Digital BW, The Print

Cleavis:
As I keep saying ---- "We are just too damn critical."

Like most artists I work with - they fall in love with their work and it
takes on a life of its own. When we as printers ( doing other peoples
reproductions ) don't handle the image just right we get accused of abusing
their child.

I for one get a little tired of all the fuss. Most of the stuff I see is
good for "sofa art" but not much else.

 defn: "sofa art" Good enough art to hang on the wall until you get tired of
it then you put it on a yard sale.

I would also be willing to say most of the art we as individuals create is
"sofa art," even though we would never to admit it. Our egos just could not
stand that much honesty.

Jim Davis
http://www.visual-artists.com
davis.jarthur@...
Fine art printmaker


----- Original Message -----
From: <lyonscox@...>
To: <DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Friday, October 05, 2001 10:00 AM
Subject: [Digital BW] Chuckle and historical question


> Can't help but chuckle & _SKIP_ if you are not feeling philosophical.
>
> THE CHUCKLE
> I'm pretty sure I can set up a negative, mix Amidol and print a 16x20
> in less than an hour, clean up too.  Each art media has its nuances,
> we learn to love them.  Amusing that silver printing is less size
> dependent to time, than procedure.  This aside from the 19th Century
> photographers who carried mammoth plates in their wagon afar afield.
>
> HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE ARCHIVAL
> Couple of years ago I saw VanGogh drawings.  They are a lovely shade
> to brown tones & if I remember correctly, historians believe they
> were nearly purple originally.
>
> I am very fond of Paul Klee and Jawlensky's work in the early 20th
> Century.  They can be expensive (I don't have a collection) and they
> can also be oil on cardboard...talk about archival issues.
>
> We look at watercolors or pastels under 15 watts of light in the
> Louvre.  Marvel at buildings that have sat outside in the sun for
> centuries (though our last century has been the hardest on them too,
> archivally speaking).
>
> WHERE THE MODERN DILEMMA STARTS:
>       with the advent of archeology as a science (perhaps).
>
> Edward Weston's platinum prints can be expensive, but he loved silver
> prints and made striking images in both.  He also complained about
> not finding the right paper for the image at times.  Told people they
> would just have to wait.
>
> When is it art?  Who brought upon us the impeding desire to achieve
> an archival product?  (Curators, whose job it is to preserve, not
> create & sometimes the artistic process makes their job a lot harder -
>  that's my guess)
>
> Is it more important that it be archival than whether the image is
> good?  Seems if you make a great image, someone will figure out how
> to care for it.  No need to stop tinkering, just remember why you are
> tinkering - to achieve that artistic vision I presume.
>
> I personally need to raise my head when I tinker too much, means I'm
> avoiding making something that I will have to evaluate with no one
> else to fault than myself.
>
> Cleavis in AZ
> (Sorry, I occassionally mis-spell words and lapse into this type of
> thinking...it makes up for my lack of tinker motivation ;-)
>
>
>
>
>
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