Larry's Cartoon Vault: David Rand's Cartoonists' Exchange Course in Cartooning



David Rand

In earlier installments of the Cartoon Vault I’ve covered the vogue of cartooning correspondence courses of the first half of the 20^th century such as the Landon School of Illustration and Cartooning (see our February archives for more posts).

This time I’m highlighting David Rand’s Cartoonists' Exchange Course.

The Cartoonists' Exchange of Pleasant Hill, Ohio was the Cadillac of cartoon correspondence courses. Rand’s course offered seven books covering 34 lessons along with arts supplies, paper and a drawing board.



Cartoonists' Exchange was also home of the “marionette method” of cartooning and a few patented teaching aids never seen before (or since):  The Position Finder, The Comic Character Creator and the Laugh Finder.

Here are some sample lessons:

Hey kids!  Let's all draw Hitler and Stalin!

The “Marionette Method” was a big part of the curriculum.

Plus an incredible selection of cool stuff:

The Comic Character Creator



The Laugh Finder

Dan A. Runyan-creator of the Laugh Finder

The "Art-Full" Wonder Box



                                                                                                                              (As always click on thumbnails to enlarge)

Pressing Matters: the 2nd Annual Printmakers Group Show



Lithograph by Elan Kamesar


This July I organized Pressing Matters: the 2nd Annual Printmakers Group Show. It's a group show highlighting local printmakers featuring etchings, woodcuts, serigraphs, monotypes, linocuts, and lithographs.

This year’s featured artists include Al Ardelle, Bea Benjamin, Fred L. Berensmeier, Geoff  Bernstein, Scott Gibbons, Lawrence Gilmour, Zach Gilmour, Jenny Hunter Groat, Daryl Grossman, Art Holman, Elan Kamesar, Lanee Lowell, Barbara Morris, Steve Parun, Gabriele Schwibach, Janice Van Hoy Scott, Susan Shannon, Jean-A Warner and me.

Here are a few highlights from the exhibit:

Bea Benjamin, Zach Gilmour and Larry Gilmour at the reception.



"Strolling Ostrich Echoing Ancestors" an etching by Fred L. Berensmeier



Fred Berensmeier chatting with Gaetano DeFelice.



"Desert Storm Stigmata" a serigraph by Fred L. Berensmeier



Goeff Bernstein, Barbara Morris and Jean-A Warner.



"Leadbelly" a serigraph on hand made paper by Geoff Bernstein



"Yank" linocut from my Blues Dudes series.

"Yank, Spoon, Berry"  (That’s Yank Rachell, Jimmy Witherspoon and Richard " Louie Louie” Berry).

Janice Van Hoy Scott and Jack Kamesar.



"Mountain Village" a color block print by Janice Van Hoy Scott.



Daryl Grossman's powerful aquatint etching  "Dance of Death-Bergen-Belson" 

by Susan Shannon

Here’s an example of a cut linoleum block  by Susan Shannon.

The exhibit runs through July in the Maurice Del Mue Galleries at the San Geronimo Valley Community Center. --Larry




 

Molly's Turn: Poetry, unexpectedly beautiful!



Askia Humphrey: Poet

 My daughter has brought into our lives a wonderful young man who is an incredible dancer among many other talents.  The talent that you cannot visually see is his poetry.  I have never been real fond of poetry, growing up with the beat generation poets as part of my parents circle of friends in San Francisco.  Just didn't like poetry, although I do love Maya Angelou, whom I met when I was about 11 years old. ( I credit her with my appreciation for people, she taught me that everyone is worthy of respect and the kindness of being listened to).  Encountering Askia's poetry has really changed my perspective on the subject.  I can see how beautiful and precise poetry can be.  And how revealing.  Askia writes from his own personal experiences.  He creates an audio painting, to my mind,  and I am intrigued by his work which leaves me wanting to read more.

I have gathered together his poetry into a small booklet which hangs from his painting so that anyone who looks at his beautiful face can read his gorgeous words. Can you tell I really appreciate  him??





Here are Askia's Poems:

Salem Light

She tilts her wrist;

An old southern belle

Holding a Salem Light

Between her index

And her middle finger.

The smoke streaming up

From the little ember

At the end of it

Hangs around her head

Too heavy to ascend.

She sits poised

Like the proud obverse of a coin;

A cameo amid the smoke;

A profile silhouette

Against the lighted window;

Her chin is high

And her eyes are narrowed

With crows feet so deep-

                             Hard old trails

            From Texas to California.

She brings the Salem Light to her lips;

The smoke stops

And the little ember glows.

The Silence of Pietro Olivetti

Every day,

Between chemistry

And literature,

Pietro passes Ana

In the hall.

Some days

Pietro stares

At his watch,

As if he might be late.

Other days

He files through his books

As if he’s lost his homework.

One day,

While passing Ana,

Pietro looked up

And saw her

Looking back at him.

                                She smiled,

That night,

Pietro wrote in his journal,

“Looking into her eyes

Was like looking

Into two great continents,

And I felt there was a sparrow

In my chest,

Beating it’s wings,

Hoping to fly

Over those continents.”

The next day,

Pietro saw Ana

Coming down the Hall;

And coming near to her,

He thought of dropping

One knee

And breaking into verse.

He thought of telling her,

There’s a bird in my chest

Will you unlock his cage

So he can fly?

As they came close

Pietro looked

Ana in the eyes,

And as she smiled at him,

Pietro dropped

To on knee,       

And tied his shoe.

Love and Gravity

The stairs lead up

To a carpeted hallway

Illuminated by moonlight

Shining in through a little window.

The window looks out over the roof

Of the first story,

Over the neighbors house,

And out into the universe.

The moon is visible.

They say it’s moving further

Away from the earth-

Every year: four centimeters.

It makes sense.

The sun is cooling.

The stars are drifting apart.

I even read once that entire galaxies

Are moving away from one another

And defusing themselves.

It seems the Ouroboros

Isn’t swallowing itself at all

But heaving itself

Away from the primordial unity

It symbolizes; someday

It’ll be face to face with its own tail

And the law of gravity will fail

To hold the celestial bodies together,

Flinging the moon

Into cold, dark, silent space.

In the carpeted hallway,

I walk away from the window

And into the bedroom.

It’s pitch black.

I drag my feet along the carpet,

Feeling my way across the room

To the bedside.

There’s a moan in the dark-

A stirring on the bed.

My lover lifts the comforter for me.

I crawl into bed beside her.

She rolls over.

Pulling myself to her side of the bed

I lay my arm over

The middle of her body;

She takes my hand

And draws my arm up

Under hers;

My wrist between her breasts.

Then, simultaneously

We pull into one another.

I feel her heat,

And her ribs.

Her breath comes in the dark.

The moon slips away from the earth,

Every moment, some measureless distant.

We two humans, hold together, warming

One another in the cold, dark, silent room.

Askia reading at the Falkirk Cultrual Center in San Rafael

Photo courtesy of Tamara Holland

Check out her blog Bean Up the Nose Art at: http://blog.beanupthenoseart.com/

All poetry copyright 2011 Askia Humphrey







Interview with printmakers Lawrence and Zach Gilmour

Next month I’m curating a group show of printmakers in the Maurice Del Mue Galleries at the San Geronimo Valley Community Center entitled Pressing Matters: Printmakers Group Show. This will be the second annual Pressing Matters.

One of the highlights of last year's show was a special exhibition of three generations of printmakers: Leon, Lawrence and Zach Gilmour.

I interviewed Lawrence and Zach at the time of the exhibit. Portions of the article below originally appeared in the newspaper Stone Soup.



Leon Gilmour

Leon Gilmour, born in Lativa in 1907, came to the United States in 1916 and did various jobs including working as a ranch hand, construction worker and gold miner while continuing his art studies. He studied at the School of Practical Art and the Otis Art Institute.



Wood engraving by Leon Gilmour



Leon Gilmour’s remarkable wood engravings are in the Achenbach collection of the Palace of the Legion of Honor and the Smithsonian Institution and numerous private collections. In 2009, his work was featured in the California in Relief  print exhibit at the Hearst Art Gallery, St. Mary’s College. Leon Gilmour died in 1996.

Larwrence Gilmour

Leon’s son, Lawrence Gilmour, is a Marin county artist who has had numerous local exhibits including work at the Falkirk Cultural Center and the College of Marin. His first forays in printmaking began in the early 1970’s.

Zach Gilmour

Zach Gilmour, a Forest Knolls resident, has taught printmaking at the Marin School of the Arts. He has exhibited at the Kala Art Institute, Artisans Gallery and the College of Marin.

Etching by Lawrence Gilmour

Lawrence Gilmour

Did you watch –or assist--your father making prints?

Lawrence: Yes, I saw my father working on his blocks from the early 1940's on until the end of his life.

In the early years I did not see him print as he did not have his own press. Later, in the 1970's and 80's even into the 90's, he printed on an old proof press in his garage down in Burlingame CA. 

I never assisted my father until very late in his life, when his back began to prevent him from cranking his stubborn old press.

You’ve made etchings and monotypes. When did you begin making prints?

Lawrence: I started making prints during the 1970's. There was a renewed interest in printmaking at that time and I was given an opportunity to learn etching. 

Leon Gilmour worked with the WPA in the style associated with social realism. How would you describe your work?

Lawrence: Leon was also inspired by his love for the High Sierras. He approached nature with an analytic as well as poetic sensibility.

As far as my work goes, I have not been as overtly political in my work as my father was, but there are undercurrents of political and philosophical issues in much of my imagery. I am experimental in much of my work and have not worked to establish a strong personal style; although themes and attitudes repeat throughout my work. 

Monotype by Zach Gilmour

Zach Gilmour

You were a baker and graduate of the California Culinary Academy before you turned to art.  What caused this change in direction in your life?

Zach: Well, in truth I have always made art and never stopped. However, when I was working as a baker and commuting from Mill Valley to Sonoma each day, I found myself drawn to the ever-changing landscape I would drive past. It made me want to make art to find a way to capture it. Not long after that I happened to visit the San Francisco Art Institute, and it felt like a good place to be. So I decided I needed to go back to school to study printmaking more seriously.

Both you and your father have made a form of print know as a monotype.  Can you describe a monotype—and how it might differ from a monoprint?

Zach: Monotypes are made by applying ink to a plate that is smooth, traditionally copper, but most people now use plexiglass. Then paper is laid over the plate and pressure is applied to create a one of a kind image. Monoprints on the other hand use a plate that is not smooth. The plate will have some sort of element, usually etched lines. And though the ink is applied in a unique way, that one part of the image will show up the same each time.

I asked these questions of both Lawrence and Zach:



Woodcut by Lawrence Gilmour

  

What is it about printmaking—why not painting or sculpture?

Lawrence: Printmaking is a natural extension of drawing, which is the core of my practice as an artist. However, I do paint, and currently I am making ceramic sculptures as well.

Zach: There’s something about the process of printmaking that forces you to step away from your work as you make it. When you put the paper on the plate or block and put it through the press there is a level of unknown 'until you lift the paper back up and see the result. That interaction of hand, ink, plate, paper and pressure just works for me better than anything else.

  

What artists or artworks have influenced your work?

Lawrence:  All the great draughtsmen, from the prehistoric animal drawing masters to the generation just ahead of my own; Rivers, Kitaj, Baskin, Jim Dine, Oldenburg, and the masters of sequential art, that would be comic book artists. Moebius was particularly influential during the late 70's and early 80's.

Zach: Sort of a random group: Russell Chatham, Nathan Oliveira, Egon Schiele, Degas, and right now the person's work that inspires me a great deal is a local painter named Kristen Garneau. Lastly, both my parents have been the most influential as I have grown up watching them work.

Where did you receive your training?  

Lawrence: At the Art Center College of Design. I now take ceramic classes at College of Marin

Zach: The San Francisco Art Institute and the California College of Arts and Crafts.

Is it true all three generations of Gilmours have used the same press?

Lawrence:  No. My father's press was a proof-press used by typographers in the age of hand-set metal type. His wood engravings were done on type-high blocks of boxwood and locked up on the press bed for inking and printing.

Zach: Though we still do have that press in storage, we just have not had the place/room to set it up.

Lawrence: Zach and I do share the etching press that I bought in the 1970's. That press is now in Zach's studio in Forest Knolls. 

Interview by Larry Rippee

Photos and images courtesy of the Gilmour family