Bill Ritchie' art in Washington State
  
in The Evergreen State College art collection

The Evergreen State College

   
Left: Image from TESC website. Right: 1970 photo by Gwen Howell, student made on her field trip to his studio where he was printing this print.
Photo is on page 239 of "Escape Emeralda: Bill Ritchie's autobiography," online free, searchable flipbook.

Chickens with the Blue Stones

Provenance: Print. 1969 - 1970. Intaglio and relief. Ochre, black, red and blue. Image 16 1/2" x 22" on 20" x 26" Arches Cover paper. Signed lower right.

Comment: " In 1969, Anne Breivik taught me viscosity printing in her studio, Atelier Nord, in Oslo, Norway. Only the lower left quadrant of this print is the result of those sessions with Anne. When I returned to Seattle, I cut more plates and interlocked the edges to extend the image, include a second chicken-on-a-ping-pong paddle, and the stones. I was trying different inks with this proof." See "Escape Emeralda: Bill Ritchie's autobiography," Online free searchable flipbook. Pp. 238-239

  
Left: Image from TESC Website. Right: Two images of prints in Ritchie's wife and daughter's collection.
Shown with the story of the prints on P. 321 of "Escape Emeralda: Bill Ritchie's autobiography," online free, searchable flipbook.

Sweet Target Hearts

Provenance: Print. 1976. Intaglio and planographic (stone lithographs) chine colle. Reds, graphite, blue, ochre and black. Image 19 1/4" x 31 1/4" on Arches "sweetened" with asian papers, collagraph prints by C.T. Chew. Signed lower right. Collections of: Billie Jane Bryan, David Prentice, Rainier Bank, Lynda Ritchie, Gordon Sondland.

Comment from Ritchie's autobiography, Escape Emeralda, free online, searchable flipbook, p. 321: "The making of the Sweet Target Hearts suite of prints spans almost a year in which I resolved one of my biggest dilemmas - that of redundant art in the print mediums. Back in late summer of 1975 (this was before I went to Japan) I was drawing one more image of my target heart theme. I had twin lithograph stones perched side-by-side on my stone easels. The two drawings started out as a continuation of the target-heart series (I had done five by now) but then I hit a wall. Something was missing. Or could it be that I had used up the target-heart idea - milked it for all it was worth? Was I now repeating myself? I stopped. After a while, as the stones sat ignored, I had gone to Japan and discovered it is permissible to repeat oneself. I came back with a change of mind. Maybe it was calligraphy lessons that triggered a different view. My mentor, Hiro Kawasaki, had me practicing the characters for cherry blossom, repeating those brush strokes of the character countless times. If calligraphy expressing one phrase, cherry blossom, could serve for artistic discipline, why not a target-heart? Sweet Target Hearts became one of my best-documented prints. It bridged the time just before I made my trip from Seattle to Japan and back. It brought to mind my discoveries of the old heroes of the Northwest School, Morris Graves, and Mark Toby, because of the influence of Asian art and philosophy. When I returned from Japan, I resumed the drawings on stone because they initiated the project; but I then added two etched zinc plates, reinvigorating what had been almost a lost cause. I asked C. T. Chew to make me a series of prints from his collagraphs to salvage my Sweet Target Hearts prints, this made all the difference! The inspiration for this unusual request came from a Doonesbury cartoon about sweetening rock musicians' sessions in recording studios. That gave me the idea for the title. When I chine-colle'd Carl’s series of “sweet prints” for backgrounds of my prints, Sweet Target Hearts came together beautifully as one sees them in their finished state. Sam Davidson was one of the galleries where it showed, but was sold to Gordon Sondland - a Trumper. I'm not proud of that."

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Email: ritchie@seanet.com