Time Was

When students paid a lot to hear me - In a nostalgic mood, the old professor reflects on a time when he was at the peak of his career when students paid a high price to hear and see him teaching. Considering this, what do students get today for their money, paying a lot more for someone else?1284 Words. es100405. ©2010 Bill Ritchie.

Closet Musician

Let the music be heard in a printmaking world - He postulated there is a connection between printmaking and music. In printmaking you make plates and print them repeatedly. In music you write the score, or improvise, and do this over and over. A good game needs music, and he finds an idea how to do it. 789 Words. es100125. ©2010 Bill Ritchie. Full text by email request: ritchie@emeralda.com

Printmaking Objects

How many objects are there? - Seeking a way to teach printmaking online, this professor arrives at the question most beginning printmakers encounter: What are the tools and equipment needed for making traditional fine art prints? He uses a musician’s computer game as an idea to teach. 441 Words. es100115. ©2010 Bill Ritchie

First Day

Starting all over again at E’Studios - It’s his first day on a make-believe island, the second of ten, at the onset of his fourteenth year winning the Gates Prize, sending himself off to his imaginary printmaking world in Emeralda Region. This requires an introduction so he writes another one. 514 Words. es091216. ©2009 Bill Ritchie. Full Text by email request: ritchie@emeralda.com

Fourth Place

Meeting up in a changed world - The “third place” was popular in the last century to describe a place between work and home, like a stop at the tavern or coffee shop to see friends, gossip or maybe do a little business. There is a fourth place today in cyberspace, as artists go virtual. 1231 Words. es091201. ©2009 Bill Ritchie. Full text by email request: ritchie@emeralda.com

Millionaire Printmaker

When I opened my eyes to prints I was looking at time - He liked to say, “When I opened my eyes to art, I was looking at prints.” This was his mantra for over 40 years. The author may have thought prints were the carriers for fine art, art’s time-and-space vehicles, but printmaking is in fact a time-based art. 1145 Words. es090912 ©2009 Bill Ritchie Full text by email request: ritchie@emeralda.com

Erica Williams

After all that she did for me - A telephone call inspires an artist, who had his heyday in the ‘80s, recalls some things that the caller did for him as an art dealer back then. He recalls highlights of his short, happy career, and how her help brought about creative acts and made money. 1017 Words. es090714. ©2009 Bill Ritchie. Full text by email request: ritchie@emeralda.com