McClain's:

You studied with Masahiko Tokumitsu to begin your career with woodblock printmaking. How did you decide he would be the best teacher for you?

Richard Steiner:

Because he was the only teacher in Hiroshima. Or, anyway, he was the one I was introduced to by one of my English students, who had done some research and found his name and address. Tokumitsu had taught foreigners before; I was not his first; in fact, when I was studying there in his home on Saturdays, there was also a high school girl from California. We would argue a lot. This made Tokumitsu angry and he would shout at us to be quiet. I liked Tokumitsu from the beginning, but had no idea if he liked me or not. I suspect that, for him, I was just another student who would study for a while, then go off to do something else. But he once told Kimiko, my wife, that he thought I was very good and was glad he had taught me, though he quickly added that there was much more I had to learn. This is still true. Once, I had transferred an image directly to the block from a large photograph I had taken to the block. When he saw it, he took a knife and X-ed the block. He did not want any student ever to work from photos, only from sketches. I continue to follow this teaching today, and insist on it for my students too. After 10 years of studying, he gave me the artist’s name, Tosai, and a handwritten teacher’s license. But I continued to go back to Hiroshima occasionally (I was living in Kyoto by then) to learn more.

Gray Ears

McClain's:

Can you give us an idea of the pulse of moku hanga in Japan today? Does the idea of “Master Printer” still exist and if so are there individuals striving to obtain this title?

Eiffel Tower

Richard Steiner:

The “pulse” of woodblock printmaking has never gone away, though it may have weakened during the war years. There are and always have been countless (countless!) amateur printmakers hidden away in the small towns and rural areas of Japan. Many are very, very good, while the others are doing their best. Few of them aim for professionalism; they make prints for the joy of it. Woodblock printmaking is very much alive and kicking.

The concept of a Master Printer in Japan is stupid. Historically and even now, there are professional printers. Today, quite contrary to the terribly misinformed Western idea, young men and women are becoming professional printers and carvers, but these artisans are usually too busy to do much of their own creating. They are good, very good. But not one of them would let him or herself be termed a master. A Master knows all there is to know about something. Maybe, at one time in the past, it could have been possible to actually know all there was to know about something. But it ain’t so today. I know a lot. I know some things that others do not know.  And they know many things I do not know. None of us qualifies to be called Masters. New tools, techniques and materials are being invented or discovered all the time; no one can keep up with it all.Tokyo and Kyoto are the two main centers today where professional carvers and printers live and work, as far as I know.

McClain's:

Last year you taught a week-long moku hanga course at Marylhurst University in Portland, Oregon. This August you are doing the same, but there will be a beginner course and an advanced course. How will the advanced class go beyond the beginner? How will this beginner class differ from last year’s, if at all?

Richard Steiner:

The beginner course will not be so different from last year’s. I felt, as did others, that the content and pace were just right though it could have been a little longer, of course. I plan to pretty much stay with the way I ran last year’s workshop.

As for the advanced, everyone who signs up for this workshop already knows a lot. I do not have to do any or much hand-holding. So, I will let everyone work on what they want to work on, and at their own pace. Inevitably, questions and problems will arise. At that point, I will try to answer with demonstrations and comments for everyone in the room to follow. Some problems are often common to nearly everyone. I do have some tricks up my apron sleeves, naturally, and will bring them out at appropriate times. How to work with very large prints; the importance of analyzing the sketch beforehand for color placement; using both hands; and some more will be touched upon. But mostly I see myself as being on hand, at the ready, to help solve difficulties when they come up. There is so much to know. Everyone knows something others do not know. And advanced people love to tell what they have learned. It will be an exciting class, I am sure.

Moon Viewing Kruse

McClain's:

What’s your best piece of advice for a beginning printmaker? And for a seasoned printer?

Richard Steiner:

Well, I do not like to give advice. Who am I to do such a thing? The beginner and the seasoned printmaker both have to sketch constantly, to look at everything around them with it in mind of possibly making it into a print, to go to exhibitions of prints and paintings and drawings and what-all, to love the art and craft of woodblock printmaking, to always strive to learn more.

      Warayaki (Fall fires)

Two thirsty fish

McClain's:

Are there any secrets about printing or art that you would like to share?

Richard Steiner:

There are no secrets. I am a woodblock teacher, and as such, want to share all I know with anyone. I want to learn more to have more to share.

McClain's:

Which artist do you most admire? And is there a person – perhaps a non-artist – that you most admire?

Richard Steiner:

I like the 17th and 18th Dutch painters, and Dali, and a few other moderns. I don’t care much for the primitive or ethnic. I dislike children’s art. As for printmakers, there are many. The great artists of the Independent Print Maker Movement I like and respect much. Some of them I have known. One was Takashi Asano. He would never brook any nonsense from anyone.  He was a friend of the American illustrator, Ben Shan. They were similar souls. I would like to be like them eventually – strong in their distain for foolishness and hypocrisy. Another individual I admire is the poet, Cid Corman. In life and poetry, he was forthright, honest, but not coarse or blunt. I suppose there are more. One man has always had my respect, and that was my own father. He was truly a wonderful man.

Evil Afternoon

McClain's:

You have strong opinions about art and its definition. How did you come to the decision of accepting all work that is submitted to the KIWA exhibition? How do you accommodate a class full of students with varying styles, concepts and their own views of art?

Richard Steiner:
KIWA’s purpose is to show what all is being done in the world in woodblock printmaking. Who am I to impose my likes and dislikes? I only provide the wall space; anyone can hang whatever they like. I always have at least 4 or 5 judges, never one or two, to insure fairness. Until this last exhibition, we accepted everything; but this time we rejected two entries: one because it was not woodblock; the other because it went beyond art into remarkably offensive political/ethnic/religious mode. It was not bad art; it was unforgivably insulting. Almost unanimously it was rejected.

In my printmaking classes and workshops, I never, but never, impose my opinions on the students. I do not give assignments. I want to only see what the student has in his or her heart. Of course, some students do not have anything, or not much, in their hearts. That is, they do not yet know how to reach into themselves and pull out the countless ideas resident there. My task as a teacher is to show them that these ideas are in them and are unique to them only. These images and the subsequent prints are “images” of themselves. That is my main goal. Leading up to that, I may have to guide them along the path of basic art rules; that is, color balance, perspective, use and misuse of corners; composition; space and line balance; whatever they may lack in the basics. Subtly, or perhaps not so subtly, I do talk about my ideas of what is in all our hearts/minds, which is unique and special to us individually. If a student wants to make a print of a bunch of flowers on the table, OK. But I encourage them to do it creatively, not photographically. Playing around with the thickness of lines, the odd use of colors, shadows, rounding off square things, squaring off round things, etc., begins to let them see possibilities.

I have always thought that real art, true art, was always self-portraiture; the artist was showing something of himself or herself in the artwork, subtly, hidden in the shrubbery, perhaps, but in there somewhere.  All the rest of the stuff hanging on the walls is decoration. Good decoration often, but not art. I am mostly interested in myself. That is, in the way I am seeing the world and life around me, and the way I am seeing me, too. Flowers in a pot, kittens on a rug – these are only artistic exercises if rendered photographically. Abstract art is a fraud; where is the depth, the humanity? The insight into life? The psychology of the artist? A painting by a madman may be a madman’s painting, but does not answer the question of why he is mad, and that is the most interesting, telling, reveling point.                                                                                                                    

To see more of Richard's work, please visit his website:

http://www.richard-steiner.net/

For more information about KIWA visit their website:

http://www.kiwa.net/

2003 KIWA Exhibition

2007 KIWA Exhibition

2003 & 2007 KIWA catalogs (catalogs full color and the dust jackets have been designed and carved by Richard Steiner, KIWA president. Printing was by traditional woodblock printing workshops in Kyoto. Every catalog is signed and red-stamped in a numbered edition.) 

Richard Steiner at 2007 KIWA Exhibition