David Bull: The first set of ten prints from the 'Hyaku-nin Isshu' series

TENJI TENNO ONO NO KOMACHI DAINAGON TSUNENOBU SEMI MARU KIYOHARA NO MOTOSUKE OENO NO CHISATO CHUNAGON ASATADA TAIKEN MON-IN NO HORIKAWA SARUMARU DAYU DAINAGON KINTO

David's original intent upon leaving high school was the attainment of a career in classical music. After leaving university during his first year, he spent a year in London England, pursuing informal studies in flute performance. Upon his return to Canada, he was active in many aspects of musical activity - building classical guitars, composing classical music (winning scholarships), conducting youth bands and orchestras, playing baritone saxophone in a jazz orchestra, playing bass guitar in a rock band, and working in a sheet music store. Following ten years of this type of activity, he spent two years in Toronto as the manager of a school music supply house, where he developed an interest in the then new field of microcomputers. He left the company for six months to devote himself full-time to the study of computer programming, and then returned to the organization's Vancouver head office to design and implement a custom computer system for operating their business.

It was during his stay in Toronto that he acquired an interest in things Japanese. Shortly after this he attempted making his first woodblock prints (in 1980). A three month trip to Japan in 1981-2 to visit printmakers gave him enough basic knowledge to move forward, and he continued his studies independently, using supplies obtained from Japan. By 1986, it was obvious that he could go no further without closer contacts with 'real' printmakers, so he and his family moved to Japan, where he has made rapid advances in his printmaking skills, through contacts with top level professional printmakers.

His ten-year project to reproduce Katsukawa Shunsho's set of illustrations of the famous 100 poets of old Japan was completed in December of 1998, and the new series - the Surimono Albums - got underway in early 1999. In recent years, David has become active on the Internet, opening his own web site in mid-1997. He is at present in the process of designing and writing a web site containing a comprehensive Encyclopedia of Woodblock Printmaking (in English) with the intent of making knowledge about this craft available to as wide an audience as possible.

"I should emphasize right at the beginning that I am not an 'artist'. The prints I make were designed in the Edo and Meiji eras by various artists. I work in 'collaboration' with these men, carving and printing their designs, just as the craftsmen of the Edo period worked together with the artists of their day."