GUM: "the whole thing all at once"

On Wed, 14 Dec 2005, Yves Gauvreau wrote:

> Every time I see a little bit on what can be done with gum, I'm just amazed,
> it's like entering a very large and very dark cavern where your flashlight
> can only illuminate but a tiny portion of it such that I can't figure out
> where I'm going to go. I'd like to have a very powerful flash that could
> show me the hole thing all at ounce for long enough that I can decide where
> I want to go.

The problem you're having, Yves, in my opinion, is that you're thinking
like a photographer... that is, a photographer of a simple one-dimensional
process like silver gelatin b&w (a kit -- buy the box, follow the data
sheet), or most other single-coat processes (VDB, platinum, et al.), That
is, there's a particular process, well-mapped, and tho with variations by
paper, developer, additives, etc., tricky or tetchy as it may be, the
mechanics & result are more or less the same.

Gum printing is in many ways like *painting* -- and you wouldn't presume
to demand an explanation of exactly what happens when you paint, because
painters often have their own methods, materials, sequences, additives,
techniques, effects, colors, substrates, brushes, shovels, knives,
solvents, ideas and goals, as well of course as ideas of a good time.

True, there is the constant in so-called "gum printing" that the vehicle
(gum) is hardened by the dichromate in the presence of UV -- tho even some
variations on that -- but that's only the basics, like saying humans talk
with their vocal chords -- that doesn't tell HOW they talk or why, or sing
or hum or clear their throat or vocalize sneezes or sex, for instance.

Some of your questions, leading to long explanations (IMO attempts to eff
the ineffiable) would be better answered by JUST ONE LITTLE TEST ! (Tho
WITH both paint and gum, or you know nothing.)

But, BTW, if you want to see gorgeous one-coat gums, go to Paris & look at
Robert Demachy in the Biblioteque Nationale (if that's the name?), among
many many others. There are many reasons to do one-coat gum, among them
SIMPLICITY, but... there are other reasons & limitations, as well as
ideas, that invite, even demand, multi-coat. The attempt to define your
parameters for you would be like telling you what kind of painting you
should make, and how.

(Tho that can probably be done if you state what painter you want to
imitate... )

> I don't know if I was able to give you an idea of how I feel about this gum
> stuff but it's both euphoria and misery at the same time.

Aber naturlich -- and the title of that book is "The Agony and The
Ecstasy."

But when you find the book that tells you "the whole thing all at once"
about art, with or without a flashlight, will you send us the ISBN number?

Judy
Received on Thu Dec 15 20:55:22 2005