Japan, Japan, Japan

Like everyone I have talked to in the past two days, the devastation endured by Japan on Friday is consuming my thoughts, and anxieties, and prayers. It is hard to comprehend what has happened. A sickening awareness grows though as I watch from a helpless position behind the computer, as a trickle of reports from deeper inside the destroyed area are posted at the BBC or Asahi Shimbun's online coverage. I am grateful for some amazing coverage there and many other sources. I am especially thankful for the science and environmental desk at BBC for their level-headed interpretation of information about the overheated Fukushima nuclear reactors. Again, praying that that second disaster is contained.

I have spoken to or shared email with all artists who show at Cullom Gallery who either live in Japan or have family there. I am so relieved to report that all are personally safe. Please keep your thoughts with the people of Japan.

Here is a blog post from Annie Bissett that is a sad delight to read - photo memories of her trip with Lynn to Tohoku in 2004. My sense of grief is magnified by a new awareness of the beauty and majesty of the region and its people, a place I never got to before this hell passed through it.

From the blog, Woodblock Dreams by Annie Bissett

Last Week for We Are Pilgrims

There are just three more days left to see Annie Bissett's woodblock print series, We Are Pilgrims.  Stop by Cullom Gallery (603 S Main Street, Seattle map) next Tuesday or Wednesday, Nov. 23 & 24, or the show's final day, Saturday, Nov. 27, and see this strong suite of Japanese woodblock prints that dig much, much deeper than the grade school myths of black hats and buckle shoes.  Bissett's series explores the real hopes, anxieties, mistakes, irrevocable impact, and real life personages of the American Pilgrims from many different angles.

John Alden, 1621 & Priscilla Mullins, 1621.

Annie recently shared with me a lay-sermon she delivered earlier this year at her own Congregational Church, an old Pilgrim church, close to her home in Northampton.  Here is a passage that I think gets at some of her kernel thoughts. (bold is mine, not Annie's).

They Looked Behind.

 for two years I studied everything I could find about the first Europeans who settled here in New England, especially in those first 50 years, when nothing was certain. I read about them, I thought about them, I tried to imagine this land as they encountered it, and I made these 15 woodblock prints about the stories that most intrigued me.  I discovered many surprising things in my research. Did you know that of the 102 passengers on the Mayflower, only 37 were members of the separatist congregation coming from Holland? They called themselves not "Pilgrims," but "Saints" and they called the other 65 "Strangers." Did you know that the first brick building on the Harvard campus was a school for native American students? Or that the first Bible printed in North America was an Algonquin Indian translation? Or that two homosexual men were tried in court in Plymouth colony way back in 1637? Some of the stories amazed me, but what was even more amazing to me was that many of the things we're grappling with today were there right at the beginning: the role of religion in government, the question of who belongs in society and who doesn't, the role and rules of family life and marriage, and always a spirit of seeking, a pilgrimage to find home.

Honey, I'm Worried About the Kids.

 

Caleb & Joel Wend to Harvard.

As a child of the Pacific Northwest, the story of the Mayflower was a distant, self-contained, and contrived tale that resonated little with me. It was covered as a requisite part of third grade then pushed to the back of my mind with the rest of the lore of early America.  The complicated, rich, proud, and later tragic history of Northwest coastal and Great Northern Plains tribes, their great pre-contact societies, and their violent snuffing-out at the hands of European Americans, this was the real, dirty story or my ancestors' interaction with the native people of North America.  Growing up in Puyallup, WA, I also witnessed the abject poverty and the effects of ghetto/reservation life on the original Puyallup people.  In my mind it was arrogant at best and worse, dangerously retro-revisionist to accept the notion of shivering Pilgrims taken into the warm embrace of the wise Indian, never mind what we Europeans did to them once we got our strength back.  That is all to say that through my own engagement with Bissett's prints and her words of discovery, I have made a slow but profound turn-around in my understanding of the relevance the Pilgrims' experience as an American creation story, a story that we are it seems inexorably tied to.  As Annie points out the same hopes, tragic misunderstandings, and steadfast (some would say intractable) beliefs first manifested by the Pilgrims are the same issues we wrestle with today.  Sometime this summer Annie mentioned that Nathaniel Philbrick's book, Mayflower: a Story of Courage Community and War, had been a valuable resource for her while researching her series.  I wish I had started this book earlier, but finally did only this week.  Here is a passage from the preface: The Two Voyages.

Vast Unpeopled Lands.

...the Pilgrims (I thought) were the stuff of holiday parades and bad Victorian poetry.  Nothing could be more removed from the ambiguities of modern-day America, I thought, than the Pilgrims and the Mayflower.

But, as I have since discovered, the story of the Pilgrims does not end with the First Thanksgiving.  When we look to how the Pilgrims and their children maintained more than fifty years of peace with the Wampanoags and how that peace suddenly erupted into one of the deadliest wars ever fought on American soil, the history of Plymouth Colony becomes something altogether new, rich, troubling, and complex.  Instead of the story we already know, it becomes the story we need to know.

I certainly needed to know.  I see now that I must spend some time engaged with this story of the origin of our country, and I am guessing that it's especially those magical 50 years -- before the fighting and division tore our country apart for the first time -- that have a lot to teach us about how to be American today. 

 

In the News - We Are Pilgrims

Thanks to Jen Graves at The Stranger for the shout out about Annie's Bissett's show.  The Curtis Erlinger photographs she also mentions are on view just down the street at Punch Gallery in the Tashiro Kaplan Building.  Stop by and have a look here and there, then have a cup of tea at the Panama Teahouse next door. Antidote for the wind and the rain.

Day off, Collaborating with Julia

Fall has hit Seattle hard this weekend!  Big winds and lots and lots of rain.  I spent today both inside and out with my daughter Julia, who turned five this month.  We spent the morning on a 'wind walk' picking up fall leaves, then stopped by Top Pot for a doughnut, and the grocery store for more apples for apple pie.  Tonight, we got busy on some watercolors to use for Julia's birthday thank you notes.  We started each doing our own thing, but it got more interesting when Julia asked if she could work on my painting (sure!) and then suggested that I do the same on hers.  Collaboration.  I've been thinking about this quite a bit.  Wishing for more at times at the gallery since I am virtually on my own there.  Thinking of its place in the story of the rise of modern Japanese prints.  And wondering what would happen if more moku hanga artists were to collaborate.  Some of these thoughts perking in preparation for my presentation at the 1st International Moku Hanga Conference, in Kyoto and Awaji next June.  I am delighted that a number of friends and colleagues will also be traveling to the conference and contributing their thoughts to the discussion, including the Drachen Foundation's Ali Fujino, and both of Cullom Gallery's own Annie Bissett and Eva Pietzcker!  Hard to think of the warm summer days of June on a day like this, but the months will tick by, I know.  (Apologies for the poor photos - taken with Photobooth on my Mac.)

Annie Bissett at Cullom Gallery

I was so pleased to have Annie Bissett and her partner Lynn in Seattle for the opening of the show of her new series of woodblock prints, We Are Pilgrims.  Here are a few photos of the opening reception on October 15th, and Annie's talk and demonstration the next afternoon.  My thanks to everyone who came by.  I especially enjoyed listening to Annie's thoughts on Saturday and hearing about the historical discoveries she made over the course of the 2+ years it took to complete the suite of prints.  The complete show is up on line at cullomgallery.com along with Annie's commentary about the underlying facts behind each design.  We also have copies of Annie's very fine illustrated catalog, We Are Pilgrims.  Contact the gallery if you would like to order a copy. 

 

Dorothy May Two Ways

A couple of days ago, I noticed that Annie Bissett had blogged about artist Sara Peters' show at Winkleman Gallery in New York, on view though today(!), October 9, 2010.  In black and white, cross-hatched drawings and bronze bust portraits, Peters delves into the experience of the pilgrims aboard the Mayflower, and as Annie calls it, the American creation story, in a very different way, but with one startling overlap: Peters' focus on the tragic death of Dorothy May Bradford. Here is Annie's post. It is really worth reading. And if you are in NYC today, go see the show at Winkleman Gallery, and tell me what you think. I wish I could myself. Woodblock Dreams: Artists On the Mayflower

Getting Ready for Annie Bissett

We are putting the finishing touches on Cullom Gallery's next exhibit - a new suite of woodblock prints by Northampton, Massachusetts artist Annie Bissett.  Come meet the artist and celebrate the opening of this beautiful and insightful show on Friday night, October 15, from 6 to 8 pm.  (Cullom Gallery, 603 S Main Street, Seattle map).  The Gallery will also host a talk and printmaking demonstration with Annie Bissett on Saturday afternoon, October 16, at 1 pm.  Both events are open to the public.  Come and bring a friend!

Here is some information about Bissett's series, taken from our press release, and a sneak peek at a number of the prints.  We look forward to seeing many of you at the gallery next Friday night!

We Are Pilgrims is a suite of fifteen Japanese-style woodblock prints that centers on the lives of the earliest settlers of New England.  The suite is both a personal exploration of Bissett's legacy as a Mayflower descendant and a critical look at the contemporary impact of the pilgrims' arrival in America almost 400 years ago.

Annie Bissett employs the Japanese woodblock printmaking method known today as moku hanga, which is characterized by Japanese papers, water-based inks, self-carved blocks, and hand-printing, to complete the series. All prints were realized over a two year period in 2008 to 2010; the artist has also recently published a full-color 72-page catalog that illustrates all 15 prints and in an essay by Bissett, weaves historic facts that she uncovered with her thoughts on the  farther-reaching implications of the pilgrims' actions, beliefs, and institutions.

In her essay for the catalog, Bissett notes that the Mayflower was a small ship, estimated to be only 113 feet long.  Traveling at a rate of 2 miles per hour across 3000 miles of the Atlantic it reached the eastern shore of America in 66 days.  Several prints in the series consider both the hope and desperate anxiety felt by the pilgrims aboard the first ship, as recorded by Plymouth governor William Bradford.

Dorothy Bradford Comes to America.

With a Prosperous Wind.

In the catalog's cover image, "They Looked Behind", Bissett has carved a quotation from Bradford's ship diary in which he recalls, "If they looked behind them, there was the mighty ocean which they had passed and was now as a main bar and gulf to separate them from all the civil parts of the world."  Just two months earlier on the morning of their departure, Bradford had noted that they left under "A Prosperous Wind," the title chosen by Bissett for her twin views of the Mayflower under a starlit sky.
In one of the most dramatic prints in the series, "Dorothy Bradford Comes to America", Bissett has imagined the  accidental or suicidal drowning of William Bradford's wife, Dorothy May, as the ship sat anchored in Provincetown Harbor and Bradford was ashore on a scouting mission.

Honey I'm Worried About the Kids. 

Themes of corruption also weigh heavily throughout Bissett's series.  In another pair of prints, the artist uses the same carved block for a group of pilgrim men, women and children, overlaying it across two different backdrops.  In "No Friends to Greet Them" the group walks cautiously though a moonlit night; in "Honey, I'm Worried About the Kids" bare branches and shadows are swapped for a concrete wall covered with the balloon letters of graffiti tags.  Moral corruption trades places with the physical ravishes of disease in "10 Little 9 Little Indians."  In a nod to the seal of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, a central Indian figure stands with an arrow pointed down in a symbol of peace as the words, "Come over and help us" float overhead.

Bissett's version however replaces the seal's circular outline with the rosette of a smallpox virus, a disease that had been spread by even earlier European immigrants, and by the time the pilgrims arrived in 1620, had killed an estimated 90% of the local Wampanoag tribe, as she notes in her catalog essay.

God Blesses John Alexander and Thomas Roberts.

Still other prints in We Are Pilgrims look at the impact of institutions - educational institutions, and the institution of Christian marriage and its presumed heterosexuality.  Bissett's print, "Caleb and Joel Went to Harvard, 1665", imagines a portrait of the first two native graduates of Harvard Indian College.  Their bare chests show through gossamer versions of the pilgrim black frock and white collar and cuffs, behind them, a naive rendering of the college's original buildings.  Another print considers the historic and contemporary legacy of sexual bigotry as revealed through court records of the trial of John Alexander and Thomas Roberts, lovers who in 1637 were found guilty of homosexual acts with each other and each variously sentenced.  As Bissett notes, Alexander was whipped, branded, and banished from the colony;


Roberts was whipped and, as an indentured servant, returned to his master, and barred from ever owning land.  Bissett's gentle and familiar portrait of the two men posed with hands touching and one's arm over the other's shoulder, as well as the title of the print, "God Blesses John Alexander and Thomas Roberts, 1637" defies the image's red hot S-for-sodomy iron that reaches from the sky and the bigoted comments carved like wall paper behind the men, text the artist gathered from letters and emails sent to the Episcopal Church Diocese of New Hampshire in 2003 when the openly gay priest, Gene Robinson, was elected bishop.

As the current national debate struggles with questions of what it means to be American and who gets to be American, We Are Pilgrims, explores the American creation story from many angles, imagining what the lives of these early immigrants might really have been like, and what their lives mean to us now, almost 400 years later. 

Born in Springfield Massachusettes, Annie Bissett spent two decades as a professional illustrator, working for the Washington Post, National Geographic Society, and TimeLife Publications, before turning her attention to Japanese woodblock printmaking in 2005.  She is an active member of Zea Mays Printmaking Studio in Florence, MA.  Her work has been selected for numerous juried exhibitions and biennials including the International Print Center of New York's New Prints 2009/Autumn, the 2009 Robert Blackburn Printmaking Workshop Annual Exhibition, New York; the 2009 Los Angeles Printmaking Workshop Annual Exhibition; the Hunt's Prize at the Boston Printmakers 2009 N. American Print Biennial; the exhibition Violence at the Jundt Art Museum, Gongaza University, Spokane, WA; and Printed Matter at Giant Robot Gallery, San Francisco, CA.  Annie Bissett has been represented by the Seattle gallery, Cullom Gallery since 2007, where her first solo exhibition, Far Away Up Close, was mounted in 2008.  Annie Bissett is also a leading voice in the growing American moku hanga printmaking movement; Bissett's blog, Woodblock Dreams, which she began in 2005, counts over 9000 views and hundreds of regular readers.  Her prints are part of the permanent collections of the Spencer Museum of Art, University of Kansas, Lawrence KS; and the Jundt Art Museum, Gonzaga Univeristy, Spokane WA.

Busman's Date Night - Print Zero Highlights

It was a good, hot night on Saturday for the opening of Print Zero's Print Exchange #7.  Dan and I started with dinner - Catfish Po'Boy, Brisket Sandwich, and ice cold margaritas - on the patio at Hudson, then headed up to the show.  As his fans would expect, Brian Lane (2nd from left) had found the perfect tee-shirt for the occasion and as promised, 227 prints in all manner of media, hung in the halls of Print Zero.  I find that in these occasions I am often drawn to non-woodcut prints.  Though I have a reasonable background in the history of all print media, more recently I've spent my print time considering the finer points of woodblock prints alone and the wide range of possibilities that the form offers print artists.  But when faced with dozens of stylistically different silkscreens, digital, and intaglio-based prints, I react much like the other people browsing the walls, "Wow! how did she do that?"  Also, its not often that you get to experience such a large and diverse group of prints in one close setting.  A few of my favorites below:

Carolyn J. Leicht.  Sidewalk Naturalist.  Screenprint

(Center) Wuon-Gean Ho.  Fractured Mask III.  Silkscreen.

Richard Repasky.  Vow-Murder, Death and Other Funny Things.  Photopolymer Intaglio

Bouchei Marina.  Untitled.  Collograph

Peter Foucault.  Hyperbola.  Found letterpress, digital relief

The dedication and amount of work that Print Zero founders, Brian Lane and Jeremy Cody have put into their print exchange is inspiring.  Lately I've also been talking to Richard Steiner, founder of the KIWA collection of contemporary Japanese woodblock prints and associated print exhibits in Kyoto, and there too I am struck by KIWA's success at shining a light on and effectively fostering the growth of moku hanga printmaking worldwide. Things like this come together a lot quicker than museum exhibits, and show us growth and trends in printmaking in a more raw, and I think sometimes more exciting way.  

(Second down on right) Annie Bissett.  Lost in Translation (Wampum).  Japanese woodblock print.

Annie Bissett at the Eric Carle Museum

If you live in and around Amherst, MA, make sure to stop by the Eric Carle Museum on Saturday, June 5th at 1 pm, to hear Annie Bissett and a panel of 4 other artists talk about sustainable printmaking methods. Following the discussion, Annie will be demonstrating woodblock printmaking techniques. Stop by and say hi and see the Museum's new exhibit of prints by Antonio Frasconi. Here is Annie's blog post on the same.

Woodblock Dreams: Join Me at the Eric Carle Museum?

Moku Hanga News

This just in courtesy of Annie Bissett.  The 1st International Moku Hanga Conference will take place in Kyoto & Awaji, Japan next summer, June 7 - 12, 2011!  Not many details on their website yet, but check back often.  I know I will be making plans to attend.  Thanks to everyone who will work hard to make this happen.

American Bible Story, More Praise

 

In addition to the Robert Blackburn Exhibition mentioned in the previous post, I am pleased to announce that Annie Bissett's recently completed, American Bible Story, has also been selected for inclusion in the International Print Center New York (IPCNY) New Prints|2009 exhibition, which will coincide with the IFPDA Print Fair in New York next month.  The 150 to 200 prints chosen for the IPCNY exhibit are selected from a group of over 2000 entries, so another big congratulations to Annie Bissett.

New Prints|2009 at the International Print Center New York (IPCNY) opens October 29 and remains on view through December 12, 2009.

International Print Center New York (IPCNY)

New Prints 2009/Autumn

11 am - 6 pm

526 W. 26th St,.Rm 824

New York, NY

(212) 989-5090

Website ipcny.org

American Bible Story and several of Annie Bissett's recent prints from her Pilgrim series are available at Cullom Gallery and through the Gallery's website.

AMERICAN BIBLE STORY

Japanese woodblock (moku hanga)
Paper size: 14.75" x 16" (37.5 x 40.6 cm)
Image size: 11.625" x 13.75" (29.5 x 34.9 cm)
5 shina plywood blocks
14 hand-rubbed impressions
Paper: Nishinouchi
Edition: 21 

 
An excerpt from Annie Bissett's blog, Woodblock Dreams.
I've been thinking for a long time about the way that present-day Americans of every political persuasion call upon "the founding fathers" to justify all sorts of theories about what America is and how Americans should behave. This quoting of early colonists has always reminded me of the practice of quoting the Bible to add legitimacy and authority to one's own ideas and feelings. Then, reading Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's narrative poem about John and Priscilla Alden, The Courtship of Miles Standish (1858), I noticed that Longfellow alluded to Bible love stories -- Ruth and Boaz, Rebecca and Isaac -- so I started to work with the idea that the early European settlers of America have become a kind of American Bible story.

The stories I included are pretty obvious -- Noah's ark, Adam and Eve, the pillar of clouds, the city on a hill. I also threw in a nod to Utamaro and his shunga prints. I had very much wanted the serpent to be saying "join or die" as it says in the original woodcut by Benjamin Franklin, but in my research I discovered that there's an artist named Justine Lai who is making extensive use of that phrase in her work. Lai is making a series of paintings that depict her having sex with each of the 44 presidents of the United States. I decided to omit the "join or die" text in my piece so as not to jump on that bandwagon.

Kudos to Annie Bissett!

This just in...

I am very pleased to announce that a print from Annie Bissett's recent body of work exploring the experience of the American Pilgrims, has been accepted for the 2009 Annual Exhibition at the Robert Blackburn Printmaking Workshop in New York. The exhibit was juried by David Kiehl, Curator of Prints at the Whitney Museum of American Art. The exhibition will coincide with the IFPDA Print Fair and New York Fine Art Print Week coming in November. A big congratulations to Annie Bissett!

Good News about Annie

We had a great turn out last Thursday and Saturday for Annie Bissett's reception and talk.  Thanks to all of you who made it a special week!  I wanted to pass on the good news that Annie's print, Borders #1-U.S./Mexico, has just been accepted into the Boston Printmakers 2009 North American Print Biennial, which opens February 15, 2009 at Boston University!  Go, Annie!

Annie Bissett in Seattle

For those of you in Seattle this week, there are two chances to meet Massachusetts printmaker, Annie Bissett, whose exhibit is on the walls at Cullom Gallery through November 1st.

Gallery Walk Reception with Annie Bissett, 10/2, 6-8 pm.
Thursday is the night of Seattle's monthly Gallery Walk. Come down and see the show, Annie Bissett: moku hanga, far away, up close, and meet Annie!

Artist's Talk with Annie Bissett, 10/4, 2 pm
Then on Saturday, I'll be hosting a talk with Annie Bissett at Cullom Gallery at 2 pm. Annie will talk about her contemporary approach to the ages-old art of Japanese woodblock printmaking, and her thoughts about her commercial illustration work versus printmaking. Come with your own questions for Annie, bring a friend, and stay for a glass of wine; everyone is welcome!

Quiet blog, busy gallery

I'm happy to say that after a packed month of preparation during August, Cullom Gallery opened on September 4th, the fist solo of exhibit of contemporary moku hanga (Japanese style woodblock prints) by Northampton, Massachusetts artist, Annie Bissett.
I met Annie last year while searching the web for contemporary Japanese woodblock printmakers. I probably looked at the work of over 200 artists; Annie's and names of a few others made it onto one small piece of paper. What I particularly like about Annie's prints is how beautifully made they are and, in their craftsmanship, how tied they are to the tradition of Japanese printmaking, yet how different the content is! As I move further into contemporary prints, I'm not interested in prints and printmakers who are just regurgitating the hackneyed styles and subjects of 19th and 20th century Japanese prints. Japanese printmaking has a long history that includes periods of both inspired growth and predictable commercialism. Whether it's Hokusai's genius at capturing humanity and humor in his ukiyo-e, or the exciting nascent years of the sosaku hanga movement before the War, or today, printmakers like Annie Bissett, who aren't just making one more print of giant koi or thatched-roof farmhouses. These are the prints and the artists I'm after, those learning from the old tradition, but who expand upon it. In the end, these are the artist's that keep Japanese printmaking alive.

The Annie Bissett exhibit, which runs through November 1st, includes prints from 2006 to the present. It's remarkable to consider that Annie has only been making prints for three years, after taking a printmaking class with New Hampshire printmaker, Matt Brown in 2005. Prior to printmaking, Annie had spent several decades as a successful commercial illustrator with clients like the National Geographic Society, the Wall Street Journal, and the Washington Post. She continues her illustration career while working printmaking time around illustration work. Her own practice of meditation also played into the content of some of her early work, while more recent prints are driven by Annie's interest in mapping, locations, and the human impact, for better or for worse, upon a place. Earlier this year she completed a triptych called Three Prophets: tall narrow prints that start with satellite views of Bethlehem, Mecca, and Lumbini - the birth places of Jesus, Mohammed, and the Buddha. Over the maps Annie places symbols and texts that add the human layer to the place. Annie uses the same approach in another print that tells the historic tale of the U.S./Mexico border - the first of what will be a multi-print series of famous, or infamous, borders of the world.
Response has to Annie's prints been great thus far. Prints from all editions are still available, though just a few are left in some cases. I'm also excited that Annie will be in Seattle for the exhibit's October 2nd reception from 6-8 pm at Cullom Gallery. She will then stick around Seattle and be back in the Gallery Saturday afternoon,
October 4th for an artist's talk at the Gallery at 2 pm. Please give the Gallery a call at 206.919.8278 if you can make it, or just stop by too.