delicious surprise that is the first print.

The brain rests, the artist rests, and I look forward to the mechanical ways of the printer. I used to suffer this part too, until I understood the materials well. Failures become lessons and practice makes...prints!
After some preparations and initial adjustments, here I roll out the ink, ink the block, place paper on block, turn the wheel of the press (or bear down on the baren), inspect and hang the print, roll out the ink, ink the block, place paper on block, turn the wheel, inspect and hang, roll out the ink, ink the blo--and so on. Next time I look at the clock, 6 hours have passed, I'm dizzy from low blood sugar and a delicious 30-60 prints (depending on size) are hanging pretty. Pure Zen-like mechanics.
After about the 20th one, the 40th, the movements become like driving on a highway: it isn't exactly "easy" or "requiring no attention to detail", but after a while and it's tough to tell whether it was me driving all the way. Printing is meditative, beautifully repetitive. Sometimes I feel like the fairies of printmaking take over and guide my hands through the process of printing. Music is always in the background.
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Quote(s) of the Day
“I take a simple view of living. It is, keep your eyes open and get on with it.”
--Sir Laurence Olivier

“Life is like a coin. You can spend it any way you wish, but you only spend it once.”
--Lillian Dickson

Thanks for listening and health to all,
Maria

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Maria Arango, Printmaker
Las Vegas  Nevada  USA
http://www.1000woodcuts.com
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maria(AT)mariarango.com
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