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Exchange 97

Coordinator: Bronwyn Merritt

Details:

  • Medium: Woodblock print–hand rubbed or pulled on a press, any pigments, any paper
  • Theme: “Intangible” (something that exists but that cannot be touched, exactly described, or given an exact value)
  • Paper Size: (Other) 8 x 8 inches (20 x 20 cm) Square
  • Paper Type: No restriction
  • Registration period: July 1 – July 31, 2024
  • Drop-out deadline: August 31, 2024 If you must drop out of the exchange, please do so as early as possible in order to give people on the waiting list time to complete and submit their prints.
  • Delivery deadline for finished prints: September 30, 2024

Katie Argyle, Richmond Hill, Ontario, Canada
What do you bring to the table?

8 x 8 in, linoblock (1), Caligo black ink on hemp paper, edition 30.

Linda Beeman, Ovid, Michigan USA
Thoughts of Prayers

20 x 20 cm, 5 color blocks, 1 embossing block. Shina ply, Lukas watercolor on Kozo blend, unknown, edition 30. Thoughts of Prayers

Prayer is part of most civilizations throughout history. It takes many forms in different religions and no religion at all. It is silent, crying out, prostrate, standing, kneeling, incense, human and animal sacrifice. It is written, hidden, burned, on bits of cloth in the wind.

But why and to whom, or, what? We think we know, we hope, we shoot buckshot in trying times, we give thanks. Does it go anywhere? Or to someone ‘out there?’ That is what makes prayer an intangible.

I’ve always thought of prayer more as breath. We think and silently breath out thoughts or intentions. And prayers. The breath of humanity in the wind blowing through and around Tibetan Prayer Flags, sending these thoughts of prayers out into the Universe. lindajbeeman.com

Joanna Bradley, Australia
Deep Time Blood Lines

20 x 20 cm, 4 shina, 1 lino, Gouache with nori on wood block and sakura oil on lino on Handmade Japanese washi various thicknesses, edition 28. Horseshoe crab: Family: Limulidae Phylum: Arthropoda Class: Merostomata (legs attached to mouth) Species: Limulus polyphemus. Status: Four very similar species endemic to Eastern Americas and the Indo-Pacific. Two species vulnerable to extinction in 2016.

450 million years ago horseshoe crabs were almost identical to horseshoe crabs living today. They pre-date the emergence of the woody plants that formed coal beds. Their closest modern relatives are spiders and scorpions. They have 10 legs, blue copper-based blood and 10 sets of eyes – including 2 photo-receptors in their tail.
Harvested for fertilizer, fishing bait, and for biomedical bleeding.

For years, HC were unprotected, shoveled up by the dump-truck load, crushed, and spread to fertilize fields in Delaware US. They are now protected in New Jersey, so after 10-year maturation in the Atlantic off Delaware Bay horseshoe crabs return to the beaches to mate.
Their only defense is their strong shell. The stingless tail is used for navigation and balance, their eggs and hatchlings are essential food for migrating Red knots, another endangered species.

Horseshoe crab blood contains proteins that react to the presence of bacteria forming a protective gel. Most people will have benefited from horseshoe crabs because their blood is used by the biomedical industry to detect positive gram bacterial contamination in vaccines and IV drugs. One liter of blue blood was worth about $16000 USD in 2020, ‘one of the most expensive resources in the world’

A synthetic alternative has been available for many years but it is even more expensive than the crab blood because of the high profits available and a patent protecting intellectual property.

This Double Dagger lino and woodblock print was made by Joanna Bradley in collaboration with Tom Kristensen who carved the coloured background wood blocks and helped research.

This print is about how human greed and disregard can drive the most resilient and biologically perfect creatures to the brink.

Connie Brewer, Gillette, WY
Celestial Questions

8 x 8 in, Lino block, Caligo Safe Wash Relief Ink on Rice paper, edition 35.’The cosmos is within us. We are made of star-stuff. We are a way for the universe to know itself.’ — Carl Sagan htpps://www.constancebrewer.com

John center, chicago, il. usa
hashem

8 x 8 in, 5 hard maple blocks, 2 lino commercial wood type 19th century, graphic chemical, speed ball oil base on Stonehenge, edition 28. multi block verso god, something millions believe in but is never seen.. black and white allegorical selfie. john p. center facebook: yochanan engraver instagram: johnp.center

Wanda Hemmings, Tacoma WA (USA)
Is it a sunset ?

8 x 8 in, 1 block reduction print – printed 5 times, Caligo Safe Wash on Fabriano Accademia 160gsm, edition 30.

George Jarvis, Akita, Japan
intangible

20 x 20 cm, 1, Woodlike Matsumura Shina Plywood, Golden OPEN carbon Black on The last of decades old manila hemp and kozo washi., edition 35. jarviskobo.jp

Roslyn Kean, Sydney, Australia
Rhetorical Triangles

20 x 20 cm, 26 individual blocks carved in White Russian Birch using the Japanese kento ( registration ) method, Pure pigment suspended in water- Mokuhanga technique on Pansion K-158. white, Ozu Washi, Japan, edition 30. The image refers to the Aristotle’s Triangle of Rhetoric, Pathos, Logos and Ethos which are seen as elements of a discourse, or line of reasoning. At a time of political unrest and environmental concerns many arguments and disagreements need resolve. roslynkean.com.au

Martha Knox, Philadelphia, PA
Sunset Crow

8 x 8 in, 2 blocks, plywood, Water-based Speedball inks for the background and oil-based Gamblin black for the crow on White Stonehenge, edition 30. marthaknox.com

Tom Kristensen, Sydney, Australia
Horseshoe crabs and Red knot

20 x 20 cm, 1 Shina block, Water-washable oils (COBRA) on Nishinouchi washi with sumi sizing, edition 24 for Baren Exchange. Part of the Double Dagger series where two printmakers illustrate environmental themes. Endangered horseshoe crabs provide eggs for endangered shorebirds. Evolutionary timescales reaching back hundreds of millions of years entering terminal phase with habitat destruction and harvesting.

Michele LeTourneur, Fairfax, VA
Shadow

8 x 8 in, edition 28

Mike Lyon, Kansas City, MO USA
Ripley

8 x 8 in, four 1/2 inch birch plywood 8-inch diameter round blocks, Guerra Paint & Pigment pigment suspensions on McClains Shin-Torinoko, edition 10 1st edition plus 24 for Baren marked B97. This mokuhanga print of my youngest grandchild, Ripley, was printed from yellow, red, blue, and black blocks. The blocks were designed so that the vertical line spacing was varied on each block – five, six, seven, and eight lines per inch in order to produce a bit of moire scintillation in the color rendition. The blocks were engraved from eight-inch diameter circles with a 1/4 inch tab centered on the left side and were printed so the carved lines were more or less horizontal in order to allow easy and rapid brushing up of the block during printing. I cut a similar 8 inch semi-circle from 1/8 inch hardboard to help hold the block in place during brushing and printing and a similar circular cut-out from 1/2 birch with a notch to fit the tab on each block and kento to receive the corner and edge of the printing papers. This all worked well enough and I was able to print without leaving inky finger prints or registration blotches in the unprinted corners of each sheet. mlyon.com

Gilda Machado-Zimmerling, California
Epiphany

8 x 8 in, 1 block , Shina Plywood 3/8 inch, Gamblin Oil Relief Ink, Prussian Blue on Strathmore 300 Series, Acid Free Charcoal Paper 64lb, edition 40. ‘Epiphany’ An illuminating discovery, realization or sudden manifestation or perception of the essential nature or meaning of something. In this print it is the sudden epiphany about the essence of all things. Instagram: gildazimmerling.art

Theresa Martin, Lawrence, KS
It’s Fine

8 x 8 in, Linoleum, Gamlin Oil-Based Relief Ink on Stonehenge, edition 25. theresamartinprintmaker.com/

Julio Rodriguez, Skokie, Illinois
Baby

8 x 8 in, Two blocks – Linoleum & cork, Blick’s printmaking ink, sumi­ ink on Borden & Riley Co, medium white bond, edition 25. Experimenting with cork as a print matrix. Hand printed using a big yellow lemon as a baren tool. You read that right !

Jurgen Stieler, Flensburg, Germany
heart to explain…

20 x 20 cm, 2 (3) Linoleum, Caligo Safe Wash Black over Process Red (Magenta) over Diarylide Yellow on Masa, edition 27. According to the theme, the title of print shouldn’t be a typo…
Linoleum print of three colors. First layer solid yellow, after printing used to cut out the red layer (destruction method with block one). Last layer (black) with extra block. First layer printed on an intaglio press, but the second layer slipped sliding away, so I printed the remaining layers with a two-handed roller for pressing.
The inks need a very (!) long time to dry, and I’m not sure whether it’s the formula of the ink or the paper (Masa) or the combination of both, because with that combination I made the same experience twice. With other paper (Clairefontaine Japon Simile) the ink perceived dried faster.

Andrew Stone, Florence, Italy
I don’t really know how you’re attracted to me.

8 x 8 in, 6 plates, one pear keyblock and 5 shina ply., watercolor and sumi ink on Kozo-washi-no-Sato 70/30 kozo/pulp handmade washi 50g/m2 from the Japanese Paper Company, edition 30. “Magnet-I don’t really understand how you’re attracted to me.”

I studied it in school, and I know the name for it.
I can explain it to others, but I don’t really understand it.
I experimented with it all of my life, but without getting better at it.
Some came close enough that we were always touching, some fell off, or were pushed or ran away, some were made of stuff that just didn’t feel the push or pull of that invisible force-even as we pretended-while others couldn’t even be pried off, holding fast as if life depended on it.

We certainly didn’t realize how something that could bend light and alter time itself, wasn’t always strong enough to keep us together. rospobio.blogspot.com

Frank Trueba, Felton, California, USA
Intangible

8 x 8 in, 4 blocks (birch ply), watercolor inks on torinoko natural (Hiromi Paper, California; MMN-105), edition open.

Dana Wangsgard, Berea, Kentucky, USA
Truth

8 x 8 in, 1, Canfield Caligo Relief Ink on Vintage magazine print on black cardstock, edition 31. As allusive and cunning as the wind- capturing the truth. I have always been taught it exists but it is so hard to find. Bocoteart.com