Re: "the whole thing all at once"

Judy,

I admire your virtuosity with words, I realized I must bug a few of you with
my incompetance in english, gum printing and probably in many other areas as
well. I can see some of you go out of your way to let me know.

"Philosophy is written in this grand book, the universe, which stands
continually open to our gaze. But the book cannot be understood unless one
first learns to comprehend the language and read the characters in which it
is written and without these one is wandering in a dark labyrinth."

Maybe these words from one of the great mind of our times will translate
what I've been trying to say all along.

Yves
PS. This is a partial quote from Galileo Galilei

----- Original Message -----
From: "Judy Seigel" <jseigel@panix.com>
To: <alt-photo-process-l@sask.usask.ca>
Sent: Thursday, December 15, 2005 9:55 PM
Subject: 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 Fri Dec 16 01:07:38 2005