The Passer By
"The Passer By"
Second of only two known surviving lithographic prints, the only one still
reasonably intact. There may be others out there somewhere, about ten were
printed.
1970 (The Oakland Period)
A scene of embarking Portuguese Fishermen and a preoccupied passer-by in the
foreground. The observer is watching the fishermen embark but the gaze is
shifted to the passer-by momentarily and therefore the surf and the boat are
blurred a bit as would occur with normal vision while the figure in the
foreground is in focus. It's another form of perspective.
There's nothing like working with litho stones. The material itself gives you a new respect for the picture plane, unlike paper or canvass, though each of those are important as well. And we have another these days, it seems: the computer monitor. Ah but there you have to have money. The older methods are more affordable. I'll be using them for a while longer probably.
But with this form of lithography you're working with hefty stone. Once you've got the set-up you're afforded this wonderful graphic capability. It was terrific drawing on the surface with that black crayon. Like the times I used crayons as a kid, working in coloring books, wishing then that I could produce the drawings I was then coloring in. Now I was. But not with color crayons but one black one only.
That was the last chance I had (so far at least, this is August of 2003) to do a litho. A student of California College of Arts and Crafts let me use the litho room at the school. The school I had attended only for six short months.
After my realization that the G.I. bill did not pay full tuition, I had planned to take a semester break and work at the then bustling "Emeryville", then reputed to be the richest square mile in America back in 1969, but when I went looking for employment in 1970, it was empty. Rendered into a ghost town. The factories were silent. I asked a secretary at one place why and she whispered as though afraid to be overheard, "Recession". "What's that?" I asked. Looking around first to see if anyone was there, she leaned over the counter and whispered again, "Tight money".
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"Image122pastel1".
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Second of only two known surviving lithographic prints, the only one still reasonably intact.
Copyright © 2003 by Paul A. L. Hall. All rights reserved.
email Paul and all at paulandall@paulhallart.com
A scene of embarking Portuguese Fishermen and a preoccupied passer-by in the foreground.