Last week Sigrid Blohm and I left still-snow-laden Toronto to attend the Southern Graphics Conference in Richmond Virginia where the apple and cherry blossoms were in full swing. A thousand printmakers gathered to hear lectures and panel discussions, attend demonstrations and openings, show their own work in the Portfolio sessions and buy ink and Japanese paper from the likes of Graphic Chemical and us. We were pleased to learn that Susan, the third generation co-owner of Graphic Chemical, will come with her family to attend the Summit and learn more about Japanese paper. Maybe we can entice them to take part in the Washi Bazaar with some of their inks and tools that make printmaking happen.
Detail of a Debora Oden mixed media etching. Image links to enlarged photo.
While there, we met two washi-loving printmakers whose work we have been totally engaged by for some time. Tanja Softic won first prize in the Kochi Triennial Exhibition of Prints a few years ago. Debora Oden’s multi-layered blanket-like work has stopped us all in our tracks since it was first viewed at last year’s conference. We are hoping to have both prominent artists come to the Summit to give artists’ talks, exhibit their work and join in the events. The will is certainly there. A few forms later, and it should be a GO!
During the Portfolio session which gave an impressive 450 printmakers a chance to show their work on tables in an amzing old mosque converted into a theatre, I found Jillian Sokso’s chine-colle intaglio prints. These are colourful layered prints of single vulnerable-looking but elegant birds. She too will send up work to be shown at Proof Studio Gallery in a show called “No Border: U.S. and Canadian printworks unite.”
What was noticeable there was the multiplicity of technique on a single print. Etching plus silkscreen plus woodblock prints plus drawn lines plus painting for example create many layers in one piece. Because of washi’s great absorbency and resilience, it works well for highly worked prints like these. Seems increasingly difficult to categorize an artist as a lithographer or intaglio artist or even simply as a printmaker.The naming lines blur and the effects deepen. Artists indeed.
Preview of George Walker’s new Book of Hours. Image links to enlarged photo.
Back in Toronto, George Walker whose hair-raising book called Book of Hours, a hand-printed wordless novel of 100 wood engravings, will be exhibited at Lennox Contemporary, has been hard at it. Though he has used many different Japanese papers over the years in his prolific career, this book is being printed on heavy-ish Yuki gampi paper that he is using for the first time. Here is what he says about it:
The ink loves the washi like water loves a thirst. Each impression on the yuki gampi absorbs the rich black ink with a magnetic attraction. The ink yells, “drink me” and the paper responds dutifully.
George Walker at the press. Image links to enlarged photo.
And here he is, this uber-popular teacher/artist/author/Art Director for Firefly Books. You can meet Geordie at the Summit doing a demo at the Lennox gallery where you can buy individual prints from the book, and also at the Washi Bazaar where you can pick up his Woodcut Artists’ Handbook (pic. From George’s site) and some of his earlier small prints.
Among the many visitors to the warehouse this week was a young artist named Andrea Gader. Thoughtful beyond her years, well-travelled, and clearly an emerging talent, Andrea was recommended as the perfect person to consider for the lobby space in the Gladstone Hotel. Her work is mainly sculptural and her material mainly paper. She began using Japanese paper during her undergraduate years at the University of Kansas and has since shown some dynamic multi-pieced hanging paper sculptures that change as they are viewed from below at different angles. These talents combined with an attitude that says “Yes” readily means that we can look forward to something very special from her in June. Here is an earlier piece, made from machinemade Japanese paper and exhibited in Propeller Gallery.
We are thrilled to learn that washi-loving visitors will come from Belgium, Finland and Turkey! Awesome. Oh, and one last note that is very exciting: Indexg Gallery who will show sculptural and drawing work at the Summit, has just launched a bed & breakfast above the gallery smack dab in the middle of the action. Check it out if you are an artist and want a super place to stay whenever you are in Toronto. You’ll dine at breakfast right in the gallery!