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).

gallery sightings: photo emulsion on handmade paper

The question is, if this blog is about the goings on in my studio (not very much as of March 30th) then why write about a trip to New York city? 


Note taking and note keeping. Unless I put this down in written form, I am going to forget what I saw.


Just a quick stab at recollection. Last Thursday, Bridgette, Jill Scheibler and I walked around a few blocks around 24th street and 10th avenue. In order alleviate some guilt on their part regarding all the painting and sculpture we were looking at, they agreed to go to a few photography venues. Aperture was the big one, where we got to see them lighting Jungjin Lee's  "Wind" exhibition. These were all done on handmade Korean mulberry paper. Later that night we returned with a few extra friends to experience a big Chelsea Thursday evening art opening. 

The next day I walked up Avenue of the Americas with Tim Castlen photographing along the way. Our primary destination was ICP and the Mexican Suitcase exhibit. I'll save a discussion of that for another time. After ICP we continue on up what may have been Broadway until we reached 57th street. I had steered us this way because of the cluster of midtown art galleries, hoping that we would get to Pace MacGill. We didn't but we did visit two galleries on West 57th, the Robert Anderson Gallery and the Marlborough Gallery. 

At the Robert Anderson gallery there were actually three shows up mostly work by Suzanne Opton and Geoff Winingham but in the back were three large black and white prints framed 30" x 30" by Barbara Mensch.

Jean Pagliuso was showing her Poultry and Raptor Suites of enlarged photo emulsion prints on Kaji and Thai Mulberry papers.

Although two doesn't make a trend, it's interesting to see two very different bodies of work with similar means of print making. It makes me rethink whether I want to show students Liquid Light on wood and metal or whether a beautiful handmade paper will win them over. 

Narcissus as a man in Chelsea wearing hat and cardigan

Some pictures of my adventures in Chelsea this past weekend. It's been around 8-9 years since I have been to NYC. I had a lot of catching up to do. Photos courtesy of Jill Scheibler.

two couples

Empire diner in Chelsea has been closed for a while by the looks of it and mannequins are extra, extra frightening at night en masse.

small city mouse in the big city [mostly Chelsea], day one

Bridgette and I are visiting NYC for a few days and trying to absorb as much work as we can. So this is a bit of a photocentric gallery report not in any specific chronological order. Basically we headed down to the galleries beyond 10th avenue in Chelsea looking for Karen Kliminik's installation

and ended up finding a lot of work before and after we stopped in at 303 gallery. The most memorable work for me was the work of Mark Morrisroe at ClampArt. I keep telling my students in alternative photography about the strange reds that James Fee tweeked out of his prints through chemical means. The same orange red was present in many of the chemically abused prints by Morrisroe made in the 1980's. This is due to the fact that older papers made before the mid-90's  had cadmium included in the manufacturing and non-traditional high contrast developers and toners were able to convert the cadmium into cadmium selenide or cadmium sulfide.

http://www.clampart.com/inventory/inventoryimages/imagemorrisroe08.htm

Bridgette and our friend Jill Scheibler loved the painted on and scratched upon inkjet prints of Sarah Anne Johnson's "The Artic Circle" at Julie Saul Gallery.

http://www.saulgallery.com/johnson/statement.html

More tomorrow about chickens and wind pictured on paper coated with photo emulsion.

before and after

March 12th, 2011

March 20th, 2011

stopping point

After the "unveil" last week I felt the anthotype needed more exposure and more detail in the middle of the object. I cut the pajama top into two layers and use the front of the pajama for the most recent exposure of about 2 1/2 afternoons. Registration is...well...off. That was an accepted part of this final attempt. I am now face with a decision. Do I intentionally move the the subject in future anthotype photograms? Do I keep it in register to maximize sharpness? Do I allow both to occur in the series?

I have a working title for the project of "Fade Away" to refer to the fading action of the sun on the pigment and the passing on of the previous owner of these pajamas and maybe even the fading away of Henry Peach Robinson fame. I'll upload the full PJ anthotype photogram later this week.

[insert winking emoticon here]

In time for your springtime sneezing and wheezing comes word from the O.C. that Forces of Nature is on display.

Here's a link to the press release from the Orange Coast College website. The exhibition runs concurrently with the showing of the platinum printing of Stan Klimek. The PR smacks of precious metal favoritism [insert winking emoticon here].

Closer to home, the link to the Christopher Yates review in the Columbus Dispatch of the Naturalists, curated by Bridgette Bogle, can be located here.

Sleeping in the Rain

As promised the first of the pajama anthotypes. I need to live with this for a while. My initial response is that it needs more exposure time. Almost needs to be less dense in the middle of the pajama so that it feels more ghostly. Clem's name written in Sharpie isn't visible which was one of my hoped for details. But the two types of rain drips are positive surprise. In the image you can make out a diffuse, elongated white mark in the main part of the image. This is where rain got under the plexiglass but only soaked the garment which in turn wet the paper. The other drip is visible in the shoulder areas. This is where rainwater directly removed pigment from the paper and as Bridgette describes it "very painterly".

I want to build a large frame to make the anthotypes a bit better at resisting water and I do wish for cleaner plexiglass. But for now I have to save up for the residency in Boston this summer.

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.

I really shouldn't be showing this...

Caveat #1: The only Plexiglass big enough for my Anthotype experiment on the cheap was the sheet of acrylic on which I coat the Forces of Nature prints. I thought I cleaned it prior to re-purposing it but the light of day reveals all of the flaws in my plan.

Caveat #2: This became a test or more accurately a run through. What would I be able to make a photograph with from materials lying around? With the exception of the Fabriano Artistico Hot Press roll of paper Bridgette and I went in on together, everything else was at hand: spring clamps from Big Lots, the aforementioned Plexiglass, the pajama top and the pokeberry juice diluted down a bit with water.

Caveat #3: It's about process. The unfading marks (squares) and rainwater drips (from the day we were in Columbus installing the Naturalists) may very well become part of the piece. Seen above, the spots where the spring clamps were at are a good indication of what kind of change has happened.

I estimate that the Anthotype has gotten about 4 1/2 afternoons of exposure. I will leave it out tomorrow for a final bit of sunlight and tomorrow night for better or for worse I will unveil the Anthotype to Bridgette and think about what I need to do next time so that it won't be a run through.

If it looks fabulous I will blog it on Sunday. If it is a mess, I will still post it Sunday. After all, as an artist I acknowledge the possibility of failure.

Forces of Nature in the O.C.

"Forces of Nature" makes it way to the O.C., Costa Mesa, California that is. From March 7th through April 18th, my Vandyke Brown prints will be on display in the photography gallery of Orange Coast College.

Go to their website at http://www.occphoto.com/galleryschedule.php for more information. The Gallery spaces are in the Fine Arts Building (Lobby) and Art Center (2nd floor).

Metered parking is available in Lot D on Merrimac Way.

Hours: 8am - 9pm Monday through Thursday.

Cupcakes...Only On a Sunday

Collaboration in an artists' household can take many forms. Its latest incarnation in the Schanbogle Collective is cupcake photography.

These are images made last autumn of Tequila lime cupcakes Bridgette made for her opening at Gallery 510.

The photographic metadata: an first generation Canon Digital Rebel with a Diana adaptor with a Diana Close-up lens from the Lomographers. The backdrop is a blue-green plastic cupcake transporter. Lighting: Window light from the north west corner of the kitchen.

I think we are going to call these Cupcake Swirls #1 and #4.

Cupcake Swirl #4

Cupcake Swirl #1

Each photograph (approximately 15" x 21") is printed in an edition of twenty as an archival pigment print. All proceeds go to buying more ink, paper and baking supplies. Included with each print is a recipe for Tequila Lime cupcakes.

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. 

meet the Naturalists

Meet the Naturalists.

From right to left: On bass Bridgette Bogle. On accordian, Francis Schanberger. On piano, Diane Stemper and on banjo, Erin Holscher-Almazan.

It was a great turn out as well as a great showing by D8N and Oxford artists.

Photo credit: Kali McGinness Barcroft, age four.

I can't stand the rain!

The title of today's blog is from a song lyric stuck in my head. Was it Ann Peebles that sang the most famous version of this song? Sure it dates me but it does speak volumes regarding the fugitive nature of this technique namely don't let the anthotype get wet.

Next Fall I hopefully will have an ample supply of pokeberry juice. At the moment I have two letter sized sheets coated as well as a larger piece in which is covered in diluted pokeberry juice. It is a light pink will probably create a low contrast, barely visible image unless I hit it with beet juice (somewhere in there is a double entendre). My hope is to give this some additional exposure, live with the drips and missing pokeberrry pigment (it will be visible, when done, below the collar).  There will be some noticeable mis-registration which will add to the ghosting effect.

the price one pays...

Hind sight is twenty-twenty.

Lesson: Never leave an anthotype out if you are going to be 70 miles away unable to rescue it.

The large anthotype may have been a casualty of the the late evening rainstorm. I put it out this morning since we've been starved for direct sun for a week and finally it came out in the a.m. It was sunny when we drove out around 2 pm heading to Columbus to install "The Naturalists". We didn't get home until about an hour ago and by that time a couple of showers had moved through the area. It's back in the garage "drying out".

The price one pays for a little artistic multi tasking. Matting work for the O.C. Measuring and hanging work in Columbus. Trying to get the anthotype to fade.

Pics of the installed Naturalists exhhibition in a couple of days. I still have to pack work for Orange Coast College.

if a naturalist designed a flag...

Last minute, frantic yet still somewhat perfectionist printing framing for two March exhibitions. So let the loopy-ness begin.

If a naturalist designed a flag it probably wouldn't look like this.

This is meant to be a mask for the Hairy Cemetery Nut to allow me to print the ground of the vandyke brown uniformly dark. I created inverses of the red on white ground in order to mask of the background of the Gingko Leaf grid images. Perhaps a side project coming around the corner.

"The Naturalists" Postcards Are In!

Next month's Member Curated Exhibition is "The Naturalists" featuring the work of Erin Holscher-Almazan, Diane Stemper and Francis Schanberger curated by the always insightful Bridgette Bogle.  The opening reception is scheduled for March 3rd, from 6 -9 pm at the Ohio Art League Gallery, 1552 North High Street, Columbus, Ohio 43201 and will run through April 1st.

Thank you Bridgette!

Gallery hours are: noon - 6pm, Monday - Wednesday and Thurs. -  Saturday noon - 8 pm.

You can contact OAL at 614.299.8225 or go to their website at: www.oal.org

two days of sun, two days of rain

This blog (such a nasty word) is, amongst other things, a Post-It note, bar napkin kind of thing for my working method and as of late it has been anthotype, anthotype, anthotype.

The big anthotype has gotten a good two days worth of sunshine on Friday and Saturday. The last two days have been cloudy and, especially today, wet! It should get about a full days worth of exposure on Wednesday but for now the tally is two days worth of backyard exposure for about 12 hours worth of direct sunlight.

and here's a picture of my hat to give you an idea of this morning's weather conditions.

at hand, at this scale, named after the name on the collar

Anthotype, pokeberry juice, pajama top (the piece will be named after the name on the collar).

Day 1: February 18th, 2011.

The "just leave it in the window" approach works fine for small tests. Now I have to care for my anthotypes. The next step is photogram based which means a big sheet of plexi and some sort of backing (unfortunately I only have cardboard at hand at this scale). Also, I have to put this out only on dry days and bring it back into the house at night.

Tune in to NOAA weather and please email me with any breaking weather reports. A little rain will wash away a good bit of last fall's pokeberry harvest - about 30 cc of juice.

Not Fugitive Enough

January 10 - February 17th window exposure.

Anthotype + sleepware = something positively resistant to light but for how long?


I think the most wonderful thing about creating anthotypes is the questions this process raises. It doesn't use any silver salts or iron. There is nothing precious about it, no gold or palladium involved and it doesn't use a negative. It needs a positive light resist and it forms an image by destroying a pigment that is unsheltered.


So the questions it raises are doubts. Is this a photograph in the traditional sense? How fugitive is the process? I believe that when defining the object know as a photograph, that there are unspoken parameters that viewer and collector expect to be part of the image.


Maybe the definition goes something like this...light has to be involved in the recording of the image i.e something like "the pencil of nature" for those of us insecure about are drawing skill. This could be light on a CCD or a piece of glass coated with collodian and silver nitrate. The unwritten parameters might be the image has to survive X amount of time. Perhaps X is the length of time it would take for a photographer to show the image to someone else in its original form once she / he thinks it is done. Perhaps this time needs to be extended or limited by some other constraint. What if we were to understand this unwritten quality to mean that the photograph must exist for a period of time equal to the time needed to create the image. Or perhaps it should last twice as long. Maybe we should wish it to last one rotation of the earth around the sun.


No matter how one defines a photograph, whether it exists only electronically (via screen) or on paper, there is an expectation that it will hang around long enough. The anthotype is one step removed from the MTV stencils applied to suntanning spring breakers I saw on screen those many years. It is also, strangely enough, in the same ballpark for longevity as the thermal paper prints from the Fisher Price camera I been re-acquainting myself with these last few months. How fugitive is the process? Not fugitive enough.

give winter the boot

Today is the opening reception for the Rosewood Art Center's annual Works on Paper exhibit. Bridgette's mixed media (cut paper, panel and water soluble oil) Poison Ivy piece (see her blog) and my Peninsular Boot Vandyke brown print made the cut. We are even mentioned as one of the two couples in the exhibit at the end of Pam Dillon's review.

Juried by Kristine Schramer, some of the artists in this 57 work exhibit are Erin Holzer Almazan, Sherree Emmons, Andrea Starkey, Alyson Eshelman, Ann Bain, Kalana Bartmess, Rebecca Carpenter, J. Austin Jennings, and Richard Malagorski. Come out and meet them between 2-4 pm at the gallery.

closer than they appear

Pictures in background are larger than they appear. Thank you Doug Taylor for the smart phone pic.

From the artists' talk today. Actually turned into a bit of an artists' round table (standing up) once the 3 o'clock bell rang and the Fort Hayes students fled the campus. 

...and from last week and last month, anthotype in the window pictures. Below, an image from February 4th. Compare it to the one posted on the January 10th blog. Once spring rolls around I am going to have to build a big printing frame to do the life sized sleep ware.

Closing Reception, ImageOhio 11

Last Thursday, Bridgette and I drove up to Kalamazoo to retrieve the work from the Greater Kalamazoo arts council. That show ended after about four months at the Western Michigan Cancer Center. It will be shipped off to Orange Coast College in a few weeks for a March exhibition. Next month in Columbus will also be the premier of the Naturalists (the work of Diane Stemper, Erin Holzer Almazan and Francis Schanberger) at the Ohio Art League gallery curated by Bridgette Bogle. I have no doubt the work will look fabulous but it took a lot of work and beautiful writing by Bridgette to bring us together and get the proposal approved. The exhibition also has been booked for September of 2012 at the Dayton Visual Arts Center.

There will be a closing reception for ImageOhio 11 this Friday at Fort Hayes in Columbus, OH. Justin Luna has scheduled the closing for 5-7pm this Friday, Feb. 11th. At 1:30 pm the same day there is a round of artist talks scheduled. Come by for the talks, stay for the closing, say "Hey!" and watch me unpin the "Roots with Dirt Clumps in Sixteen Pieces".

Columbus Dispatch Review for Portraits in Ohio at Ohio Arts Council's Riffe Gallery

Here's a link to Christopher Yates' review of "Here's Looking at You: Portraits in Ohio" at the Riffe Galley in Columbus. There is definitely a preference or bias for photography in the review and Yates begins with a quote by Richard Avedon.

http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/arts/stories/2011/02/06/portraits-tell-stories-in-various-formats.html?sid=101

On another note, tonight the stars and planets aligned and I finished printing the Governor's Awards images. It should have been easy but I got the itch to tone the photographs in palladium and gold. Gold cools the warmness of the Vandyke brown in the midtones and highlights and palladium makes the ground a rich, dense, chocolate color.

no sharpening needed

Pictures so blurry that they cut through a tin can like an infomercial knife. From last year's Jeff Regensburger exhibit at DVAC...blurry images made with Patrick Mauk's damaged digital camera. How happy an accident is that...a point and shoot that shoots beautiful Bill Jacobson like images and nothing else?

snowpocalypse from the backyard

Yes. Dayton also got hit by snowpocalypse in the form of a terrible ice storm.

Then the winds kicked up last night. The sounds of branches and icicles striking the house as Bridgette and I tried to sleep.

Here are two pics from the backyard. Tuesday was bad. Today was better. All of the broken ice fallen from the trees actually provided traction for walking outside.

deconstructing the image

It is hard for me to grasp the scale of events unfolding in Egypt except through images. As a photographer and a photographic educator, I think the "Giving the Flowers to the Tank Driver" moment has already happened, namely the defacing of a large image of Mubarak.

The first image is from AP and the second via Reuters.