Thinking About Images

Posted on by Sandy Webster

Paducah sketchbook crow print page
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I am having several thoughts about how to use images. The use of computer altered photographs only works for me when they are needed for illustration purposes. In other words paired with the text of a poem or other linear narratives. They seem to require more than just computer manipulation to be associated with the maker. They need a context that reveals the particular artist’s voice. Otherwise they seem to be so much about the technology and not the maker and become ubiquitous in a way that I wonder if I haven’t seen it before.

In reworking some of my wood blocks this week for the garden book, I looked at previous bindings that I have done and how I used the images to pair with the text. Small poetry books on Australia required me altering my own photographs via computer technology to get the “colored etching” look that I wanted to go with the narratives. Their bindings could be pulled out to view the vast landscapes of Australia which was another choice made to fit the content.

Webster AusPoem2
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Because the images are full of details that speak to the land of Australia, they are placed to the right and take precedence over the words. Whereas in other poetry books I have done, the simple block prints are only there in service to the stories and are continually placed to the left side throughout the book. It is a question of what is the priority I think.

Small Owning Stones book open
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owning stones text page
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Here are samples of how that changes. In illustrating my poem, “Stone Stories”, I made small wood engravings of some of my small stone collection and slit the left hand side to hold the images as the book is read left to right one page at a time or in this case can be pulled out into one long line of image alternating with text.

In the one below it the engravings were hand printed in conjunction with a collograph in its likeness at the same time. There was absolutely no room for error here or I had to start over. The text of the poem appears on the concertina binding that comes through the spine and is held in place. The viewer can not pull this book out but sees two images while reading two pages front and back. Obviously there was an extremely small edition of three of this one. And the one above was easier to make an edition of not more than six. The illustrations and text fit with each other in both cases.

But here is a sample of how I used altered images another way.

bamboobook
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I was only interested in designing a binding that closed around the idea of a bamboo garden. I copied a photo of the bamboo into the computer and made several simple black and white copies after it was altered, back then it was a choice called “outline only”. Then I hand colored them and cut and pasted together in a long strip. Next I randomly made folds so that some of the bamboo came forward and others stayed back. It too can be pulled out to give the sense of standing in the bamboo forest. But the main thing for me was the bamboo suggesting closure that catches on itself. I followed it up with water garden book with a lotus as a closure and a sunflower closing another about what is behind a garden gate. They were fun to do and I learned a lot while playing with those ideas.

And one more way I have used prints.

Joe' class=
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I used the coffee bag from a local coffee shop and one of his coffee stirrers in the binding of a blank journal for the owner and his assistant. On the inside cover I used a collograph print that I still had from undergraduate school. When I originally made these prints they were in a series of all the ways I had been served coffee done on small plates and then printed in a spaced line across the paper.

The point of all this posting of images and books and thoughts about computer generated imagery is that I am going to tackle something totally different and try to get my garden book using the wood block images to open up into three sections that make the viewer feel they are actually in the garden. I plan to cut away some of the small images to be spaced in front of the background images. I have no idea if it will work nor do I have a plan for binding this small edition. All I do know is that it will take careful planning with measurements and functionality. More on this when I proceed.

Now I am off to the North Carolina Soils and Water Conservation International Conference to introduce others to earth pigments and printmaking.

 

 

 

 

 

Teaching Workshops

Posted on by Sandy Webster

cropped owl
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There is a very big discussion going on now about the use of other instructors work and teaching materials going on right now. It is sad that we have to go over this so many times and even sadder still how some of us want to justify the practice. I saw this on a post I shared on facebook, “If you don’t want your work, techniques and processes taught by others, then don’t put them out there.”

Really?!

Are artists/craftsmen supposed to spend all that time and not put their work out there? Putting it out there is what is making a living for many of them. Teaching workshops on how they got to that point is also a source of income for them. So yes, we are going to put it out there.

Where there is a problem is with those who do not put the efforts into developing their own work when it is so much easier to just copy what is there. They might feel entitled to whatever the instructor has done by simply enrolling in a class. It is all there for them to use as they see fit.

So let’s look at how easy this is to do by taking some examples of popular workshops being taught in venues that cater to classes with “product” as the goal. Note that I am saying the reason the students enroll is because they are assured that they will make at least so many of “these things” in an allotted time. Now if the instructions are handed out with each step toward that goal made perfectly clear, (preferably with illustrations by way of drawings or better yet, photographs), there is a certain guarantee that those goals can be met…..in the class and long after it’s over. Add to that, to make sure everyone is totally happy; all the same materials are included. In other words, in a book arts workshop, all ten students will have three blank journals with a mass-appeal decorative paper cover and marbled endpapers. How simple is that?

And now you will likely have a percentage of that class planning on ways to alter what they learned by redoing the handout, changing to another size book with different popular papers and preparing their proposals on the way home from class. I know this sounds cynical. But in the field of book arts it is easy to do. Most of the techniques of book binding are pretty well known and well documented via instructional manuals, internet and the friends who showed you how to do it last week when they took a class you couldn’t attend.

In a perfect world it would be nice to credit their instructor as they pass on what they learned, but seriously, were their instructors the ones who thought up these books in the first place? Not likely. So much has been out there for so long now; it is a bit difficult to pin that information down unless it is an exceptionally well-known person in the field. That is why I have seen few people take these unique workshops and then go out and teach it. Personally I would rather buy one of those instructors’ books than have a copy with my own name in the back. Some might even be so proud of their work done in that instructor’s style and class that they will enter it into a juried exhibit; which is another violation of ethics that seems ridiculous to still be happening. And still others have told me in the process of taking a class from one of those instructors with a well-known style that they learn so much by watching his process.

That is a big difference….teaching a process…..not a product. By taking a class based on process over product so much of what we learn can be applied to our own studio practices. We are not overly concerned by how the end result looks or for that matter if there even is a physical result when class is over.

Those who teach painting, printmaking, weaving and other technique-based classes don’t seem to have the same problems as those who teach toward a specific product. You simply can’t guarantee that ten students are going to make the same lovely watercolors, well executed editions or number of fine scarves by the end of the class. There are too many variables based on the abilities of each student. But each and every one of them will have learned the processes they need to be familiar with to get better at what they are doing. And shouldn’t that be enough? How many of these students do you think are going to be able to take these classes one time and plan their proposals to teach it on the way home?

 Not very many.

They will need to spend much more time in their studios to even come close to being able to consider teaching these techniques. Of course, some instructors can help them get there sooner by giving out specific well-illustrated handouts but there is nothing like experience to help out the student who has questions and expects answers.

The mistake, the BIG mistake that artist/craftsmen make is thinking that they need to teach their signature work. ….the pieces that have made them recognizable in their field…..the one piece that potential students have seen in publications, on the internet and in fine galleries….and is therefore guaranteed to fill their classes. It is too bad to see this unique work cease to be; seeing it offered up by someone from the class or someone who figures it out from a video or photograph. It’s not the same, but close enough, close enough to even use the originator’s name and say it is an “homage” to the them, their inspiration.

This has never happened to me that I can remember. Well there was that time over thirty years ago when someone copied a little book I had paid a printer to do on basket making. They copied each page, stapled them together and sold them for more than my $6.50. My printer told me to use his lawyer who sent the person a letter to stop and desist doing this. And I got a letter from them saying I had ruined their career. I had put it out there; they had bought a copy and made their own. They were entitled or so they thought.

Now there is nothing I do that someone wants to copy. My exhibition work is too involved, my book forms follow their content, and my sculpture uses pieces that I don’t even know where it came from; and all of it tries to keep up with a mind coming up with ideas it honestly thinks need to be fixed in a visual form.

As for myself when it comes to teaching, I keep the class description full of process and little if any mention of pieces produced in the allotted time. I never give handouts other than a syllabus of each day’s goals for morning and afternoon. I encourage them to take notes if they want something in print because they will be better at using the words that will make what they are doing clear for later use. I used to hand out a bibliography because there were so many books available on the subjects  relating to my workshops like “collections”, “containment”, “space”, etc., but now there are too many and who reads books that much anymore?

But once the students arrive and are looking at me to share some incredible insight, I ask what they, each one of them individually, wants from the class. Then I proceed with seeing that they get it. It’s the way I teach. We are all going to learn together how to get the results we want and all the possibilities we can on how to get there.

So this is just about all I have to say on the subject other than it is too bad that so much of others’ efforts are so easily taken for granted and used for the self-promotion of those unwilling to put in the time to make their own mark.

 

Remembering Workshops in Australia

Posted on by Sandy Webster

learning board 2
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I am planning my eleventh trip to teach in Australia. It will likely finish with a six day master class titled, “Marking Places and Making Spaces”. I am looking forward to going back, looking forward to teaching Australian students. They immerse themselves so much in the classes I teach there. This image is one I took of part of a white board in a class I taught there in 2007. I like to capture the essence of workshops that I teach by recording what I drew there to help a student understand what I was talking about. So much easier to have a marker and board to illustrate the possible forms for containment. There is the pentimento of what was important the day before that is a constant reminder of how we alter our ideas and how we want to hold them…..a book? a basket? a box? or another form dictated by the very subject and our reaction to its importance.

During an un-needed point in the very class this and other photos of the white board were taken from, I found the following notes in my sketchbook of that time. Here is an excerpt that perfectly describes my times with Australian students.

Notes from 2007 on Teaching in Australia

“Fourteen of them are here and I interview them all to find their personal direction and get them to contain their passions to a manageable  place that has lids, doors, pages, covers, bags and baskets – how much of all this do they want to conceal or reveal. Some of those working with the personal stay quiet and have the materials needed. Others might ask my input on materials and form. Then they, too, go quiet and leave me out of their next decision. Now I am only the direction sign.

I envy them at these moments of discovery, adjusting, learning and note-taking.  So I busy myself with making another sample, drawing and writing on the board, and try not to hover too close to them.

Later I will make the rounds again, one by one, to see if I am needed or not. If I am, it is usually a technical problem, easily solved while they let me handle their work and materials.  They will also share why their work is taking a particular form. How it all fits around some thing that matters to them.

This is the gift they give to me – letting me in to help make the spaces and places for things that matter.”

notes on board lo res
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More on Teaching

Posted on by Sandy Webster

Cropped-Robert-Curiosity cabinet blog B large image
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Another “gift” from students is how they respond to your way of teaching. The woman who sent the lovely book from Australia asked if she had my permission to teach it to someone else. That is a very considerate and thoughtful thing to ask. Some students will take whatever is being taught and offer it to their own students the following week as if they had worked it all out over several attempts in as many years and filled waste bins in the process of getting it down.

I don’t get many of those types in my classes because I try to stay away from product and technique based workshops. There are times when that can’t be helped, when it is a specific technique that needs to be learned to take it to the next and more interpretive level. I will introduce them to the tools, materials and steps that they need to be familiar with and how to use them. And in so doing I also show students the tricks that I learned along the way to help in the process. It is how I learned what I am showing them. First I took an introductory workshop, read a book, went online, made something up, then spent copious hours in the studio perfecting and personalizing and practicing. All of that time goes into what I am teaching, how I am going to answer their questions, make suggestions, give encouragement and share ideas.

Quite often I begin a class by asking what they want to do. What do they really want to do in this particular class. How do they want to spend their time. Then I tell them it is my job to get them to those goals or at least on a focused path toward them. The more varied the goals are, the more exciting the class is for all of us. The more everyone is going to learn and remember.

There are many students that require easily read handouts and only goal is seeing similar end results for everyone. If I do get asked to teach something like that, I suggest that the potential student go on the internet and find what they are looking for and save their money. There is so much out there in the way of instruction toward mastering a technique or making something that not only will give them the desired product but the pleasure of learning how to do it. No instructor need be present or paid.

I received this “gift” last week as well:

“Hi Sandy,
I hope you’ve been well, and continuing to wow your students with your wonderful teaching style.
Already so much time has flown since the 4 lovely days I spent doing your workshop, but you’ll be happy to know that I have frequently used one of the two field kits I made. It’s the one with the handles, and the cover made from a charming old map of the Grampians. Got the picture?  I made it specifically for the pen and wash class I started last month, and it works a treat. It’s so compact and lightweight, it’s easy to pop it into my backpack whenever I go out, “just in case”. As a consequence, I’ve done lots more sketching and painting than I’ve ever done. Thanks to you and your encouragement, and not being prescriptive in your teaching.”
Isn’t that a lovely thing to have happen? And wasn’t she kind to take the time to let me know.
That letter arrived last week in the middle of teaching another four day class where I was teaching a workshop on “marking place” with a group of students who shared stories, enthusiasm, poetry and new ways of seeing. They have helped immensely on how to add to the experience the next time I teach this class. I come away learning so much more than I teach and thank those students for that.