Ingunn Thrainsdottir, our distributor in Iceland, is gathering work from her fellow artists including Thorhildur Laufey Sigurdardottir and Steinrun Otta Stefansdottir to be shown as part of “Women’s Works” at Rebecca Gallery. Ingunn emailed this week:

“We all live and work in the town of Egilsstadir, East Iceland, pop. 2.500. Today it’s covered with snow and ice, but sunny. The Red Bra is something we’re playing with as a name for the collective - women from icy Iceland wearing hot red bras!”

Ingunn graduated from the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design a few years ago, and has been encouraging the use of Japanese papers of all kinds back in her country. We are all eager to see the work that will come from this intriguing land from artists with these exotic names!

Boxes by Barbara Bunke. Image links to enlarged photo.

Other news this week came from around the world. Here are some boxes by Barbara Bunke of Sweden, little gems that will be in two exhibitions, the “Washi over Time” exhibit at The Japan Foundation, Toronto and “Books and Boxes from Around the World” at the Don Mills Public Library. Barbara will be busy teaching workshops and she’ll also be there at the Washi Bazaar offering up Swedish washi wares! Her bazaar mates will be from Belgium, England, Finland, Turkey and our innovative resilient friends who operate two excellent paper stores in Johannesburg. Come to the Bazaar and practise the language of your choice!

Box with Aoi Crest. Image links to enlarged photo.

From ancient Japan via David Pepper we were fascinated to see the antique paper artifacts he selected from his collection and business (Okame Japanese Antiques) in Windsor, Ontario. David is helping to put together the historical exhibit at the Japan Foundation, Toronto. Amongst the treasure trove were an Edo-period lacquered washi trunk (right), a persimmon-dyed washi chest weighing less than 2 pounds, “cardboard” made from layers of washi letters, accounting records, and other recycled washi. Oodles of woodblock-printed books, masks, a beautiful lacquered washi quiver for arrows, a Samurai shoulder pad made of washi, and a typical handful of original “Kleenex” pure kozo cut sheets, used by Edo people in case of colds, or for covering wounds. Through David, the Cranbrook Art Museum in Michigan is kindly lending us some other marvelous pieces including a washi (yes, washi) samurai hat! Therein lies another whole exhibition on washi at a major Art Museum some time in the future.

Detail of ‘Waiting’ by Irina Schestakowitch. Image links to enlarged photo.

A steady stream of images of work on washi to be included in the gallery shows flows in.

Detail of ‘Allan Gardens’ by Penelope Stewart. Image links to enlarged photo.

Two that are of special note are this one from Edward Day Gallery by Penelope Stewart, a drawing on mitsumata tissue (right) and this drypoint of Irina Schestakowitch from a series called “Waiting” (left). We are also honoured that Naoko Matsubara will have a show at Abbozzo Gallery in Oakville of her magnificent woodblock prints.

The colourful Infoguide showing locations of all galleries and events, and giving a glimpse of some of the art should be available within the next week. If you’d like to have some to encourage your friends to join the festivities, ­ or a poster to announce the event in your community, please ask. We’ll have 30,000 to distribute!

Next:­ Toronto in June beyond the Summit.

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!

Keijo Tapanainen, an artist member of Propeller Gallery, a prominent collective gallery on Queen Street where the action is, called last week to say he has rounded up 12 artist members who’d like to show work for the Summit. Strange as it seems to us who have been so focused on Japanese paper for over 25 years in Toronto, many of them have never used washi before. Seven came in today for a briefing and left half dazed, half inspired by looking at the varied work of other artists who have persevered with washi over the years.

A sample of encaustic monoprint by Milt Jewell. Image links to enlarged photo.

In that group were an encaustic painter, cyanotype printer, oil painter, Chinese calligrapher, watercolourist, drawer and industrial materials sculptor. All of them left with samples of washi to play with – some different weights and colours, but mostly with the deceptively plain-looking paper that holds such potential for creative types: kozo, and a little gampi. Exciting to see the possibility in their eyes and know that this will be the beginning of new and interesting paths for some.

Do you have digital paper?

A question we get a lot. Not our favourite because it is so hard to answer though the short answer is “Yes.” It’s such a BIG question and depends on so many expectations of the inquirer. Washi isn’t meant to compete with Epson paper, and truly if you want bright colour exactly as on the monitor, and perfectly clean crisp edges, why not use what is made for that purpose? But we have seen beautiful digital prints on toned gampi and fibrous kozo that speak on other levels – of quiet, of softness, of agelessness, of inner beauty and strength. So we are thrilled that Marilyn Lightstone has hung in there, after asking the question herself, to come up with some serenely energetic contemporary “scrolls” which combine her painting and her stunning photographs in digital print on gampi. Have a peek:

Detail of Marilyn Lightstone’s “Bush”. Image links to enlarged photo.

Washi slippers anyone?

Sara Fradkin who we know from years ago when she worked wonders with Japanese papers in over-the-top hats for our store window has re-surfaced and will offer a workshop at the Bata Shoe Museum on June 8. If you are coming to the Summit, or to Toronto anytime, you have to visit this specialized gem of a museum. “Wearable Washi Slippers” will be the title and she’ll put students through their paces to produce long-wearing, individually embellished kozo slippers. She is a creative genius I think. Wouldn’t it be fun if one of our guest papermakers took the workshop??

Lennox Contemporary Gallery

John Petcoff who owns this nice big gallery which will show several artists’ work in June, is also the generous half owner of Oyster Boy – a restaurant (again, on Queen Street West) known by all oyster lovers far and wide. (Mark that on your list too!) He has a tiny theatre in his back space complete with theatre seats he scored at some point. We are dying to use this space. One night we will hold a salon for artists, “What IS it about washi?” so that washiphiles can share their discoveries (and frustrations). And at another theatre night there last week, he met a couple from a theatre company who specialize in paper. That made the wheels dance. Now we have to meet them and organize a washi theatre event. Seems impossible with the time that’s left, but you and I know that NOTHING is. This is what I mean about how exciting it all gets.

Funding

Did I mention that we had hoped for some corporate funding to realize this dream the way we really wanted, but it didn’t happen? Well what seems to be happening maybe because of this, is that people are engaged by it, that we are doing it anyway. Many of the interesting smaller businesses in town are taking ads in our brochure and offering support in many ways. The galleries couldn’t be more keen and helpful.
Gorgeous chiyogami, also known as yuzen, comes in thousands of pattern and colour variations.Volunteers like Judith Fielder are amazing. She came in today with a replica of the exhibition space at The Japan Foundation for her part of the “Washi Over Time” exhibit.

This will be a tour of Japanese stencil patterning and how it migrated from textile to paper, culminating with a wallful of chiyogami and katazome-shi delights from people we know around the world. Know anyone who has something really unique they’ve done with chiyogami? There is always room for more. Judith showed us today this perfect “game” she invented to help people see how Japanese patterns work so well when they are placed together. It’s brilliant. You’ll have to come and see it at the Japan Foundation which will open the last weekend in May for the Doors Open weekend but of course will be featured during the Summit.