twice diluted

Some surprises this time of year are bound to happen with lots of sunlight and alternative processes.

The pokeberry emulsion that I cut with water twice to cover the remaining pieces of fabric is fading very quickly upon exposure to sunlight. The image below represents about 4 days of exposure (maybe as little as 3). The second image is the backside of the fabric which has retained some of the intense color.

The downside to this fast of an exposure is possibly equally fast fading.

exposure side

flipside

Wish me luck

Here's the start of the pokeberry Anthotype labcoat.

Textile in progress

Here is a preview of the pattern I created using two pokeweed leaves. These will become the pokeberry emulsion textile from which the labcoat will be made. After cleaning up the scans of 14 leaves I ended up using just three. The bottom and top side of one leaf as well as the bottom of another. The double sided leaf is to scale. The other was reduced to fill up so empty space in the textile.

no borders

Inkjet prints are something I try to avoid making. The printer is usually reserved for making negatives for alternative processes.

Not tonight.

Here is a work in progress which I am considering for the Dayton Visual Arts Center's Annual Member Show. This year DVAC has chosen the theme of no borders.

There is so much visual similarity to the cosmological images I have been making with fruit and a strange resemblance to the animation in Bjork's iPad App for her Biophilia album. I think I'll rearrange a lyric or two into a title for this image: "fast as a fingernail". Maybe I should sleep on it.

unhappy accident

the aftermath of a heavy rainfall last week. I'll unveil the disaster tomorrow.

In All Fairness, 2012 Edition

It's almost that time of year to go to the Ohio State Fair to see the Fine Arts Exhibition. Amidst the livestock, dairy and butter sculpture displays found on the fairgrounds in July is an amazing display of visual art as well as contemporary video and short films. I make it a point to enter work in the juried exhibition each year.

In the 2012 edition of 2D and 3D work was juried by Jon Cook, Executive Director Peggy R. McConnell Arts Center of Worthington and Ardine Nelson of Columbus.

I will be exhibiting "Pluot", "Honey Crisp" and "Japanese Pear". Bridgette has two paintings in the professional division.

Other 2-D artists showing work in the professional division this year are:
Monica Anne Achberger, Karen Albanese Campbell, Timothy Albon, Judy Anderson, Ginnie Baer, Carron Baxter, Bridgette Bogle, Rick Borg, Jon Browning, Louise Captein, Mark Chepp, Rachel Clark, Alex Conrad, Ken Coon, Anne Cushman, Clifford Darrett, Betsy Defusco, Joanna Donchatz, Susanne Dotson, June Douglas, Paul Emory, Valerie Escobedo, Frederick Fochtman, Mark Fohl, Sean Foley, Bruce Foster, Margaret Freed, Angela Gage, Beverly Goldie, Lloyd Greene, Tracy Greenwalt, Christine Guillot Ryan, Rod Hayslip, Cody Heichel, Helen Hoffelt, Tony Hoover, Morris Jackson, Donna Jacobs, Laura Joseph, Richard Jurus, Dan Knepper, Jules Knowlton, Amy Kollar Anderson, Chris Lang, Marc Lincewicz, Brenda Lloyd, Kevin Longley, Ken Marshall, Paul Mcclain, Lynda Mcclanahan, Kellie Mcdermott, Kathy Mcghee, Mike Miller, Ronald Mlicki, Juliette Montague, Ashley Moore, Paula Nees, Chaz O'Neil, Kathleen Pepicello, Alyssa Petrosky, Allison Pierce, Mabi Ponce De Leon, Jose Luis Quinones, Loaned Rain, Robert Robbins, Lindsay Rodgers, Debbie Rosenfeld, Nikos Rutkowski, Laurie Schmidt, Kristine Schramer, Jenny Scranton, Ashley Shellhause, Don Slobodien, Meghan Sours, Emily Starr, Marlene Steele, Melanie Steffl, Marti Steffy, Andrea Stern, Joan Tallan, Sally Tharp, Marcus R. Thomas, James Trout, Gerald Van Scyoc, Barbara Vogel, Chun Arthur Wang, Linda Wesner, Janna Wheeler, Daryl Woody, Darlene Yeager-Torre.

In the professional division, the 3-D artists are: Laura Alexander, Lindsey Alexander, David Argento, Sandra Aska, Carolyn Baginski, Diana Bjel, Carol Boram-Hays, Jim Bowling, Juliellen Byrne, Scott Dooley, John Freiman, George Gregory, Chelsey Hammersmith, Michael B Hays, Alissa Head, Mikelle Hickman-Romine, Gary Hovey, Tamara Jaeger, Kevin Keiser, Carrie Longley, Barbara Morejon, Lauri Murphy, Jeffrey Owen, Jeffrey Owen, Nate Ricciuto, Mark Rosen, Melinda Rosenberg, Jason Routson, Keith Simpson, Catherine Bell Smith, Nicki Strouss,and Jane Tuss.

For the 2-D and 3-D artists in the amateur division please visit the Ohio State Fair Fine Arts Exhibition blog at: http://theohiostatefairfineartsexhibition.blogspot.com/

The coat is the experiment

I should know when to stop.





Here are three examples of different pokeberry dilutions painted onto the cotton fabric I am using for the lab coat.

There will be one back panel and one pocket that will represent the undiluted pigment.

The two front panels, the other back panel and the two larger lower pockets will be the first dilution.

The arms and collar will be coated with the second dilution.

The coat is the experiment!

Three Easy Pieces

Today's image shows three larger pieces of fabric hanging to dry. The two on the right are undiluted pokeberry pigment.

what a mess I've made

The devil is in the details from what I've heard. Here are some current details.

I've thawed out the remaining poke berries from last fall given to me by Nate Smyth. What a mess I've made!





I also invented something to make my job easier. The crushed pokeberries make a thick liquid which is more syrupy than watery. A good potion of this syrup clings to the seeds.

In order to avoid rinsing the seeds with water to reclaim as much pigment as possible I developed a press to push out the liquid. I used three plastic containers, two are pint size and one is quart size (which becomes the default collection container). The middle container gets holes drilled into the bottom. This middle container holds the seeds and syrup slurry which I push down upon with an empty container with a lid closure.

All the containers share the same diameter (and lids), so they fit into each other (creating a stack). Since the largest container has more depth than the smaller containers, it never comes into contact with the liquid being separated from the seeds.




A note of warning. The previously frozen berries create an environment for fast decomposition. Gasses will build up in the bottles in which the liquid is collected. Leave lots of space in the bottle to prevent a magenta explosion!

Finally, I bought some fabric to make the lab coat and have done a small test coating of the material. This swatch will become the upper pocket on the front of the lab coat.

Progress Report

June 02

June 03

June 05

June 06

June 6th, detail

Lot's of pictures showing the progress of the fading and small misfortunes.

The garment is slipping a bit from bringing it inside in the evening and taking it out in the morning. Addtionally yesterday there was  a small downpour. This is something I wanted to introduce to the image but it is a bit different from the first Clem Wolfham. The image is being exposed sideways which is a "number of clamps" and "size of plexiglass relative to the plywood backing" issue. So the drips run perpendicular to the way I would like to introduce these marks. Additionally the plexi doesn't cover the entire surface area of the paper so the pokeberry emulsion has completely run off the paper in these areas.

I am getting closer to exposing the fabric of one of the anthotype lab coats. Now I just need to teach myself to sew and maybe I can pull this off.

sun spot

Notes on the limited sunlight in the yard: probably closer to just five to five and one half hours of sunlight unattended in the backyard.

Yesterday's pic showed the Anthotype in the sunny corner of the yard at 10:48 a.m. Today's image was taken at 4:48 p.m.

Clem Wolfham in fuchsia, day 2

Today is a bit of a wash for exposing outside (continuous rain) but I did get to wear a cardigan and jeans on this first day of June.

Here is a picture from yesterday. My best estimate is that the anthotype can get six hours of sunlight unattended in this one spot in my backyard.



Yesterday, I did get out to glean some mulberries. I have about 3 pints worth of berries but the lab coat may require a lot more.