Sunday, January 29, 2017

WAKE UP! JPEG Rooster for download.


Wake UP!. Anyone who would like to download this image to use to write to your senator, state representative, school board, governor, local city council or any local, state or national representative--even aunts and uncles that need to be reminded that free speech and freedom of religion and freedom of association, etc. need to be protected and fought for. You have my permission to use and download this image for personal use. Please no commercial use but send as many as you like. It's formatted to 4" x 8" so should fit in a standard business envelope. Please Share. Year of the FIRE rooster.  The file below should be original size and less than 1MB. 

Monday, January 16, 2017

Seedling


There are some plants, pumpkins and squashes, for example, that grow faster at night,  in the hours just before dawn.
And there are some seeds, that without a period of darkness and an absence of light, won't germinate at all.

It is winter and the Solstice has just passed. The shortest day is now history but the nights are still long and cold and I awake to darkness and frost and brittle grass. The winter wheat the neighbors planted went in in November and will put roots down into the cold earth--as they're more hardy in the cold than the other seeds--and will gain a head start that will mean a good crop and grain for bread and pasta in a June and July that are still a distant dream.
Fava beans and peas are also already in the ground and have sprouted but just sit there,  with leaves limp and sad in the cold and damp as they will patiently wait for lengthening days and warmer temperatures to jump up and climb and unfurl leaves and tendrils.

I'm a gardener and therefore an optimist by nature.  But I'm frightened by the wind and chatter now.
Things are changing that the wise farmers didn't see coming.
There are seeds that have been planted for hundreds of years that are now gone, "disappeared" by companies that bought seed houses and catalogs and made them vanish or had them re-patented so they can no longer be saved and sown by the frugal or good farmer.
And they don't tell us but the water is dirtier than it's supposed to be and the air has particles in it that are too small to be measured easily and so are declared "well-below measurable limits".  So even my "organic" garden isn't. No more than anything alive is now free of radioactive isotopes from the atomic tests, bombs and nuclear disasters.
 And now the chemical and oil and pharmaceutical and pesticide and seed and food companies all become one and soon it will be illegal (maybe I'm paranoid) to save seed, or plant "unapproved" varieties, or grow vegetables on unreported plots--and all in the name of "food security" or to fight "bioterrorism".
I watch the news and I read the papers but for the first time that I can remember,  the people in charge want MORE oil exploration and pipelines,  more mining and more ocean drilling but fewer environmental protections for the air and water or labor regulations that guarantee worker and public safety.  They want no regulations to hamper business models that can be profitable only if they can shift the cost of clean up and waste removal to a distant public till and that are instead now encouraged to plunder and multiply while laws are passed that protect them, rather than us,  from liability for environmental damage or pollution.

I have never been a political activist but now I have no choice. I have to join the fight to keep them from poisoning the wells, darkening the skies and making a lifeless, plastic gel of what was once the water of life or stealing the birthright of future generations, the germplasm of all the crops that have ever been sown in soil worked by honest men and women. So I am attending meetings and writing letters and supporting those that are still working to conserve and protect but I will also go back to my little plot of soil.

So I will plant a garden this spring and record in a diary the day the first anemonies flower or the grape buds swell, the day of the first asparagus on the table and the first and last of the English peas.  I will plant some of the old varieties and grow food that the peasants knew and flowers that have different names in different lands. Some we eat, some I draw. As farmers have done for longer than memories can recall, we eat the stunted and challenged plants. For the best plants, strong and defiant, are allowed to set seed are not eaten but saved. They are saved for next year's seed.  We select out the best, the ones that thrived in my soil and today's climate to plant next year and for the year after that, and the one after that, and so on, or so we can hope.
It is dark outside but not yet night.
I wonder what will come up in the garden this year and what will be there to harvest.

Notes; "Seedling" is a moku hanga, watercolor woodblock print. 8.25" x 11.7" and was printed from 4 blocks with 8 separate color impressions on handmade Japanese paper (Shin Hosho). e.v. 10 copies.




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Thursday, January 12, 2017

Japanese Woodblock workshops in 2017: February in Florence

I'm starting to organize some short and long workshops in moku hanga/Japanese woodblock for 2017.
 My first 2017 introductory class--a 2-day crash course in the basics of watercolor woodblock prints will be held in the San Giovanni School of Art, the cooperative studio I share with 3 other artists on other side of the Arno from the city center.
One of the studios has recently vacated so I have room to host a group with space for at least 6 participants plus room to demonstrate carving and printing.

My February class is now open:
Feb 18 and 19, 10a-6p, limited to 6 students (4 places are still open as of today)
Via San Giovanni 23, Firenze--near Porta San Frediano/Viale Ariosto--easy access to the train station and adjacent (but only intermittently vacant) parking.
€180 for the class includes inscription, materials (2 blocks, paper and pigments) the use of our studio's sharp, student-grade and professional level tools, chisels, and barens for printing.
In addition, the tools used during the workshop: a set of 5 basic knives and gouges, a student baren, and a Japanese stencil brush can be purchased after the class at cost.
Students will be able to print a small edition of a 2-4 color print during this 2-day intensive class.
Email me for information and inscription details at: andrewstone1@me.com

2017 18 & 19 Febbraio: Corso introduttivo di moku hanga--la xilografia giapponese.
Sabato e Domenica 10a-6pm;
Via San Giovanni 23,  L'Accademia d'Arte San Giovanni
Zona San Frediano/Viale Ariosto. Facilmente raggiungibile dalla stazione con l'autobus o a piedi o con i mezzi propri. 
Prezzo del corso e' €180 (€150 corso e €30 materiale: 2 blocchi shina (tiglio japonica), carta, pigmenti e l'uso durante il corso di attrezzi, baren e sgorbie professionale e da studenti del nostro laboratorio.). Gli studenti possono creare il loro stampa di 2-4 colori e stampare una piccola edizione su carta giapponese.   Il docente e Andrew Stone, Americano che da 12 anni lavora principalmente con questa tecnica. Il workshop si svolgera' in Inglese ed Italiano.
Limitato a 6 studenti.
Per inscrizione o informazione contattare Andrew Stone; andrewstone1@me.com
C'e un sconto disponibile per studenti e soci LAILAC.

Coming:
Ravenna (Fall 2017)
Padova (not yet confirmed)
Also I'm hoping to repeat my 2 or 3-day class in Ravenna in October and perhaps teach in a new venue in Padova in late Spring or early Summer. 
Plus I'm getting increasing interest for small sessions (1-2 people)  interested in single day or half-day sessions in the basics---image management and carving, basic and advanced printing, managing registration with multiple blocks, printing an edition with good paper and assistance so I hope to set up a series of day classes with a structured but flexible set of units.