24 November 2008

Hanga Workshop Report

This past weekend I taught moku hanga for the first time at Zea Mays Printmaking in nearby Florence, MA. There were 9 participants and we had a lot to do in just two short days, so it was a jam-packed weekend. I asked the students to come with several copies of an image prepared to size so that we could get right down to business.

Zea Mays is a great environment for a class. The studio is in an old factory building with large windows and sunlight streaming in. We had a big table for demonstrations:

DemoTable

And each student got their own table to work on:

Busy
Front to back: Martye, Kim, Adele

Most of the participants came with a lot of art experience, and many had done other forms of printmaking. There was a lot to learn all around.

Kim
Kim Rosen, another Northampton illustrator

Leslie
Leslie Moore, an artist who does animal and pet portraits in ink and black and white woodcut, came down from Maine.

HelpingEachOther
It was great to see the group start to bond and I was particularly touched when I noticed Fran Kidder, a local painter, helping Dayna Talbot, a painter from eastern MA, with her kento.

I spent most of the weekend just wandering from table to table, troubleshooting problems when needed and just enjoying watching these 9 women discover the intricacies of moku hanga.

Puzzling
Puzzling with Kristen over her first block.

DaynaKeyblock
Dayna carving an intricate keyblock.

AdrienneSarah
Adrienne discovers finger printing! Sarah, seated behind Adrienne, carved just two simple blocks but experimented with them so that no two prints were quite the same.

LeslieBarening
Leslie wielding a baren.

Unfortunately I couldn't concentrate on photographing, so I didn't get a picture of each person's print. If any of you who participated read this post and want to send me a photo of your print to add, please do -- I'd love to have it. Missing are Martye's print (an ocean scene with a very interesting overlay pattern), Fran's (very loose and expressionist, like her paintings), Dayna's (mountain scene), and Kim's (woman with flowing hair). Here are a few shots I was able to get:

KristenPrint
Kristen

AdellPrints
Adele

AdriennePrint
Adrienne used a simple keyblock image with color fills.

SarahPrint
Sarah

LesliePrint
Leslie

KimBlock
A carved keyblock by Kim.

Thanks to you nine wonderful women who came to the workshop and thank you to Zea Mays studio for hosting us so well.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thank you Annie! You are a wonderful teacher and it was a fantastic learning experience! -Kim

d. moll, l.ac. said...

Looks like a great weekend!

Leslie Moore said...

I had a blast at your workshop, Annie, and my head is just swimming with Moku Hanga ideas. In fact, I must have spent half the night combining colors and woodblocks in my dreams. You've given me so much to work towards. Thank you for sharing your expertisse!

Ellen Shipley said...

This looks like great fun. I love it. 8-]

Annie B said...

Thanks. We did have a blast.

Kristen Dolloff said...

I'm highly amused by our "puzzling" poses... glasses, check, hand to face, check. haha! I had a great time and can't wait to do it again. Thanks Annie!

Dayna Talbot said...

Annie....Thank you so much for a great class....I finally have had time to process everything! I had never done woodblock carving before and found this method so interesting!
You gave us so much info in so little time....you are inspiring!

Many Thanks...

Dayna

Anonymous said...

The workshop looks like great fun. Some day I would like to try this medium - perhaps I'll take a workshop from you some day! In the late '60's and early '70s, my parents collected the woodblock prints of Hiroyuki Tajima. My sibs and I now each have one or two of these prints on our walls. In case you are not familiar with his work, here's a link to a print and a bio:
http://www.ohmigallery.com/Sales/Bin/Tajima-01.htm
He also studied dyeing, and apparently would brush intensely colored dyes over areas in the rich, dark prints. This may explain the luminosity of the holes and dots that are part of his visual language.

Annie B said...

Kit, thanks so much for the link to Hiroyuki Tajima. Beautiful work. I had heard of Japanese printmakers using dyes but never saw examples of it. Looks like he's also doing collagraphs, where the plate is built up with applications of substances like plaster or various objects. Always something new to try :)