I made a sweet discovery this past October related to my teaching work.

Turns out, serious interested folks don’t have to wait to take one of my spring workshops to learn the “Matt Brown approach” to hanga printmaking. There is another option (subject to factors that would be unique to each individual, to our mutual schedules). The basic idea? . . . that I can teach at other times of year, one-on-one, and qualified students can do a study in my shop alongside the normal day-to-day work that goes on in that building.

To be honest, Claire Emery did not come all the way from Montana where she lives to do a 3-day study with me in the middle of October. She was set up down in Great Barrington, MA for a time, so it was maybe 3 1/2 hours for her to get here . . .

Claire is a printmaker in her own right, it is her main work and income. You can see her work at www.emeryart.com.
I think she found out about me through her parents, who found me and my work at a show in Manchester, VT in 2010 or 2011. She shared with me that she has one or two of my prints, so perhaps having that (or those) on her wall kept an idea alive for . . . I think she had contacted me asking about taking one of my workshops at least a year prior to arriving here.

The long and short of the e-mail exchange was that Montana seemed too far to travel to take a 3-day class (though some have certainly traveled farther: this past June Joseph came all the way from Holland to take the class, and talks of coming back next June) or perhaps the dates just didn’t work out. Whatever the reason, Claire inquired of the idea of doing a one-on-one study at a time that might work. I encouraged her to seek me out at a show, we talked, you might even say we did an “interview”.

The study time went great. Claire got a good grasp of the hanga approach, and in parting we agreed it seemed likely the nature of her work would likely change . . . another printmaker converted from oil to water?! I think perhaps not entirely, but certainly she now can move past hand-coloring to multiple block work, and has the tools to more closely adapt her wonderful watercolor and drawing work to her printmaking.

Claire shared the following note about the workshop and agreed I could make her words public:

“Matt,
Spending these days in discourse and work has restored my soul and for this I am thankful. The world you have created here feels strangely like home to me. I have enjoyed and taken in so many layers of it. your teaching was patient and thorough and your heart was kind. I can spring into new ways of working and perceiving from here.
Be well, Claire”

So if reading this post gives you an idea . . . give me a call (603-795-4619). We could perhaps arrange an interview, and then, who knows, you might be set up in the shop here in Lyme learning the whole business sooner than you might think!

Emboldened by my greater than usual enjoyment of this year’s Sunapee Fair, back in early Sept. I decided to add an extra show to the schedule: the Old Deerfield Fall Art and Craft Fair. Marcia told me I could have a good spot to set up in, and the event went pretty well. If you look at the picture, you can see the booth as it has been for a number of years, with an easy to set up/ easy to pack hanging system that I worked out . . . oh it must be almost 15 years ago!

Well, there was a lull in activity on the Sunday afternoon, and I found myself thinking about my booth, and how to make it better. Over the next two weeks I got to work, and by the end of the month had achieved a different system for the Craftproducers show at Hildene. The hanging cloth-covered panels make it a lot easier to hang the prints in pairs and sets, so all in all I am very pleased with the improvements. I am also pleased with the results. This year’s Hildene show is the best I have had for sales at the event, a pretty big deal when you consider that for much of the three days I was occupied digging trenches down the aisles to get water from the heavy rains we got out of my booth area . . .

Lake Champlain: Looking North

Lake Champlain: Looking South

Since finishing up this year’s Sunapee Fair I have gotten out my watercolors on quite a few occasions. One of the most memorable afternoons was out on “Opus” up on Lake Champlain. I moored the boat and as she twisted about in the wind went after two color sketches, one looking south into the sun and one north, up towards Mt. Mansfield. Having got their start on the boat, they might make a nice pair of “floating world” prints, no?

Yeah! I woke up Monday morning after this year’s 9-day Sunapee Fair in a great mood . . . happy to be done with most of the work, happy with the memories, looking forward to doing the event again next year, and really pleased to have some time to clean up the shop, organize all manner of things, and generally get my life back in order.

This year’s fair wasn’t the best for sales I have ever had (that prize goes to the demonstration booth we set up in 2010), but somehow it felt the most successful. Parker and I probably sold around 100 prints . . . not something to complain about, and maybe it felt successful because I liked the way the booth set up worked out. On one of the days a group of four women stepped in to visit, all wearing wonderful hats. I pulled out my camera and clicked away. Here is what my camera saw:

and then:

and then:

and finally:

In my booth at this year’s League of NH Craftsmen’s Fair (Tent 4, # 441) I’ll have 5 new prints, all in the larger 7″ x 17″ format. Three of them are horizontal, two from up in the mountains. I haven’t posted them on the web-site yet (I’ve been putting in the hours down in the frame room trying to be sure I have a good selection for next Sat morning when this year’s Sunapee Fair begins), but I hope to get them posted soon.

“December Afternoon, Stowe, VT”, color woodblock print

“Storm over Mt. Moosilauke”, color woodblock print

“Waves on Little Thrumcap”, color woodblock print

Leon put together the portfolio for the Denver Art Students League class back in Feb., and he did a very nice job. He included a copy of the class schedule, everyone’s name and address, a nice cover for the set of prints . . .

My friend Chess and I were talking of the disaster in Japan. It is just so shocking to hear and see of such destruction and suffering. It is mind numbing to think of the implications of what happened, to watch video footage of the water washing away buildings, ships, cars, bodies. It is a nightmare to imagine the impending troubles with the nuclear plants that loom.

I shared with Chess an image that has kept coming into my mind: Hokusai’s Great Wave of Kanagawa. I told her the print was one of the most recognized Japanese prints ever made, and that it was likely an image of a tsunami wave. I told her it kind of worked for me in making sense of the event. I said something about its description of patterns in the natural world, of its depiction of the awesome force of water that dwarves our human lives, of its offering of a beauty in the dynamic shapes of the water. Even in the tsunami’s destruction we might keep our awareness that the dynamic forces of the earth are our life and survival, they are how we got here in the first place. The image of Mt.Fuji, a symbol of a volcanic dynamo of the earth turned stable, I believe holds its beauty and meaning in great part because it is both stable and everlasting and is also evidence of a hugely devastating and awesome event, for its creation must have been a particularly destructive volcanic event eons ago.

Well I hope my friend will forgive me, for in part I lied. The fact that “The Great Wave” is perhaps the most famous ukiyo-e print of all might be true, but the second statement, that it is an image of a tsunami wave, is not . . . necessarily. It is most likely an okinami wave, a great open ocean wave. But it has been associated with the idea of a tsunami wave, and I am not the first to make the connection.

When I mentionned the print image to another friend while talking of the disaster she jumped to the idea of it as a prophecy of the March 11 disaster. Hmmm, there have been other tsunamis, and Kanagawa is considerably south of Sendai, for it is south of Tokyo. But in the way the print juxtaposes the great force of the waters of the ocean and our small human scale and effort, and in the way the instantaneous moment of a breaking wave juxtaposes with the timeless idea of Mt. Fuji, I think this image could be thought of as prophecy if it helps in coping with the emotional impact of the most recent disaster in Japan. It is helping me.

And it is so beautiful . . .

My prayer is that this image, along with other images and acts of beauty, begin quickly the process of healing from Japan’s most recent disaster.

P.S. I am not the only woodblock printmaker to reflect on this disaster. Please consider reading Dave Bull’s recent post of how things look from his point of view, as he works along from his studio outside Tokyo.

My friend Liz Shepherd recommended I do it . . . “you’ve never submitted work to the Boston Printmakers Biennial? Oh you should do it this year, Jim Dine is the juror. It’ll be a big deal if you get in.”

I went with my friend Chess to the opening. We were happy to run into Dale Evans and his wife Marjorie. We met up with the woodblock printmaker Don Gourvette who I hadn’t seen in years, and I met Bill Cass, who teaches printmaking at the NH Institute of Art. It was interesting to hear one or two stories, to hear of a young printmaker who submitted online and flew from Calgary, Alberta to see his carved woodblock (his was one of the pieces that was definitely not a print) hanging in the show.

After we left Chess asked me if I was pleased. I told her I liked how my prints were hung, and I liked the multiple red dots and “patron’s choice” stickers I saw below my prints, but actually I was a bit disappointed. She asked me why, but beyond the fact that the show seemed to include some things that I wouldn’t even have classified as prints, I had a hard time explaining . . .

until the next morning when I turned on my e-mail. Coincidently, my friend and neighbor Chris Jackson had posted a you-tube link he encouraged people to watch. He subject-lined his e-mail “Art is Beauty”, and the video, by an Englishman named Roger Scruton, is titled “Why Beauty Matters”.

The video put flesh to my feeling about the print show, that there was in much of the work in the show more emphasis on idea than on worked out beauty, or art. I wished there had been more entries that had me thinking “oh look at that!”. Much of the imagery seemed to be self-conscious, and more about statement rather than about the developed, intriguing, or beautiful. I had noticed this in contemporary art before. When I am working with shapes and colors I am always trying to make things work, trying to get relationships of shape and color to “sing”, and to be as beautiful as I can make them. But some artists today don’t seem to be trying to do anything like this. This is what Roger Scruton is concerned about.

It might explain also why I got an e-mail that same next morning from Sturdy Waterman, who runs the Page-Waterman Gallery in nearby Wellesley, MA. A few hours later Chess and I stopped by the gallery, and I really liked what I saw there. There was work by some Japanese artists, and Sturdy had hanging two beautifully framed small caran-d’ache pieces by my friend (and former student) Sandy Wadlington that I recognized right away. Sturdy bought 8 of my prints outright for his gallery, and I was pleased to be initiating a gallery relationship without having to do any framing!

Hmmm, if you get interested in the Page-Waterman Gallery, I might mention something about the link posted above. Their web-site has the essential info, such as gallery hours, location, etc., but it seems that to get a taste of the work they are involved with you can find out more by visiting their facebook page. Lots to look at there.

On the Tuesday morning after finishing the class I picked up a rental car and drove out in the tail end of a snowstorm to meet my son Asher at the Denver airport. Right away we headed west and by dinner time were settled in at the home of folks in Breckenridge. The next day opened up cold but sunny. Here is the look of things from the breakfast table:

We had a great first day of skiing. Asher headed off with Alex, who at 17 skiis and trains year round (he is skiing out at Mt. Hood during the summer months). I skied with my friend Chess and her friend Jan (our host in Breckenridge), but we all met for lunch and for a group photo.

Thursday Asher and I headed up with our skis to Arapahoe Basin, whose base lodge is the highest of any in Colorado. (Did we decide to do this because we were suffering from symptoms of altitude sickness?) Here’s a photo of Asher on the way up.

The skiing that day was great, and I think A-Basin may be my favorite lift area place to ski I have encountered yet.

Friday took us to Copper Mtn, where I put on skins and went up into the powder while Asher did some indoor trick training. Here’s a video of him doing the half pipe at Breckenridge and the indoor trick training at what is the first place set-up for this sort of thing: Woodward at Copper.

Closest to where I was staying is a Martin Luther King Memorial. Leona, director of the Art Students’ League of Denver, told me this newly made installation to Martin Luther King replaced an earlier one that was quite awful. I thought this was quite fine, and spent time contemplating as I walked round and round the sculpture.