Japonisme Comes to America, The Japanese Impact on the Graphic Arts, 1876-1925, Julia Meech, Gabriel Weisberg, Harry Abrams, Inc., New York, 1990.
Japanese Print-making, Toshi Yoshida and Rei Yuki, Charles Tuttle Co., Rutland, VT, 1966.
Technique of the Colour Woodcut,Walter Phillips, Brown-Robertson, 1926.The Japanese Print, Frank Lloyd Wright, Horizon Press, New York, 1967.
Japanese Wood-Block Printing - Hiroshi Yoshida, Tokyo 1939
Colour Woodcuts - John Platt, London 1948
The Verne Gallery, 2207 Murray Hill Rd., Cleveland, Ohio. Representing Japanese artists and artists who have studied in Japan, both old and new.
David Bull, a Canadian hanga print-maker living and working in Tokyo....there are literally hours of reading, looking, and exploring opportunities in this site. Parts I have most enjoyed include "The Romance of the Woodblock Print", and descriptions of visits by Mr. Bull to the Brush-maker, the Paper-maker, the Publisher, etc... (go to the "Newsletter", then click on "Index" to find).
The Baren Encyclopedia for Woodblock Printmaking, an on-line resource for technical information about hanga printmaking, set up and maintained by Dave Bull. Includes excerpts from some of the few reference books on the subject written in English (classics that are not easy to find). Material is organized by topic, so this is a handy way to get a quick look-see on particular issues of interest.
April Vollmer, a hanga printmaker in NYC who has studied with Bill Paden.
Hanga.com, shin-hanga prints, some contemporary work.
*Walter Phillips, Printmaker. Web site authored by Roger Boulet. Lots of wonderful woodblock print images.
Roycroft Rennaissance Home Page, Arts & Crafts movement related to work of E. Hubbard and The Roycroft Press.
Portal about prints, a web-site with a smorgasbord of printmaking and fine art links, from Thomas Kincaid to my dear friend Dorothy Markert!
I took on the name ooloo for my printmaking business when it became evident "Washburn Hill Woodworking" no longer described what I was up to. Ooloo is the name used by previous owners Kendrick and Eleanor Putnam for where we live. The story I remember is that for them "ooloo" meant "the place". Eleanor was from Australia. Doesn't ooloo sound like an aboriginal word? I like the fact the word is a palindrome, related to the 'mirror image' aspect of printing.
1958: Born in Boston, Mass.
1981: Graduated magna cum laude., Harvard College.
1981-1995: worked as carpenter, cabinet-maker, and builder, mostly self-employed as "Washburn Hill Woodworking".
1990: Married Elizabeth Page.
1992: Birth of son Nathaniel.
1993: Began making color prints using Japanese methods.
1995: Became state-juried member of the League of NH Craftsmen.
1997: Birth of son Asher. Cover illustrations for a set of six booklets about the Ct. River.
1998: Illustrations for Walter Wetherell's book: "North of Now"
2005: Cover illustration for the CT. River Watershed Council's book about the Connecticut River titled "Proud to Live Here"
1998 - 2010: exhibited prints at various locations including: Concord Art Association, Concord, MA; Coolidge Center for the Arts, Portsmouth, NH; Wenniger Gallery, Rockland, MA; Red Roof Gallery, Enfield, NH; Shelburne Farms' "Envisioned in a Pastoral Setting", Shelburne, VT;
All of which doesn't in a way describe too much. When I think of a resume years in the building trade doesn't add a great deal: little to put down for schooling, publications, awards, shows. Yet inside my print-making career seems very much a fruit of those years. Learning to work with wood, to measure, to line things up and judge by eye; to assess a design problem, develop solutions with a client, visualize spatially, draw up plans, and follow the myriad steps to help plans gain physical life: was this not an apprenticeship of a sort? Learning to interact with tools, materials, methods, and other craftsmen in a developed and directed way: was this not training for visual expression? Now my materials are wooden blocks and paper, lines, shapes and colors, but it still feels like the same process of visualizing something, analyzing it into parts and then getting out tools and proceeding to give it real form and color.
And what to add? That I am a beekeeper, happy to be back in honey after finding mite-resistant bees? That my print-making avocation, which fifteen years ago put an end to my career as a carpenter with its challenges and successes, threatens to end my career as a hobby farmer? That we happily heat with wood, using a masonry heater to heat not just the house but also our hot water. That older son Nathaniel has become the principal farmer growing the carrots, beans, potatoes, putting in the tractor hours making hay, plowing the garden in the Spring and the driveway in the Winter. That younger son Asher is already handy with the sailboat, taking over the helm while Dad makes drawings out on the lake (our newest big adventure is a Cape Dory Typhoon we keep moored up on Lake Champlain).
Here is a picture of everyone from 1998:
Feb'98
Needless to say things are a bit different now. Nathaniel is in
high schoolcollege, and Asher is aseventh gradersophomore in high school already! Isn't your life as well an adventure of transformation and change?And a bit of another "hobby" has been developing over the years. I have since I was a teenager been an off and on church-goer. Soon after Nathaniel was born I served as a deacon of our town's Lyme Congregational Church. In 2002 I became also a member of Lyme's First Baptist Church. I have served as a deacon of that church, and am currently its moderator. Recent sermons I have shared while leading worship at this church you can find here.