Living Prints® Woodcut On-line

Preface

In my e-mail message on the Prints-L (mailing list), I asked people to visualize a 17th century printing house in Nanking, China, called the "Ten Bamboo Studio." I do this myself, assisted by the book of that title presented by Joseph Vedlich. The English translation was published by Crescent Books (a division of Crown Publishers, NY) in 1979. It inspired this project. In the snapshot below I am holding my copy of the book.

The apparatus for showing a woodcut in progress on-line is located in a small room in my house in Seattle, Washington, six blocks north of the Space Needle. The snapshot will give you an impression of the apparatus (and me). By prefacing the actual woodcut process this way, I hope to orient your sense of the place of the work.

As a printmaker, I love the way process and tools complement free fine art printmaking. I love the tradition of beauty in prints. There is more than meets the eye--an elegant relationship among art, technology and economics--in my humble opinion. I call it "living prints" and to me it is the locus of beauty. - Bill H. Ritchie, Jr. Nov. 24, 1995

Select frequently asked questions.

Original Text of the e-mail:
A woodcut on-line is about to begin. The apparatus is almost ready. This message is for the preface. Before you switch from this e-mail to the URL for living prints, please join me in this visualization exercise:
Imagine a house in Nanking, China, around the year 1619. The house is that of the master engraver Hou Yue-ts'ong. He has gathered several painter friends to publish woodcuts. They call the house, "The Studio of the Ten Bamboos".
Historians suggest that their intent was to familiarize people with the works of the old master painters--at that time it may have been an uncommon use for woodblock printmaking. The translation of water-based painting on paper or silk to woodblock printing required elegant technical innovation and esthetic awareness.
In your imagination, please leave the house in 17th Century and fast-forward to the present, moving your focus to Seattle, Washington. Picture the Space Needle and fly six blocks north to my house where the apparatus you are about to see is located.
The purpose of creating a Preface to the woodcut on-line is to help orient you to the Living Prints woodcut series on the World Wide Web. The house where I live and work is not big; the spot where I set up the apparatus is very small. There is standing room for only 4 or 5.
Welcome to my Perfect Studios!

Note: Equipment for this project is from the Living Museum and School of Cyber Arts Crafts and Design.
Living Prints is a registered trademark of Bill H. Ritchie, Jr.