Sunday March 1, 2015, 2:00 pm: Lecture Invitation, “Made in China Long Ago – Woodblock Printing Revisited Now”by Raymond Verdaguer – artist & engraver  – New York Chinese Opera Society. Inc, 120 Broadway, Suite 3650, New York, NY, 10271.

Chinese calligraphy on ice, Feb 2015, East River, NYC

invitación conferencia – Domingo, 01 de marzo 2015 a 14 h  – “Checho en China hace mucho tiempo, la impresión de bloque de madera revisitado ahora  – comisariada por Raimon Verdaguer, artista y grabador.

Conferenza invito – Domenica 1 marzo 2015, dalla 14,00 ,”fatto in Cina molto tempo fa, la stampa blocco di legno rivisitato ora”, Raimondo Verdaguer artista e incisore.

invitation  conférence, Dimanche 1er mars 2015 à 14 h  ,”Fait en Chine il y a longtemps, l’impression a partir de bloc de bois revisité aujourd’hui?” presenté par Raynond Verdaguer  artiste et graveur.

Presentation

Presenting woodblock printing to a  Chinese audience seems to me like if I would have the nerve to teach them how to use chopsticks!

Of course, coming from an European background I have been comfortably told, “engraving”  starts  flourishing  in 16 century …Germany, leaving the rest of the world into obscurity, and specially silencing China for it very contribution to the process, an historical impact too great to ignore but also to measure… more so this day where our ignorance make us into believe that touch in up a screen is the only answer to our communication and creativity. Let’s wait for our next “black out”, to figure out how smart we indeed are!

My presentation is nothing but an introduction of ‘my’ pratice. The one I have ‘re-discovered’,  ‘auto’ learned and adapted it to ‘my’ needs. If given the opportunity, I wish to share with other my experience – mostly my inexperience, and possibly stimulate a debate about this.

My purpose of learning Chinese calligraphy goes beyond writing  ‘characters’ themselves, ‘signs’  I DO, of course, not know the ‘meaning’ but still perceive their energy and the genius creativity unfolding under my eyes – the human mind behind who made then  be – I cannot stop marveling at this.   I wish to continue my adventure into the logical development leading to engraving as well — not just to follow history but because both forms seem to complement each other ethically …

Even so I am not using either traditional tools nor materials, I hope my adaption and interpretation will give justice to the sprit of  “engraving and printing”, more so inspire others to play with it… and bring it to hights I can’t even dream of!

Thank you

Raimon – [ your fellow learning Chinese calligrapher]

print of characters cut into linoleum and the linoleum block

original linoleum cut, linogravure originale, linóleo grabado original incisione originale > Copyright © Raymond Verdaguer 2015

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