Old Habits

In one portfolio review last October I was cautioned against using the scanner as a photographic instrument because there are a lot of artists now using it. The reviewer was hinting at push back. While I took that criticism to heart, I ended up creating my favorite version of the buckeye, shell and all, with the scanner. Old habits.

I did print it on the Tosahakkinshi (the tosa washi) made for the exhibition in Ino Town, Japan at the Paper Museum. 

Here is a scan of it. I've decided to submit this for the Dayton Visual Arts Center's annual auction. It will be the first time this paper will be seen in the mid-west.

upside down and in blue

Once upon a time I frequently posted to this blog. It was an outlet for writing about difficulties and successes in the studio. I used it for exhibition news and for progress updates on the slow goings on of the anthotypes.

It's been a long time since I posted to this site. I have been working on several projects, sending out teaching packets hoping for a sign of interest from academia, applying for a residency (long term project coming due very soon), and of course teaching. I would like to write more about teaching but there are fundamental issues I need to wrestle with including professionalism and articulating those things that make me want to teach. Everyone knows its hard and time consuming but rewarding in unlikely ways.

I'll slowly work a discourse on my teaching in future posts. For now I need to get the blog ball rolling. Why not start with a cyanotype.

In the in vivo exhibition, I showed four of the fungi. There were others that I was working on but for many reasons, mostly placement or shape, I elected to work with the four that I did. There was one that almost made the cut. It was an early one but it was a horizontal and it would stick out in a grid of four. The prints I did make of it happened to be made on a paper that wasn't working well or perhaps I was getting lazy with exposure ( I seldom use step wedges although I should). Regardless, they lacked clean  highlights and seemed much flatter than the other four.

There was a little window of impracticality last Saturday. It was the last day to drop off work for the annual Dayton Visual Arts Center auction. I had an OK print of the cyanotype that didn't make the cut but the only frame I had that could accomodate it would be a natural wood finish. OK with a blue print but I am committed to showing the cyanotype floated in white finished wood frames. I had two downstairs I had bought off a student but they were narrower than what I typically used for the 18" x 23" prints I had been making.

So I reprinted it Saturday morning. It was sunny. It was due by 5 pm. It was not a wise decision.

There is a stack of paper I have been sitting on, waiting to try it out with cyanotype and vandyke brown. It was on sale. It was pH neutral. It was crying out for a test run.

I tore it down to 16" x 23", made a good print on the first try. A terrible print on the second. A really, really good print on the third try once it dried down.  I managed to get it framed, wired and down to DVAC before they closed at 5. Somehow I even squeezed in a short artwork documentation session so I could have an image of it.

But being rushed, I made one mistake amongst lots of little ones which I had no time to undo. I wired the frame upside down.

I think I can live with it this way.

Gang of Four

Here's a preview of the grid of four framed cyanotypes of fungi at DVAC.

In progress

The cheap way to make cyanotypes without buying a 20 x24 split back printing frame.

mis-mitosis (ash seeds)

Here is the completed version of mis-mitosis (ash seeds). There are some irregularities to the way the paper was cut. I ended up using thin strips of exposed and processed van dyke brown prints to fill in the gaps.

It's growing on me.

Some process notes from today:

I worked on a new cyanotype fungus image and used the late afternoon sun for exposure. With the Coventry Rag Vellum White, my idiosyncratic inkjet negatives and traditional cyanotype chemistry, I obtained good print density with exposures of 12 minutes (at 5 pm) and 15 minutes (at around 6 pm).

In a couple of days I should be able to upload a quick and messy cell phone snap of the prints.

My inner Anna Atkins

Two more cyanotypes drying down. I mixed up new chemistry yesterday to a avoid the strange dark patches that may be from mold in the ferric ammonium citrate.

I am printing multiples to try some toning with gallic acid.

In case you were wondering, I AM channeling my inner Anna Atkins!

Away from the laboratory

Sounding a bit like a voice mail message, I am away from the laboratory at the moment. Spending a few days with friends in Chincoteague and dipping my feet in the Atlantic.

In the meantime, here's a preview of some of the new cyanotypes that will be shown in September.

Next stop, sewing lessons

My best laid plans of blogging while in Houston never materialized. As a backup, I planned on writing when I got back to Ohio which was Sunday. There was a lot of work to catch up on, mostly writing lectures and grading projects and papers.

So here it is Saturday, with plenty to do, no idea where to start and a blog I haven't attended to.
Without re-hashing every meeting, with all of the good and the bad. I want to condense it all into a sense of direction. I got to re-visit Dr. Frangst and by re-visit I mean reacquaint. I had to discuss work I really haven't talked about in a few years and I was forced to think about where the project ended. Getting reacquainted with a project means thinking about what worked and didn't work. It also means after a few years of water under the bridge, finding a way to reconnect with the project.

The last image I did was of Dr. Frangst hold a "baby" tree trunk rescued from my neighborhood. It really was a homage to the Jan Svankmajer film "Little Otik" (image one) in which a childless couple raises a ravenous tree stump as their offspring. I don't think it was a misdirection but rather a mis-edit for the project. The last really successful image is Dr. Frangst in the Gingko Photogram coat. This is where I think I can re-enter the project.



Creating more of these photogram leaf coats and wearing them in the Ohio landscape. Additionally, the lab coats themselves will become photographic objects that I will display.

This means teaching myself how to sew (maybe having Bridgette give me some lessons and getting her sewing machine repaired) because I am going to be using a sewing pattern to create pieces of coats which will be exposed and processed in the cyanotype process.



Next up yellow and purple together in the anthotype process.

August Parting Shot

Here are the four Dr. Frangst cyanotypes going to Bowling Green for Fresh: Ohio.  Maybe there will be a return of the return of Dr. Frangst. The series has spent enough time in storage and the 8x10 Burke and James camera needs a workout. Pink ceramic skull gift of Konsuela (Konni Carpenter).

Correction: The pink skull was actually made by Kristi Bogle (sister of Konsuela).

excuses, excuses, excuses

The two month residency in Boston is now in the rear view mirror and I am swamped with obligations that took a back seat to a very productive summer. I still hope to summarize the residency in an entry here before too many of the details are lost.

In the meantime, this wordpress blog is going to become a little less active as I work on the various printing, framing, and shipping tasks that have been waiting for me. In the meantime here are the excuses for my neglecting this blog

Exhibition news:

Wild Kingdom at Texas State University San Marcos School of Art and Design's Gallery I from August 24th through September 2nd. Four cyanotypes from the close-up world of dr. frangst.

Fresh: Ohio at Bowling Green State University's Willard Wankelmann Gallery from September 9th through October 7th. Three of the large scale Vandyke brown prints from from walking and four cyanotypes from the Return of Dr. Frangst.

ArtPrize 2011 at the Arts Council of Greater Grand Rapids gallery, 38 West Fulton from Septmeber 21st through October 9th. Selections from from walking.

Sinclair Community College Faculty Show from September 6th - October 6th with an opening reception on September 15th. One anthotype Rose Red Pajama Pants made during the summer residency in Boston. Please visit Sinclair Community College's Gallery website for more information.