introducing a new kallitypist

first frame of Sasha Ndam's portrait session

Fewer days remain of the residency, especially studio days. Today, tomorrow, then clean up and pick up Bridgette (Bogle) from the airport. After that, except for the Emmanuel College Artist in Residence Exhibit on Tuesday, I will be a Beantown tourist.

Monday I was in assistant mode. I worked with Darien Johnson on a project in which transparencies are viewed simultaneously to deconstruct and construct the image for the viewer depending on where they stand to look.

That was early afternoon. Later that day I met up with Sasha Ndam who is a student in Cynthia Fowler's Contemporary Art and Artistic Practice class. She asked me to help her create a portrait of herself in Vandyke Brown. Except for the camera and Photoshop work Sasha chose the image and did all of the chemistry work herself. This in effect makes Sasha a new Kallitypist (vandyke brown is one of the kallitype processes). I was what could be described as her historical photographic processes consultant. In my dealing with the students in Cynthia's course, Sasha has seemed the most engaged with what the four of us artists in residence are doing (she asks good questions). Look below for an example of her work.

no plum puns here

A little break from the anthotypes. Here is a companion Vandyke brown print for apple which I will simply title plum. Here is the back story: the fruit was rescued from the Emmanuel College cafeteria fruit bins. The freckled pattern seemed like it would be a good subject for the scanner and, eventually, the Van Dyke brown process. This is a test print (8.5 x 11) which has a strong contrast in the original which I've toned down a bit in the scan seen here. The final size will be approximately 16 x 20 inches.

art is not fun

Yesterday  was one of those days. Last night was one of those nights. Too much time spent carefully cutting individual pieces. Too much time was spent pinning the work on the wall. Toward eleven I discovered that all of the careful cutting still led to problem areas where things didn't quite line up. It was one of those nights where I wish more people had been roaming the fifth floor. If someone had, they would have popped their head in the door of the studio and contributed their ideas for how I could more efficiently accomplish what I was doing.

Art is not fun. Art is tedious. Art is tiring. Most importantly, art is a time suck. Borrowing from something that Drew Ippoliti said two days ago, "Artists aren't problem solvers. They are problem creators!"

That's as close as this son of a sailor is going to get to using sailor talk. On a related note, the piece is done but no pictures. Before Darien, Drew, Mari and I go out for dinner, I should be able to properly document the piece. In the meantime, I present one of my few and far between attempts at drawing. This is a little sketch in my Rhodia pad mapping out where each of the sections should be pinned on the wall. Dark panels represent ground only sections. Brown represents the area I should have started at for attaching to the wall. Crappy image made using the MacBook camera and Photo Booth.

Is that a pajama top in the window?

As promised, a picture of the anthotype as seen from the outside. It isn’t the most visible window. One only notices what is attached to it from that stairwell and only then from the 3rd floor window and up. The good news is that the contraption has held for 24 hours.

Other news from the studio, I have begun printing the sections of “Don’t Take This Personally”. All twenty four sections will be in vandyke brown. Perhaps some pictures of this tomorrow. Today was taken up with coating all of the sections plus extra sheets for mishaps. I only began printing the images at around 8:30 pm.

OAL's 100th Anniversary Spring Juried Exhibition

Last Thursday was the opening for the Ohio Art League's 100th Annual Spring Juried Exhibition, juried by Todd Slaughter, which is on view now through June 24th.

There are pictures from the opening which can be found on Flickr by going to the following link http://www.flickr.com/photos/55867923@N02/5719069849/in/set-72157626594581503. Today, the Columbus Dispatch published Christopher Yates' review of the exhibition which can be also be found online at http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/arts/stories/2011/05/15/league-turns-100-with-style.html?sid=101.

Off to UDF to pick up a copy of the Dispatch. 

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.

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.