Milne's Alchemist

         Time for another fantasy poem (not by me), so here’s a charming one by A.A. Milne.

        The Alchemist

There lives an old man at the top of the street

And the end of his beard reaches down to his feet,

And he’s just the one person I’m longing to meet,

        I think that he sounds so exciting;

For he talks all the day to his tortoiseshell cat,

And he asks about this, and explains about that,

And at night he puts on a big wide-awake¹ hat

        And sits in the writing-room, writing.

He has worked all his life (and he’s terribly old)

At a wonderful spell which says, “Lo, and behold!

Your nursery fender is gold!”—and it’s gold!

        (Or the tongs, or the rod for the curtain);

But some how he hasn’t got hold of it quite,

Or the liquid you pour on it first isn’t right,

So that’s why he works at it night after night

        Till he knows he can do it for certain.

¹ So as not to go to sleep.

        This poem is from When We Were Very Young, 1924.  Since this book is for young children, the poems are all quite gentle and whimsical.  I’ve shared more fantasy poetry of a different sort by Milne here: Bo, Boll, Bill, Bole.  (Still whimsical, but much more satirical.)  And if you want to learn more about the Alchemist’s work and why it’s so difficult and taking him such a long time, you can read about The Philosopher’s Stone.

[Picture: The Alchemist, illustration by Ernest H. Shepard from When We were Very Young by A.A. Milne, 1924.]

Flights of Foundry Signpost

         This weekend I’ll be participating in Flights of Foundry, an all-virtual, global, interdisciplinary convention for the speculative arts.  Since this will be my first time at Flights of Foundry, I can’t tell you much about what it will be like, but nevertheless I’ve made my usual pre-con signpost to point out more resources for anyone interested in the programming I’m on.

• Reading - Once again I’ve got my reading scheduled early in the con before I have a chance to advertise it at my other appearances!  Still, this could be interesting because I’ve got a 50 minute slot, which will give me time to answer lots of questions, take requests, and share a lot more than is usually possible.  (As long as anyone comes, of course!)

        All I’ll share here is the listing of all my published writing.

• Art Showcase - I’m not entirely sure what to expect from this one, but the resources I want to highlight are

        All my currently available work listed on my web page

        My handout of materials, tools, and instructions for making relief block prints

        Process - all the blog posts talking about my own process for particular pieces

        Step-by-Step - all the blog posts giving instructions on particular techniques

• What Makes Good Character Design - As I look through past posts on my process for particular pieces (to see them all, see the link above), I find that I haven’t much discussed the character design of humans!  But here are a few posts that may be relevant.

        Jubjub Bird

        Grand Marhoot

        Portrait of the Artist with Muses

        Billy Goats Gruff (and Troll)

• Finding Hope Through Creativity - Here are just a few posts, mostly about the importance of stories with hope, and the use of spec fic to imagine hopeful futures.

        A Desperate Little Exhortation About (Bitter)Sweetness and Light

        Happy Endings

        A Bit of Hope

        Books for Hope

        Negativity Bias

        Toxic Positivity

        The Tolstoy Fallacy

        Writing the Future

        Ursula LeGuin Says It Right

        Art Changes People

        International Peace Day

        Writing While Stressed

Schindler's Landscapes

         Here’s a linoleum block print by Deborah Schindler (USA), entitled “Medieval Forest.”  It has a very interesting blend of organic and geometric forms, and in many ways seems more African than Medieval to me.  Compare, for example, with the work of Azaria Mbatha.  On the other hand, there are medieval illuminations that use a similar style of abstract designs to fill in backgrounds and borders, while foreground elements are laid out across them.  I wonder whether Schindler was drawing inspiration from specific works, or was just evoking this from her imagination.

        In another piece by Schindler, called “Homing Pigeons,” you can see the influence of medieval art in the icon-like shape of the birds, and the rotationally symmetric arrangement as of decorative tiles.  I like the way Schindler makes a connection between the modern and medieval worlds, a theme that appears frequently in her work.  Also interesting is the background pattern of lines that suggest the shapes of roofs, as if the entire landscape were wall-to-wall houses in every inch that isn’t highway.  Visually it makes an effective background against which both light highway and black pigeons can pop, but when you look closely it seems to add a commentary about the modern landscape.

        Modern highway with birds, or medieval forest without animals, both pieces by Schindler are interesting.

[Pictures: Medieval Forest, linoleum cut by Deborah Schindler;

Homing Pigeons, linoleum cut by Schindler (Images from WashingtonPrintmakers.com).]

Lum's Spirits

         Today’s wood block prints are by Bertha Lum (USA, 1869-1954).  Lum was one of many western artists who fell in love with eastern art at the end of the nineteenth century, but unlike many others, she followed her interest seriously.  She was first exposed to Japanese printmaking through Arthur Wesley Dow, who was responsible for teaching Japanese printmaking styles and techniques to many American artists, (including Frances Hammel Gearhart and Margaret Jordan Patterson).  Lum, however, went to the source.  In a seven-week(!) honeymoon to Japan she found a tutor and bought carving tools, and then a few years later she went back to Japan to work with a block cutter for two months and a printer for another month.  A few years after that she was back in Japan for another six months… and so on.  Later she also went to China to study woodcut methods there, and eventually split her time between California, China, and Japan for the rest of her life.

        Lum was interested not only in the art of Japan, but also in its mythology and legends, and she made a number of wood block prints illustrating spirits of various sorts.  To my eye, these pieces look to have a strong influence from both the Japanese woodcut tradition and also western illustration of the era.  Certainly they’re pleasing to western tastes.

        Today I’ve got three beings (god, spirit, and sprite) representing three elemental forces.  First up is the Spirit of the Sea.  This one has an interesting contrast between the serenity of the spirit contemplating the perfect pearl of a bubble on the gentle rings of smooth water, while behind rises a towering, breaking wave, which paradoxically looks equally serene even though presumably it’s about to come crashing down.  Of course, the Spirit of the Sea doesn’t need to worry about it in any case!

        From water we turn to the God of Fire.  I particularly like the dark, amorphous figures dancing around the blazing god.  They seem to be connected with the black rocks as if this is a volcanic scene, and the swoop of the flaming figure implies a forward movement as if he’s not just dancing in place but striding across the earth.  The subtle variations of colors add to the drama.

        The Wind Sprite also seems to be a spirit of the sea, revelling in the waves whipped into curling crests, and the gulls swooping through the air.  Despite the streaming clothes, the spirit itself is a still figure, standing quite peacefully in the midst of the gusts.  Lum’s choices about how to portray these spirits makes me start thinking about what choices I might make if I were to try my hand at illustrating them.  Would I show spirits so comfortable with their elements that they don’t seem to be working at all, as Lum does, or would I show them actively conducting and crafting the power and movement of their elements?

       If we wanted to round out the four classical elements, we’d need a spirit of earth, as well, but Lum doesn’t seem to have done one - or at least not that I saw.  Some of her other pieces depict characters that are specific to Japanese myths and legends, but these three don’t include names or referents.  Therefore I don’t know whether Lum was illustrating specific tales, or simply imagining spirits in a Japonisme style.  In any case, I like them and will probably be sharing a few more of Lum’s pieces in future posts as the occasion arises.

[Pictures: Spirit of the Sea, color woodcut by Bertha Lum, 1913;

God of Fire, color woodcut by Lum, 1929;

Wind Sprite, color woodcut by Lum, 1917, (Images from BerthaLum.org).]

Bergen in Kansas

         Today’s one of those days when I’m just going to give you one pleasing relief block print without a ton of discussion.  This linocut by Richard Bergen (USA, 1925-2020) seems appropriate to the end of summer.  Bergen is most famous for his large-scale bronze sculptures, and although sculpting and relief block printmaking may share that they both use carving, I would think it would be a very different process both physically and mentally.  This piece doesn’t have a particularly high level of detail or precision for its size, and much of the carving is a bit stylized and impressionistic.  I like the vast swirling clouds of the sky, and the contrast of the different patterns on the ground.

        That’s it!  No deep analysis, just sharing a block print that I’m enjoying today!  What do you think?

[Picture: Kansas Farm, linocut by Richard Bergen, ca. 1955 (Image from Marianna Kistler Beach Museum of Art).]