Peace Gathering at Prints for Peace Mexico

Gathering for Peace

The Octava Convocatoria Internacional de Grabados por la Paz México 2016 or Eighth Prints for Peace México 2016 brings together artists from all over the world to celebrate and promote peace. The tireless Guadalupe Victorica is the organizer, year after year, and the exhibits seem to be getting bigger and more world encompassing. Hats off to Guadalupe!

The Peace Puzzle 2016 - 160 artists

Peace in Print, the tale! available in Amazon.com

One of the 8 panels of the Peace Puzzle
with participant artists

I am proud that the Peace Puzzle 2015 is a part of this huge collective. Can't do enough to bring artists together in our moment of world peace. 

See all the details here:

http://www.printsforpeacemexico.blogspot.com/

Participant Groups

Stay in touch!

1000woodcuts Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/1000woodcuts 
Maria's Facebook Profile: https://www.facebook.com/maria.arango.diener 
Maria's Twitter Profile: https://twitter.com/1000woodcuts 
1000woodcuts YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/1000woodcuts/videos

A Peaceful Mystery and More Progress

Progress Report!

Three blocks are now printed with the Water block having been completed, ooooh, about 30 minutes ago. I worked my helper Suzanne Salsbury until she cried...well, no, maybe that was ME that was crying! But we managed to print 75 prints today to finish off the block. We now have 156+136+135 prints done or 427 done and about 850 to go.

The LOVE BOAAAAT, I mean the Love Block is next, all prepped and ready for ink. Why do I keep singing the Love Boat song? Well when I first came to 'Merrica, I was assigned a good dose of daily television by my English as a Second Language teacher. So I learned all about the Brady Bunch, Opie's show, the Love Boat, Bewitched, and others like that. My cousins helped a lot, mostly screaming at Donny and Marie Osmond (mostly at Donny) and, oh yes, the Jackson Five with little Michael. I learned English fast :-)

Anyhow, back at the studio...

The Peaceful Mystery

So now to my mystery. If you recall I had some drop outs and had to cut some substitute blocks. I had just cut a block to fill in the Sun block. That's my block "You've got a friend" with the one dude helping the other dude get up the mountain. That's also my block above it with the happy Maria enjoying the vastness and beauty of nature. So when I received the block that belongs where the Friends go, I was happy to get something made by a participant other than Maria. Then I nearly freaked out...

The block I received was from an art festival friend and excellent artist and she designed the word "Peace" in Hebrew. Beautiful lettering and nothing strange about that...

...except that the block that is right next to it has the word "Peace" in Arabic. These participant artists do not know each other, neither knew the location of their block, and I randomly assign blocks to artists after they are packed so I don't know where they go or who will carve them. Make of that what you will! I love a good destiny mystery.

I will have to flip the letters in order for them to read correctly but all I could say is WOW! Then I looked up very carefully...

Stay in touch!

1000woodcuts Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/1000woodcuts 
Maria's Facebook Profile: https://www.facebook.com/maria.arango.diener 
Maria's Twitter Profile: https://twitter.com/1000woodcuts 
1000woodcuts YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/1000woodcuts/videos

Japan and Wyoming get together in peace

Artist's info link

Don't forget as you finish and mail your images to send in your information via this page:

http://1000woodcuts.blogspot.com/2015/03/peace-puzzle-information.html 

George Jarvis
Akita Japan                         

"Heiwa"" is peace.

Peace for the individual needs freedom from fear,

freedom from want, and freedom of expression.

Peace for a society needs a commitment to

unbiased truth and mutual respect.

George Jarvis "Heiwa"
Contribution for Peace Puzzle 2015

Sonia Jensen      surrounded by mountains in Wyoming
musselshell@silverstar.com        

Why is peace such a puzzle?  Why don't the "pieces" nations bring to "Peace Conferences" fit together? I believe that most of the 7 billion citizens of the world long for peace around the world.

Sonia Jensen
Peace Puzzle 2015

Stay in touch!

1000woodcuts Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/1000woodcuts 
Maria's Facebook Profile: https://www.facebook.com/maria.arango.diener 
Maria's Twitter Profile: https://twitter.com/1000woodcuts 
1000woodcuts YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/1000woodcuts/videos

News and blocks from Colorado US and Monterrey Mexico

Doug Haug from Colorado Springs, Colorado USA, says this about his block:

A few years ago, I took a road trip with my dad.  He was usually fine with eating at Dennys or Applebees.  On the first night, though, we were going to dinner, and not being able to see anything beyond the streetlights, it was difficult to tell what city we were in.  In this era of franchised burgers and burritos, corporate America tells us what tastes good.  Cy's helps my neighborhood buck that trend with their Alaska burgers.

By the way, the Westside Pioneer gives us more information onour town than the Colorado Springs Gazette!

And bunnies and tigers as a bonus! Those are from Barenforum.org Chinese Lunar New Year Exchanges. They come throughout the year and sometimes we are surprised by arrivals from years past. Makes going to the mailbox fun on a daily basis.

Guadalupe Victorica from Laredo Texas and Monterrey Mexico often writes about the state of things in Mexico. Really amazing how art and lives survive in troubled times and places. She directs a project called Prints for Peace and somehow continues to sponsor and foster art, especially printmaking art, in the midst of the storm. Amazing.

Here is Guadalupe's block:

Hearing about troubled spots in the world makes me reflect upon how fortunate some of us are and how very peaceful our lives truly are. Every morning I walk my desert garden and think of the world's troubles while I hear the birds sing and the lizards scurry about and wish the same peace upon everyone all over the world.