#wesley bates

Wood Engraving Wednesday

WESLEY BATES

The noted Canadian illustrator and wood engraver Wesley Bates (b. 1952) produced the engravings for an edition of poems by the somewhat obscure 3rd- or 4th-century CE Greek epigrammatist Rufinus, translated by the Canadian writer and scholar Robin Skelton and printed in British Columbia at the Barbarian Press in an edition of 200 copies in 1997. Little is known about Rufinus himself, but Skelton informs us that the works of Rufinus combine sensuality with wit and show an appreciation for female beauty. Many of the poems are explicit in nature, and often have misogynistic undertones. Each poem is translated into rhymed metrical verse, demonstrating Skelton’s appreciation for past traditions of translating Latin and Greek in the 18th and 19th centuries.

Wesley Bates was born in the Yukon in 1952 and raised in South Western Saskatchewan. After studying painting and printmaking at Mount Allison University in Sackville, New Brunswick from 1972-1977, he pursued a career as a painter and printmaker in Sackville, and turned to illustration and wood engraving 1981. He has since been a much sought-after illustrator by numerous publications and publishers.

The engravings were printed directly from the blocks on Zerkall White Wove and Zerkall Cream Laid papers, with the book designed, bound, and the text handset in Jan Van Krimpen's Van Dijk type, with his Cancelleresca Bastarda and Open Kapilalen for display, by Barbarian Press proprietor Crispin Elsted. Elsted's wife and Barbarian Press co-founder Jan Elsted printed the book. Our copy is signed by Robin Skelton and the Elsteds and is another gift from our friend Jerry Buff.

Non c’è alcuna necessità di sculture in una casa in cui vive un gatto.

Wood Engraving Wednesday

WESLEY BATES

This week’s wood engravings come from noted Canadian artist and engraver Wesley Bates (b. 1952) as illustrations for Kentucky writer Wendell Berry’s (b. 1934) collection of twenty-seven Window Poems, originally published in a hand-printed limited edition at at the Press on Scroll Road in 1985. Our copy is a first Shoemaker & Hoard trade edition published in 2007.

Wesley W. Bates was born in the Yukon in 1952 and raised in South Western Saskatchewan. He studied painting and printmaking at Mount Allison University in Sackville, New Brunswick from 1972-1977, then moved to Hamilton, Ontario  and pursued a career as a painter and printmaker there. In 1981 he began work as a wood engraver and freelance illustrator. Today he lives and works in Clifford, Ontario, where he prints under his own imprint at West Meadow Press.

Wendell Berry ends his series of Window Poems with these beautiful lines:

The window is a fragment of the world suspended in the world, the known adrift in mystery. And now the green rises. The window has an edge that is celestial where the eyes are surpassed.

Non c’è alcuna necessità di sculture in una casa in cui vive un gatto.

Spring Wesley Bates

New Post has been published on https://www.chiangraitimes.com/british-tourist-missing-after-falling-off-speedboat-in-koh-samui-thailand.html

British Tourist Missing After Falling Off Speedboat in Koh Samui, Thailand

SURAT THANI – A British tourist has been missing for two days after allegedly falling into the sea during a “drunken” speedboat trip around a Koh Samui island in southern Thailand.

Wesley Bates, 42, and four of his friends hired the sightseeing vessel to go snorkeling in waters around Koh Samui in Surat Thani, southern Thailand, on Monday.

But the boat’s captain, Chaktham Jaijong, 23, claims he made repeated warnings to the group, four men and one woman, not to sit on the bow without life jackets — which he says they ignored.

Chaktham said the group — who he alleges were already drunk when he collected them earlier in the day — refused to move to the passenger seats inside.

It is understood that Bates was flung into the water while the group was returning to the island a couple of hours before sunset, around 4 p.m. local time.

Police, coast guards and fishing boats have been searching for the vacationer since without success.

The boat’s captain, who has been questioned by police, added: “They didn’t listen to me when I told them to sit properly because it was very dangerous to sit on the boat’s head.

“They looked very angry, so I didn’t want to keep bothering them, so I just let them sit there.”

Choppy Seas

Chaktham said he had taken the group on a trip from Koh Samui to Koh Tean, which is also surrounded by several small, uninhabited islands.

But with wind and choppy seas hitting the boat when they returned, Bates is said to have lost his balance and fallen into the sea in front of his friends.

Chaktham told police he stopped the boat and sailed around the area where he believed Bates had disappeared.

He was still not found after three hours of searching with help from nearby fishermen.

The rest of the tourists were dropped off at the island of Koh Samui before the boat captain reported the missing man to the sheriff and the police.

The 42-year-old and four friends hired the vessel to go snorkeling and sightseeing in waters around Koh Samui in Surat Thani.

Officials spent another two hours looking for the tourist before they decided to delay the search due to the windy conditions and darkness.

The operation with help from the Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation, including rescuers and divers, resumed at 9:30 a.m. the following day.

Police Major Worasak Akarakul, the inspector of Koh Samui police station, said Tuesday they had still not found Bates.

“Officers have questioned the boat captain and the owner of the vessel. Their statements will form part of the investigation,” he said.

“Rescue teams are cooperating to search for the tourist and all vessels in the area have been notified.”