Wrapped in Plastic (the great saffron experiment III)

This will be a bit of a strange detour for me. Doll clothes. Somehow in my search for sleepwear, a bathrobe for a Ken doll came up. That led me to pajamas for Ken which in turn led me to Barbie's Nightie Negligee. Despite the oddness of working with doll clothes, it did solve a couple of problems.


Scale. Making tests that would fit into smaller printing frames. Now I can try different plant materials on smaller sheets of paper before committing to a larger sized sheet of paper able to fit adult sized sleepwear.

Light Resist: The Nightie Negligee is interesting because of its transparency and opacity. It has distinct lines and a sheerness that will allow light to be held back or to freely pass depending upon the layers and folds of the garment. In other words, I don't have to cut it up.

Paper with Ten Coats of Saffron and Barbie Nightie Negligee

Print Frame, Anthotype with Light Resist, Wrapped in Plastic

The exposure begins today, overcast and twenty eight degrees Fahrenheit. The Anthotype (ten coats of saffron emulsion) should be safe from the elements. I've wrapped it in a plastic bag to protect it from the elements. There will be two more of these "tests". One will be the other half of the Nightie Negligee and the other Ken's Pajamas. One possible direction for this project might be homemade Ken and Barbie sleepwear. I need to sleep on it.

Regarding the title of the post, yes it is a nod to the name of the official Twin Peaks Fan Club newsletter.

got a gun

Welcome to archive Mondays. I've got a gun or more accurately a photogenic drawing of a starter pistol. It is a palladium print on Crane's stationary from about 2007.

the faintest ink

Here is an installation view, photographed by Bridgette Bogle, of Rose Red Pajama Pants which is on view at Sinclair Community College's Triangle Gallery. It is on view "sometimes", if one is willing to open the black curtains. This is an idea I appropriated from a traveling exhibition of William Henry Fox Talbot's Callotypes and paper negatives on view at the Museum of Photographic Arts in the late 1990's. There are hooks on either side to keep the curtains open so that viewers can step back from the work to get a proper view. In borrowing the Chinese proverb "the faintest ink is more powerful than the best memory, I will substitute fugitive or transient. Given enough time and exposure, these transient pigments will become the faintest of inks and may then be hardly better than the best memory.

It's my pants party part II

Here is pants party number #2 which is an interesting creature. Part failure. Part discovery.

The yellow flowers I chose, Rudbeckia Hirta, surprised me. I had expected an image of a pair of pants in the bright yellow color of the flowers on a light ground. I got an image of pink pants with light folds and a medium density ground.The pigment faded to some degree and also changed color. There is also evidence of a negative image which is visible in the folds of the pajama pants and the less layered areas of the garment. The three areas of density are: the folds which are the least dense. The midtones which are mostly the bleached-away ground and the darkest areas which are the least layered areas of the pajama pants.

See the detail image below.

Pants Party

Last night I did a bit of art documentation including a painting by Bridgette and lots of the anthotypes from the residency. Here is one of the more successful pants anthotypes made using rose petal emulsion on Arches Cover. The exposure was about 13 days (it came down on August 17th, a day before I left Boston).

the grass is greener on the other anthotype

Last night Bridgette and I got back into the big D (Dayton) after an art pickup detour in Columbus. It's all a blur from trying to get onto I-90 from the Fenway in Boston (my rudimentary navigating skills) to finding a motel in Bath, NY to the truck accident traffic 90 miles north of Columbus. We did get a chance today to visit the members show at DVAC on its last day. David Crowell's framing of "Apple" looked fantabulous especially the cream color of the support to which he floated the image. If I didn't say it before, I wouldn't have been in that exhibition if it hadn't been for the dogged effort of Bridgette convincing me to enter a piece, taking it to Custom Frame Services, and carting it over to DVAC (twice).

A couple of days ago I hinted at a discussion of the grass anthotypes or a least some better images of the two I made. I still need to properly light and document these pieces but below are the initial attempts at documentation. The first image is the grass emulsion brushed onto a cold press, heavy weight paper from Marco's dollar annex. I did push the exposure a bit far so it really reads as a ghost of an image, more drawing than photograph. The anthotype is of a Victorian sleeping dress.

The second grass anthotype was made by pressing wet clumps of grass (poultice) onto the paper. It is a contemporary mens' pajama top.

it's a family affair

Tomorrow, or rather today, is the last day of the residency. The four artists are scheduled for an exhibition (one day only) and reception from 4-7 pm on the fourth floor of the Administration building. I am showing five of the anthotypes including two of the grass emulsions which turned out very different from each other. I will elaborate in a post later this week, time permitting. In the meantime, here is a tease for the exhibition tomorrow: the rose and grass anthotype next to each other. Looking at all of the anthotypes on the wall, it is a family affair and they all are somnambulists.

Purloined and Purchased

I think the hardest thing to admit to oneself is that it is OK to start over. The 8 layer purple is a case in point. I could pursue the repair of the water damage or I could gather up a 115 or so purple flowers and begin from scratch, mortar and pestle to the blossoms, and coat a new sheet of paper. Two days ago I would have been stubborn enough to keep going with the repair, and I did work on it Tuesday night and Wednesday morning.

Something has changed. A new love has come into my life and its name is Arches Cover, all 10 yards (by 52 inches). It was delivered about noon yesterday. Imagine me carrying it up five flights of steps with a purloined sandwich from an unattended lunch buffet cart because that’s what I did. There must be a punishment in Hades for those who steal sandwiches thinking it is part of their eccentric artist persona. If there is it must be carrying a roll of paper and a plate of food in one hand only to reach a summit, losing both and having to go back and attempt the task all over again. I got the lunch safely up the stairs, a half of a tuna sandwich on whole wheat, half a turkey and cheese on white bread, and some potato salad. The best part was that it was free.

The new paper works extremely well with the rose petal emulsion. It is buffered alkaline so it shifts the slightly acidified emulsion from red to a cooler red, almost fuschia. The density is beautiful. It looked great after two coats but then I went too far by making it a bit streaky with a third coat.
Now I want to try this new paper with the purple. Just a small sheet to start out but it would be nice to throw another purple in the window and take out the pressed on grass poultice anthotype that has been exposing for about six days. I predict a new round of gathering purple flowers is in my near future.

Anthotypes Gone Wild

windows as of August 1st

Down with the old. I will remove the yellow anthotype tomorrow. Not terribly optimistic about its success since the yellow ground has turned more orange instead of fading. Up with the new. The painted on grass emulsion with a vintage child's sleeping gown was installed at noon today. It is in the far left window, the middle yellow (pajama pants) one is at about two weeks and the right one is at two days exposure.

The painted on grass emulsion with a vintage child's sleeping gown

always greener on the other side

You may be familiar with the expression "The Grass is Always Greener On the Other Side". Imagine a 40" x 36"  sheet of paper in which the green of the grass stain is greener on one side. Imagine me in my studio wrestling with said paper. I've unintentionally created, at least as of this afternoon, an homage to Mark Rothko. Below is an image from last night.

As of a few minutes ago I think I corrected the issue. Now I just need to remove the larger chunks of grass that I don’t want in the final photogram. The rose petal anthotype came down last night. I haven’t had time to document it but take my word, after an 18 day exposure it looks fantabulous. During the class visit to my studio, Cynthia Fowler noted appearance of a family of anthotypes in the making.

Now for a little shameless self-promotion. The Ohio State Fair Fine Arts Exhibition is now open and will run until August 7th, 2011. Juror Eric Weeks has selected “Apple” for one of the three Juror’s Choice Awards in the professional division. For the complete list of award winners in both the professional and amateur divisions, please visit http://theohiostatefairfineartsexhibition.blogspot.com/2011/07/2011-award-listing.html.

perhaps something in purple?

Here is the second anthotype taken down from the window last Thursday. A few reviews alluded to drawing characteristics. It is a photogenic drawing (in purple). The iris petal emulsion was applied drop by drop (yes, I’m nuts) onto Kochi washi paper. Hence the pattern. The pajama was red fleece with trains and no name on it. If you have a suggestion for a title, I’m all ears.

BTW, I have been adding a dash of citric acid as a preservative to my latest flower pigment emulsions (in solution). Today I noticed that the red roses I was grinding up returned to their warm red shade with citric acid instead of the cooler red / purple with just water.