Me, Monarch self-portrait exhibition

Me, Monarch is up for view in the Ravi Photo Gallery, Hyderabad, INDIA. This is an exhibition of self-portraits done with pinhole cameras by 98 photographers from around the globe (24 countries).  


Even though I already posted the Dr. Frangst and Catkins (in zone plate), I wanted to include this detail which is the process of being printed as this cropped version. Yes, it's my current facebook profile picture. That's how much I am in love with it. If it wasn't obvious before, there should be no doubt regarding my narcissistic tendencies. 

registering an image

We had a brief lull in the rain here in southwest Ohio and I put the pokeberry print (Clem Wolfham) out for a little more exposure.

But wait, there's more.

I also put out one of the purple petal Anthotypes, actually looking like cornflower blue, using a positive transparency which is detail of a bathrobe with the name Mel Miller. I had it out in mixed lighting conditions, mostly cloudy, for about 3 hours.

I brought them back in after about 2 1/2 hours (I had to teach and early evening class) opened the split back printing frame and saw that it already had registered an image.

IT'S WORKING!

I'll post a couple of images later tonight.

And yes, I spent about an hour picking more purple flowers out of fear they won't be around much longer.

Tomorrow I am installing the Flowers from a Cigar Tree print in Columbus which is part of the Ohio Art League's 100th anniversary Spring Juried Exhibition. The work to be shown in the Carnegie Gallery of the Columbus Metropolitan Library (main branch) was selected by OSU Sculpture professor Todd Slaughter.

I do think tomorrow will be a Dirty Franks kind of day. Anyone want to meet up for a hotdog?

paper matters

The one variable that strikes fear into the hearts of those of us working with hand applied, light sensitive emulsions: paper types and paper pH. With a delicate, hard to harvest and distill emulsion like the purple flowers I am discovering that paper matters.

I've been noticing that the flower petal emulsion seems a bit faint and much bluer than I expected. I've come across references to flower pigments yielding surprise colors with no reason. I suspect that the pH of the paper is the culprit.

The picture above has four paper types.

1. The paper on the bottom is the Fabriano Aritstico Hot Press Extra White. It worked great for the Pokeberry juice but the emulsion seems faint when brushing on. I ended up putting three coats on it and got what Bridgette thinks is a nice blue. Thanks Bridgette and Jill for the suggestion.
2. The next paper is a light weight Kozo paper from Bostick and Sullivan. It was labeled E on their old sampler pack which was a freebie a few years back!
3. On top of that is a square of Arches Platine, a favorite paper of platinum palladium printers.
4. On top of everything is a strip of my favorite Kozo Unryu (the backside). Surprise... it looks the best!

BTW, the happy accident also contributed to this report. I was using the Kozo Unryu as a means of wiping off the organic debris from my brush and noticed that it looked purple and the purple seemed stronger than the blue that was applied in one coat to the Fabriano. I don't know the pH of the Kozo Unryu but I do know the Kozo light weight and Arches Platine work well with iron (siderotype) processes because of their neutral to slightly acidic pH.

I remember from undergraduate biochemistry the role of pH on the 3-D structure of proteins. During the last few weeks  also discovered that heating plant pigments to "reduce" them is not a good idea. I lost the rich magenta color of pokeberrry doing this very thing. Changing the shape of the protein via heat  or pH may change its color.

and the paper smells like root beer

The pokeberry anthotype of Clem's pajama top (small version) is close to being done. Here is a scan from Sunday afternoon. 

Pokeberry juice has spoiled me. It provided a strong tincture to use. Now I am struggling to get these small violet flowers to have a presence on a sheet of paper. I managed to get about 50-75 cc of tincture but it seems too dilute and the root beer flavored vodka I used as a solvent has created some new concerns. The sugar in the alcohol has created a stickiness to the emulsion. So the update: the new purple flowers have yielded a sticky and weak liquid that really reads blue and the paper smells like root beer.

strategies: 

1. Maybe I can do multiple passes to build up density (suggested by Bridgette). 
2. Let the emulsion evaporate over several days without heating to create a reduction that is denser with pigment.
3. Throw in the towel.

my color purple handiwork, part I

These are the beginnings of my attempt to continue the sleepwear sleepwere sleepwhere series (the title is morphing). The first test at making an anthotype emulsion from the small purple flowers yielded a dilute, blue liquid. Friday I hunched over and picked about 260 grams of flowers off which I have been stripping the petals this weekend.

 halfway through the bag on Sunday

I've gone through the bag, frozen the petals, thawed them out, crushed them down a bit and now they are re-freezing. Tomorrow I should have a nice slurry to add ethanol to pull the pigment out which I will filter and hopefully have enough to coat some large pieces of watercolor paper. At least one big enough to lay a polyester sleep robe with a paisley pattern on it. Now I really do need to look at the work of Jim Dine.

stripped, frozen, and crushed

dr. frangst video from 2005

This was a video interview with Annegreth Nill talking about my work in July 2005, part of the Made in Ohio exhibit at the Riffe gallery.


Here is the link:


http://www.ohiochannel.org/medialibrary/Media.aspx?fileId=129354&returnTo=Collection

the color purple

If there is one good thing about letting the wild reclaim the backyard (to a degree) is that I don't have to go very far for potential pigments for anthotype.

Today I successfully mashed up and pulled out the pigment from these small purple flowers sprouting all over the front and backyards. I collected about twenty flowers, stripped off the petals and immersed them in Mr. Boston rum. Not seeing any color migrate to the alcohol, I poured the mix into my mortar and pestle (the darkroom one, not the kitchen's) and worked it until I had a purplish heterogeneous mixture. Pictures tomorrow. In the next few days I am going to harvest all of the purple flowers and place them in tubs with a bit of water and let the wonders of freeze/thaw fracture work its wonders in (and out of) our basement freezer. 

The next anthotypes will be the color purple.

handwriting as a trace

In a few weeks maybe even in the next few days I will need to come up with an alternate to the pokeberry juice with which I have begun my initial work in anthotype. This is the last sheet (about 9" x 12" or 22 cm 30 cm) and it is dedicated to Clem and the writing around the collar of his pajama top.

My hope is that most of the sleeping anthotypes will be done in pokeberry or indigenous Ohio plant pigments as photograms. This smaller piece will be one of a few additions to the project which will be from an inkjet transparency. The pajama was scanned and made into a positive transparency. Perhaps this starts a structure for the project, photogram and scanned transparency images paired with each other and contributing different information, this latest one is more about text and handwritten language as a trace.

What follows are the records of the days I put the piece out with the exception of one afternoon not represented by an image.

April 1

April 3

April 5

April 6

April 7

There was an afternoon exposure sometime around April 8 or April 9

April 10

April 13

a little return of the return of dr. frangst

Searching my archives for a negative I never included in the Dr. Frangst series, I found this zoneplate image from 2004-2005.

I may print this yet in its cropped version. Did you know that Photoshop CS 5 has a Rule of Thirds grid for the cropping tool?

when a cigar tree is not a cigar tree

"Flowers from a Cigar Tree" will be included in the Ohio Art League Gallery's 100th Spring Juried Exhibition (juror Todd Slaughter). That means map pins, vandyke brown segments of a larger image and myself will be at the Main Columbus Library sometime in the next two weeks for the installation.


Dates for the exhibition are May 6 - June 24, 2011. An opening reception is scheduled for  Thursday, May 12, 6 - 8 p.m. in the Carnegie Gallery (2nd Floor).