Works by Bill Ritchie in the

Billie Jane Bryan Collection

"Sweet Target Hearts No. 7" by Bill H. Ritchie, Jr.

1976 Lithograph, intaglio, relief, chine-colle. Gray, brown, orange, black, ochre, yellow. Image(s) 19 1/2 X 14 3/4 in. each on 29 1/2 X 42 in. Arches Cover. Signed lower right, "A/P To Jane" Collections also of Lynda Ritchie, Nellie Sutherland, Sam Davidson, The Evergreen State College and others.  Exhibited at Northwest Printmakers, Anacortes and Everett Art Festivals.

One of the best-documented prints I did in terms of keeping notes--available on the Web--because it bridge the time in 1975-1976 that I made my first trip from Seattle to Japan and back. This trip--or bridge--served me in ways similar to my old heroes of the Northwest School, the painters Graves, Toby and their kind. The name comes from a strange source--cartoons and pop music!

Two drawings on lithograph stones that started out to be a continuation of the Target Heart Series (I had one about five before) but then I got something like "writer's block." I was in a dilemma as to what to do until I went to Japan and discovered it is "all right" to repeat myself in my art and craft. I wrote an essay about, too. C. T. Chew helped me through it.

It was hard to list this as a "lithograph" when I wrote down the methods I used to make this print. I settled on the drawings on stone because they got the thing started. Then I added and added and added to my plates--even got C. T. Chew to add his collagraphs! -- until they came together as you see them now. The making of the Sweet Target Heart suite of prints spans almost a year in which one of my biggest dilemmas seemed to reach resolution. That was what I call the dilemma of redundant art. Then again, I am not sure. You can contact Lynda for similar prints at  ritchie@seanet.com. Also, ask about an essay, "On Sweet Target Hearts," on the resolution of my dilemma is available in the Perfect Press 'Zine.