gallery sightings: photo emulsion on handmade paper

The question is, if this blog is about the goings on in my studio (not very much as of March 30th) then why write about a trip to New York city? 


Note taking and note keeping. Unless I put this down in written form, I am going to forget what I saw.


Just a quick stab at recollection. Last Thursday, Bridgette, Jill Scheibler and I walked around a few blocks around 24th street and 10th avenue. In order alleviate some guilt on their part regarding all the painting and sculpture we were looking at, they agreed to go to a few photography venues. Aperture was the big one, where we got to see them lighting Jungjin Lee's  "Wind" exhibition. These were all done on handmade Korean mulberry paper. Later that night we returned with a few extra friends to experience a big Chelsea Thursday evening art opening. 

The next day I walked up Avenue of the Americas with Tim Castlen photographing along the way. Our primary destination was ICP and the Mexican Suitcase exhibit. I'll save a discussion of that for another time. After ICP we continue on up what may have been Broadway until we reached 57th street. I had steered us this way because of the cluster of midtown art galleries, hoping that we would get to Pace MacGill. We didn't but we did visit two galleries on West 57th, the Robert Anderson Gallery and the Marlborough Gallery. 

At the Robert Anderson gallery there were actually three shows up mostly work by Suzanne Opton and Geoff Winingham but in the back were three large black and white prints framed 30" x 30" by Barbara Mensch.

Jean Pagliuso was showing her Poultry and Raptor Suites of enlarged photo emulsion prints on Kaji and Thai Mulberry papers.

Although two doesn't make a trend, it's interesting to see two very different bodies of work with similar means of print making. It makes me rethink whether I want to show students Liquid Light on wood and metal or whether a beautiful handmade paper will win them over. 

Narcissus as a man in Chelsea wearing hat and cardigan

Some pictures of my adventures in Chelsea this past weekend. It's been around 8-9 years since I have been to NYC. I had a lot of catching up to do. Photos courtesy of Jill Scheibler.

two couples

Empire diner in Chelsea has been closed for a while by the looks of it and mannequins are extra, extra frightening at night en masse.

small city mouse in the big city [mostly Chelsea], day one

Bridgette and I are visiting NYC for a few days and trying to absorb as much work as we can. So this is a bit of a photocentric gallery report not in any specific chronological order. Basically we headed down to the galleries beyond 10th avenue in Chelsea looking for Karen Kliminik's installation

and ended up finding a lot of work before and after we stopped in at 303 gallery. The most memorable work for me was the work of Mark Morrisroe at ClampArt. I keep telling my students in alternative photography about the strange reds that James Fee tweeked out of his prints through chemical means. The same orange red was present in many of the chemically abused prints by Morrisroe made in the 1980's. This is due to the fact that older papers made before the mid-90's  had cadmium included in the manufacturing and non-traditional high contrast developers and toners were able to convert the cadmium into cadmium selenide or cadmium sulfide.

http://www.clampart.com/inventory/inventoryimages/imagemorrisroe08.htm

Bridgette and our friend Jill Scheibler loved the painted on and scratched upon inkjet prints of Sarah Anne Johnson's "The Artic Circle" at Julie Saul Gallery.

http://www.saulgallery.com/johnson/statement.html

More tomorrow about chickens and wind pictured on paper coated with photo emulsion.

before and after

March 12th, 2011

March 20th, 2011

stopping point

After the "unveil" last week I felt the anthotype needed more exposure and more detail in the middle of the object. I cut the pajama top into two layers and use the front of the pajama for the most recent exposure of about 2 1/2 afternoons. Registration is...well...off. That was an accepted part of this final attempt. I am now face with a decision. Do I intentionally move the the subject in future anthotype photograms? Do I keep it in register to maximize sharpness? Do I allow both to occur in the series?

I have a working title for the project of "Fade Away" to refer to the fading action of the sun on the pigment and the passing on of the previous owner of these pajamas and maybe even the fading away of Henry Peach Robinson fame. I'll upload the full PJ anthotype photogram later this week.

[insert winking emoticon here]

In time for your springtime sneezing and wheezing comes word from the O.C. that Forces of Nature is on display.

Here's a link to the press release from the Orange Coast College website. The exhibition runs concurrently with the showing of the platinum printing of Stan Klimek. The PR smacks of precious metal favoritism [insert winking emoticon here].

Closer to home, the link to the Christopher Yates review in the Columbus Dispatch of the Naturalists, curated by Bridgette Bogle, can be located here.

Sleeping in the Rain

As promised the first of the pajama anthotypes. I need to live with this for a while. My initial response is that it needs more exposure time. Almost needs to be less dense in the middle of the pajama so that it feels more ghostly. Clem's name written in Sharpie isn't visible which was one of my hoped for details. But the two types of rain drips are positive surprise. In the image you can make out a diffuse, elongated white mark in the main part of the image. This is where rain got under the plexiglass but only soaked the garment which in turn wet the paper. The other drip is visible in the shoulder areas. This is where rainwater directly removed pigment from the paper and as Bridgette describes it "very painterly".

I want to build a large frame to make the anthotypes a bit better at resisting water and I do wish for cleaner plexiglass. But for now I have to save up for the residency in Boston this summer.

Write Up the Write Ups

To be blunt, this weblog is useful for me to keep track of exhibitions and, when they occur, reviews of the exhibitions in which I show work. This is one of those types of entries.

Melissa Starker reviewed "the Naturalists" at the Ohio Art League gallery in last Thursday's edition of the Columbus Alive.

Here's the link to the article on line: http://www.columbusalive.com/live/content/features/stories/2011/03/10/exhibit-the-naturalists-at-ohio-art-league.html?sid=108#

Look in tomorrow's edition of the Columbus Dispatch for Christopher Yates' review of the exhibition.

I really shouldn't be showing this...

Caveat #1: The only Plexiglass big enough for my Anthotype experiment on the cheap was the sheet of acrylic on which I coat the Forces of Nature prints. I thought I cleaned it prior to re-purposing it but the light of day reveals all of the flaws in my plan.

Caveat #2: This became a test or more accurately a run through. What would I be able to make a photograph with from materials lying around? With the exception of the Fabriano Artistico Hot Press roll of paper Bridgette and I went in on together, everything else was at hand: spring clamps from Big Lots, the aforementioned Plexiglass, the pajama top and the pokeberry juice diluted down a bit with water.

Caveat #3: It's about process. The unfading marks (squares) and rainwater drips (from the day we were in Columbus installing the Naturalists) may very well become part of the piece. Seen above, the spots where the spring clamps were at are a good indication of what kind of change has happened.

I estimate that the Anthotype has gotten about 4 1/2 afternoons of exposure. I will leave it out tomorrow for a final bit of sunlight and tomorrow night for better or for worse I will unveil the Anthotype to Bridgette and think about what I need to do next time so that it won't be a run through.

If it looks fabulous I will blog it on Sunday. If it is a mess, I will still post it Sunday. After all, as an artist I acknowledge the possibility of failure.

Forces of Nature in the O.C.

"Forces of Nature" makes it way to the O.C., Costa Mesa, California that is. From March 7th through April 18th, my Vandyke Brown prints will be on display in the photography gallery of Orange Coast College.

Go to their website at http://www.occphoto.com/galleryschedule.php for more information. The Gallery spaces are in the Fine Arts Building (Lobby) and Art Center (2nd floor).

Metered parking is available in Lot D on Merrimac Way.

Hours: 8am - 9pm Monday through Thursday.

Cupcakes...Only On a Sunday

Collaboration in an artists' household can take many forms. Its latest incarnation in the Schanbogle Collective is cupcake photography.

These are images made last autumn of Tequila lime cupcakes Bridgette made for her opening at Gallery 510.

The photographic metadata: an first generation Canon Digital Rebel with a Diana adaptor with a Diana Close-up lens from the Lomographers. The backdrop is a blue-green plastic cupcake transporter. Lighting: Window light from the north west corner of the kitchen.

I think we are going to call these Cupcake Swirls #1 and #4.

Cupcake Swirl #4

Cupcake Swirl #1

Each photograph (approximately 15" x 21") is printed in an edition of twenty as an archival pigment print. All proceeds go to buying more ink, paper and baking supplies. Included with each print is a recipe for Tequila Lime cupcakes.

The Ohio Arts Council, the Governor's Awards and Ohio Arts Day Luncheon

The e-invite says it all. May 11th, 2011. Downtown Columbus, Ohio at the Athenaeum. All proceeds benefit the Ohio Citizens for the Arts Foundation. This will be  the 40th anniversary for the Governor's Awards. I worked hard on making the awards which are now at Reed Arts in Columbus for framing.

BTW, the photograph "Four Petal Light Ground (Verso)", seen in the announcement, is currently on view at the Ohio Art League gallery along with two other Vandyke Brown prints "Dunce"and "Hairy Cemetery Nut" which are two of the Governor's awards. 

meet the Naturalists

Meet the Naturalists.

From right to left: On bass Bridgette Bogle. On accordian, Francis Schanberger. On piano, Diane Stemper and on banjo, Erin Holscher-Almazan.

It was a great turn out as well as a great showing by D8N and Oxford artists.

Photo credit: Kali McGinness Barcroft, age four.

I can't stand the rain!

The title of today's blog is from a song lyric stuck in my head. Was it Ann Peebles that sang the most famous version of this song? Sure it dates me but it does speak volumes regarding the fugitive nature of this technique namely don't let the anthotype get wet.

Next Fall I hopefully will have an ample supply of pokeberry juice. At the moment I have two letter sized sheets coated as well as a larger piece in which is covered in diluted pokeberry juice. It is a light pink will probably create a low contrast, barely visible image unless I hit it with beet juice (somewhere in there is a double entendre). My hope is to give this some additional exposure, live with the drips and missing pokeberrry pigment (it will be visible, when done, below the collar).  There will be some noticeable mis-registration which will add to the ghosting effect.