Introduction | Index All the print news that fits!

'Human Drama' : Part One (of five)

'Human Drama' - A Canadian woodblock printmaker's 10 year journey ... Part One

(Aired on TV Tokyo in February 1999) ... a one hour made-for-TV documentary program. Although I feel that the producer focussed rather too much on the melodramatic aspects of our family life during that ten year period, the program does indeed give a pretty good overview of what the project was like ...

Part 1 : 6 1/2 minutes
Part 2 : 12 minutes
Part 3 : 7 minutes
Part 4 : 9 minutes
Part 5 : 9 1/2 minutes

A .pdf file with a rough guide to what is being said during the program is here.

TV Listings

The 'Woodblock Shimbun' has a full selection of TV programs on file. Videos available include some of David's news appearances, complete feature programs, and some short documentaries on his work. The files are in QuickTime format, and can be easily viewed with your browser.
Program listings are on the Index page ...

Woodblock Man Carves Niche

Woodblock carver David Bull refuses to be called an 'artist' or 'sensei'. "I'm just the guy who carves a piece of wood," Bull said. "All I do is copy what the real artists did." Since 1989, the Canadian university dropout who once played the flute on the streets of London has spent many hours bent over his woodblocks, nose and beard almost touching the surface, as he carved toward a self-appointed goal: the recreation of 18th century ukiyo-e artist Katsukawa Shunsho's 'Hyakunin Isshu: Poems from One Hundred Poets' series. (1999)
Full Story.

Japan and Me

"In 1775 an Edo bookshop published a series of portraits of the Hyakunin Isshu poets with illustrations by Katsukawa Shunsho, who was the leading designer of his day, just before Utamaro. We do not know if the book sold well or not, but few copies have survived and the book is extremely rare." (1989)
Full Story.

Shokunin vs Craftsman

During the seven years that I have been living here in Japan and studying woodblock printmaking, I have visited many shokunin and have enjoyed long discusions with them about their life and work. I have been surprised by many of the things they have said, and have come to realize that their thinking is sometimes quite different from my Western conceptions of a craftsman. (1993)
Full Story.