quite luxurious for the monk

Yesterday I arrived in Boston. Officially, I am, maybe, six minutes away from Fenway Park.

The day started off cold in western New York and eventually got to be a 90 degree kind of day once I arrived at Emmanuel College. No pictures to show yet but today I should be out and about with either a digital SLR or the Polaroid.

Today was all about getting to Boston around 3 pm and navigating my way to Emmanuel College with google map directions. It worked out. I didn’t get lost but I did test the patience of Bridgette (Bogle) trying to have her direct me to Bed, Bath and Beyond via phone and her internet connection so that I would have a bath towel for a much needed shower. The bath towel is yet another thing I forgot to pack.

Today was also about getting an ID card, parking permit, access to an undergraduate dorm room, quite luxurious for the monk I will play for the next two months, appraising the studio situation and finally unloading my art making stuff into designated studio areas.

I am here. Please come visit me in Boston. I’ll take a pretty picture of you.

Close Encounters of the Deer Kind

With the crazy manic day yesterday searching for a lost negative and trying to remember how to correctly print a Ware method cyanotype, no packing was done (by me) until this morning. Instead of leaving the house at 8:30 I got on the road in the rain around 12:30 pm. Still despite my late departure, I was able to drop off my framed photograph in Columbus for the Roy G Biv benefit Friday night.

Halfway to Boston and the drive was relatively uneventful. Remembering what I forgot to bring. Trays for processing prints. Hair clippers (strangely enough I remembered a hair dryer). Medium format film and cameras. Some expired paper for doing lith and lumen prints.

I did have a close encounter with a deer at 65 miles and hour outside of Salamanca. I think I swerved enough and slowed down enough that it was mostly a brush for both of us. The deer was able to scamper into the forest after appearing suddenly from the sunken median. I just used up all that good kharma from last week rescuing the woodchuck with the tin can stuck on its head.

The Burning Building Scenario, Just the Studio

When packing for a two month residency one shouldn’t be rushed. There are important things to bring, first tier items that will keep the art and everyday needs to a minimum. So in order to prevent the burning building syndrome I offer myself and the visitor to this blog an idea of what I need to take along.

Just for Studio

Paper (Kozo Unryu) what ever is left

Gold Chloride Toner

Palladium Choride

Silver Nitrate

Tartaric Acid

Ammonium Ferric Citrate

Sodium Thiosulfate

Some sort of music (probably a CD player and a couple of CD wallets

Artist Tape

Trays

Beakers

Stir Rods

Gloves, disposable nitrile type

Brushes (Hake)

Brushes (Foam)

Kimwipes

Dropper Bottles

Premixed Vandyke Brown (to hit the ground running)

Inkjet transparency film (17 x 22 and 8 1/2 x 11)

Printing Frames for the nice weather printing days

Stouffer Step Tablets

Framing supplies (no)

Mat board (no)

Straight Edge

Another Straight Edge

Clothes Pins

Clothes Line

Hair Dryer

Anthotype Materials (Currently Mulberry)

Everclear (in case Massachusetts makes it hard to find).

Mortar and Pestle

Strainer

Coffee Filters

Digital Camera and Memory Cards

Card Reader

Hard drive with current work

Polaroid ProPack camera

SX-70 camera

Instant Film, Fuji and Impossible Project

to be continued

In All Fairness

In all Fairness, what is known as the Ohio State Fair Fine Arts Exhibition is happening once again and Bridgette and I have work in the professional division. I use this venue as a deadline to create new work in the weeks following the end of the spring semester at the University of Dayton. Bridgette has a painting titeled “Particle” which you can see on her blog http://bbogle.blogspot.com/2011/05/ohio-art-league-100th-annual-spring.html. I will have apple and sacred heart on display.

Other artists included in the exhibition:

Amateur Division:

Timothy Albon,  Prem Balson,  David Barnes,  Darlene Beiter,  Kevin Benson,    April Bleakney,  Karrie Caryle,  Rob Cook,  Marilyn Curry,  Kit Daily,  Sharon Daily,  Beverly Darwin,  Pamela DeLay,   Barbara Doll,  John Enterlin,  Juli Fogt,  David Ford,  Jules Garel, David Gentilini,  Helen Golovin, Dennis Gordon,  Samuel Hairston, Jr.,  George Halbert,  Tom Hart, Judy Hazen,  April Hernandez,  Bethany Jozwiak-Butler,    Dylan Kasson,  Paul Kramer,  Bradley Laxton,  Elaine Libbey,  Kristane Murray,  Elizabeth Nelson, Sarah Ockuly,  Larry Owen,  Alyssa Petrosky,  Tara Potts,    Douglas Reeder,  Julia Relick,  Marisa Rence,  Melissa Ritchie,  Brenda Ruegsegger,        C. Guillot Ryan,  Molly Savage,  Jerry Seabaugh, Owen Simonson,  Aaron Skapik,  Isaac Smith,  Jim Snyders,  Laura Stewart,  Rebecca Taft,  Sharon Telatnik,  Craig Wales,  Kimberly Webb,  Nova Weller, Cherry Williams and Judi Young

Professional Division:

Janet Adams,  Brandon Antczak,  Laine Bachman,  Lawrence Baker,  Ben Barnes,  Art Beery,  Catherine Bell Smith,  Bridgette Bogle,  Carol Borham-Hays,  Rick Borg,  Undine Brod,  Adam Brouillette,  Kevin Buckland,  Julie Bryne,  Karen Campbell,  Matt Carmean,  Elizabeth Chrisman,  Georgie Cline,  Susanne Dotson,  Jeff Douglas,  Diane Dover,  Paul Emory,  Gary Engle,  Frederick Fochtman,  Chad Fogt,  Kelley Folger,  Elaine Freeman,  John Freiman,  Angela Gage,  Bill Glaeser,  Jim Glover,  Beverly Goldie,  Amandda Graham,  Tracy Greenwalt,  George Gregory,  Carol Griffith,  Michael Hays,  Bryan Heyward,  Nicholas Hill,  Andy Hudson,  Andrew Ina,  Morris Jackson,  Tamara Jaeger,  Dale Johnson,   Marty Kalb,  Kevin Keiser,  Lori Kella,  Virginia Kistler,  Kristi Kloss,  JulesKnowlton,  John Kortlander,  Bernice Koff,  David Lane,  Nicole Langille,  Linda Leviton,  Michael Loderstedt,  Fran Mangino,  Michael May,  Juliette Montague,  Emily Moorhead,  Sherry Mullet,  Paula Nees,  Ardine Nelson,  Dana Oldfather,  Jeffrey Owen,  Christine Pereyma,  Tara Polansky,  Jose Luis Quinones,  Katelin Reeser,  Stephanie Rond,  Mark Rosen,  Debbie Rosenfeld,  Jason Routson,  Nikos Rutkowski,  Eliana Sarri,  Francis Schanberger,  Daniel Schreiber,  Jenny Scanto,  Michael Sheets,  Ashley Shellhouse,  Mike Siculan,  Carol Snyder,  Alissa Sorenson,  Grace Summauen,  Joan Tallan,  James Trout,  Crystal Tursich,  Barbara Vogel,  Melissa Vogley-Woods, Linda Wesner,  Paul Wilbur,  Eileen Woods,  and Dennis Zimmerman

The Ohio State Fair Fine Arts exhibition will run from July 27th through August 7th with an opening reception on July 26th from 6-8 pm.

ROY GOES TO CLINTONVILLE FUNDRAISER

ROY GOES TO CLINTONVILLE FUNDRAISER

Roy G Biv Gallery for Emerging Artists will be hosting an event a little bit north of their digs in Columbus, Ohio on June 17th. Look at all the names of these contributing artists (including me)! Laura Alexander, Michelle Amos, Kyle Boganwright, Molly Jo Burke, Kate Dowell, Rachel Heberling, Andrew Ina, Tony Mendoza, Jesse Mills, Scott Neal, Amy Niewirth, Ryan Orewiler, Stephanie Rond, Boryana Rusenova-Ina, Nikos Fyodor Rutkowski, Francis Schanberger, Cameron Sharp, Aimee Sones, Jeremy Stone, Aaron Troyer, Melissa Vogley-Woods, Ryan Walters.


Please visit http://roygbivgallery.org/events/?event_id=5 for details.

Although I will be settling into my residency in Boston, I will be dropping off a new, "nutty" piece, toned in palladium and gold, just for this one night only event.

In Progress

Fortunately the severe weather and flooding effecting much of the U.S. has only been a minor inconvenience here in Dayton. We have had a lot of rain this year which translates to a bit of water in the basement which is where I do most of my work. I have always thought that my work was immune to the vagaries of humidity often blaming the poor quality of prints on the water supply or old chemistry. This spring has been a learning experience. I now know that when the relative humidity climbs into the 70 or 80 percent range, it is pointless to coat and print paper. In a couple of days I'll upload two versions of "Apple" ( I wish I had a more romantic name) that were printed at 80% RH and one from two days ago printed at about 65% RH.

Besides the weather, my NuArc 26 1K plate burner has been a bit unpredictable, sometimes taking 2 hours to ignite the bulb. Perhaps it is the basement sending me signals that I need to clean up the office upstairs with all the piles of old and new Polaroid and Impossible Project photographs I have been scanning.

In progress. This week I will give this image the vandyke brown treatment, possibly outside or inside depending upon the NuArc and the weather outside.

From my walks this week, mulberries are on the ground. Possible anthotype pigment and the Catalpa trees are dropping their white flowers. It's already one time around the sun since I created that image!

Ten days until Boston. What kind of work will I be making there?

Impossible Project Color Shade

Here (below) are scans of the same instant photograph created on different days to keep track of a cyan  shift in the image area of the Impossible Project's PX 70 Color Shade First Flush. Although it is a touchy film, I am learning how to maximize images made with this material. Testing, although the material is expensive, is the key to succeeding with instant photographic materials from the Impossible Project.

From left to right: 8 hours, 29 hours and 48 hours after exposure.

Pictures from Belgium

Last fall's the Art of the Photo Archive was photographically documented. The exhibition at the Free University of Belgium was organized by Roger Kockaerts of Gallery pH 7.

Additional installation views can be seen at:
http://www.permadocument.be/texte/YRK/RFK/RK/170%20years.html

Look But Don't Touch

Both Bridgette (Bogle) and I have a morbid fascination with toxicodendron radicans. Bridgette just created an installation based upon the characteristic leaf shapes of poison ivy base upon her view of it just outside her studio window. I have scanned it as a potential subject for the forces of nature series and lately have turned to it as a subject for the Impossible Project film I have recently acquired. 


Below is Look But Don't Touch and below that, a view of her Poison Ivy Room at Sideshow 6.

The Eye of the Dayton Sideshow

It's been more than a week since Urban Nights and the 2011 edition of the creative collective known as the Dayton Circus Sideshow.  This year they took over the Yellow Cab Co. building across from Garden Station. The building is a wonderful resource and record of that buisness that once was based near downtown Dayton. Amidst the installations and exhibit spaces was a carpeted room with couches, security camera monitors and what I understood to be the real eye of the Sideshow 6.

newly emerged from the catacombs...

Some new Vandyke Browns I've been working on are visible below. The first has the incredibly provocative and imaginative title of Apple and the second, Knarled Nut. These are small work prints of about 9 x 9 inches done to determine exposure. The final scale should be either 20" x 20" or 24" x 24".

Attack of the Poor Pods

It finally happened. A bad pack of the Silver Shade Black Frame UV+.

Below you will see the progression and finally a good pod instant photo. BTW, Bridgette is a fan of the poor pod look. PAINTERS!

Bridgette and Bridgette II, Exposures 1 and 2.

 

Bridgette's Apron and Poison Ivy, Exposures 3 and 4.

Poison Ivy (Again) and Chasprix, Exposures 5 and 6.

Poor Pods, Black Frame, Instant Gratification

Ryan Adrick photographed by Francis Schanberger

I have succumbed to the lure of the Impossible Project. Last week I received an email about problematic Silver Shade 600 film being sold in packs of six. I've been fighting off the urge to use their film due to the expense but there was no way for me to resist. Six boxes of 8 sheet instant film for 36.60 plus shipping. Le't say it was about $45 in total for about 48 sheets. The less than a dollar a sheet threshold had been crossed.

At College Park Center, Studio 238, home to the University of Dayton's Photography and Visual Communication Design facilities, I met up with Ryan Adrick and Christine Zuercher for some instant gratification. Here are the first three sheets from the black frame poor pod lot. All developed perfectly protected from light in an empty 4x5 sheet film box.

Studio 238 R by Christine Zuercher

Untitled (CPC Visual Arts Facility) by Ryan Adrick

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. 

Dayton in the House

Below is a link to the 2011 Governor's Awards for the Arts. I'll post images to the event as they become available. It was well documented and a good part of the four hours Bridgette and I spent in Columbus were dedicated to getting photographed including one with Ohio's First Lady, Karen Kasich.

Dayton was well represented hence the need to buy a new suit and bow tie. During the lunch we were serenaded by the Stivers School for the Arts Jazz Orchestra and as Michael Lippert, winner of the Arts Education Award, stated in his thank you speech, "Dayton in the House!"

http://www.daytondailynews.com/lifestyle/state-arts-awards-bear-daytons-stamp-again-1160694.html

(Vandyke) Brown Heart of Mine

This past winter Bridgette and I concocted a mythical creature for me based upon the story of the white swan / black swan recently revisited through the cinematic portrayal by Natalie Portman in Black Swan. If she could be both the black and white swans, I certainly could be a swan in the glorious hue of Vandyke Brown.

Here I present the heart of this mythical beast.

and lest you thing I am neglecting my technical mastery of this printing technique I'll include the Stouffer's 21 step tablet with the pencil marking noting the "lightening" by five steps that occurred following exposure because of processing.

up next, Sacré-Coeur

Besides my fixation on the slightly fugitive anthotype process, I continue my affair with Vandyke Brown. Talking to students at Wright State University this afternoon put me back into production mode. So up next I will be printing this image in VDB which I am tentatively (emphasis on 'tentatively') calling Sacré-Coeur or Sacred Heart.

Nicéphore Niépce in Cornflower Blue part II

Today the anthotype was left out briefly in the rain. An interesting paper chromatography result ensued in a non image area of the paper.

Nicéphore Niépce in Cornflower Blue

Above is an example of the cornflower blue anthotype (Mel Miller) in progress. It's going to take a while but it's important to document the early stages of image formation.

The images are from April 29th. What I noticed early in the week was a reversal of tones, or what I would label a negative, image being formed the first day. I suspect this had something to do with all of the sugars left behind in the anthotype from the root beer flavored vodka. A day later it looked blank. Last Friday it looked like the picture above and it got a bit less than two hours of sun late yesterday afternoon.

Below is a picture of the front porch with two printing frames out. I am stopping the exposure on the pokeberry anthotype. Any more sunlight and I will loose the rich Dmax. In the foreground are the first of the season's iris flowers. I might be able to do a small antho with those for the Naturalists exhibit in 2012.

Why do sometimes I feel like Nicéphore Niépce? When I first obtained a negative image and then a day later it was gone, I had to wonder about the success of the project. I still do but not as much. The new flowers are working and I have a few sources for pokeberries in the fall.

Me, Monarch self-portrait exhibition

Me, Monarch is up for view in the Ravi Photo Gallery, Hyderabad, INDIA. This is an exhibition of self-portraits done with pinhole cameras by 98 photographers from around the globe (24 countries).  


Even though I already posted the Dr. Frangst and Catkins (in zone plate), I wanted to include this detail which is the process of being printed as this cropped version. Yes, it's my current facebook profile picture. That's how much I am in love with it. If it wasn't obvious before, there should be no doubt regarding my narcissistic tendencies. 

registering an image

We had a brief lull in the rain here in southwest Ohio and I put the pokeberry print (Clem Wolfham) out for a little more exposure.

But wait, there's more.

I also put out one of the purple petal Anthotypes, actually looking like cornflower blue, using a positive transparency which is detail of a bathrobe with the name Mel Miller. I had it out in mixed lighting conditions, mostly cloudy, for about 3 hours.

I brought them back in after about 2 1/2 hours (I had to teach and early evening class) opened the split back printing frame and saw that it already had registered an image.

IT'S WORKING!

I'll post a couple of images later tonight.

And yes, I spent about an hour picking more purple flowers out of fear they won't be around much longer.

Tomorrow I am installing the Flowers from a Cigar Tree print in Columbus which is part of the Ohio Art League's 100th anniversary Spring Juried Exhibition. The work to be shown in the Carnegie Gallery of the Columbus Metropolitan Library (main branch) was selected by OSU Sculpture professor Todd Slaughter.

I do think tomorrow will be a Dirty Franks kind of day. Anyone want to meet up for a hotdog?

paper matters

The one variable that strikes fear into the hearts of those of us working with hand applied, light sensitive emulsions: paper types and paper pH. With a delicate, hard to harvest and distill emulsion like the purple flowers I am discovering that paper matters.

I've been noticing that the flower petal emulsion seems a bit faint and much bluer than I expected. I've come across references to flower pigments yielding surprise colors with no reason. I suspect that the pH of the paper is the culprit.

The picture above has four paper types.

1. The paper on the bottom is the Fabriano Aritstico Hot Press Extra White. It worked great for the Pokeberry juice but the emulsion seems faint when brushing on. I ended up putting three coats on it and got what Bridgette thinks is a nice blue. Thanks Bridgette and Jill for the suggestion.
2. The next paper is a light weight Kozo paper from Bostick and Sullivan. It was labeled E on their old sampler pack which was a freebie a few years back!
3. On top of that is a square of Arches Platine, a favorite paper of platinum palladium printers.
4. On top of everything is a strip of my favorite Kozo Unryu (the backside). Surprise... it looks the best!

BTW, the happy accident also contributed to this report. I was using the Kozo Unryu as a means of wiping off the organic debris from my brush and noticed that it looked purple and the purple seemed stronger than the blue that was applied in one coat to the Fabriano. I don't know the pH of the Kozo Unryu but I do know the Kozo light weight and Arches Platine work well with iron (siderotype) processes because of their neutral to slightly acidic pH.

I remember from undergraduate biochemistry the role of pH on the 3-D structure of proteins. During the last few weeks  also discovered that heating plant pigments to "reduce" them is not a good idea. I lost the rich magenta color of pokeberrry doing this very thing. Changing the shape of the protein via heat  or pH may change its color.

and the paper smells like root beer

The pokeberry anthotype of Clem's pajama top (small version) is close to being done. Here is a scan from Sunday afternoon. 

Pokeberry juice has spoiled me. It provided a strong tincture to use. Now I am struggling to get these small violet flowers to have a presence on a sheet of paper. I managed to get about 50-75 cc of tincture but it seems too dilute and the root beer flavored vodka I used as a solvent has created some new concerns. The sugar in the alcohol has created a stickiness to the emulsion. So the update: the new purple flowers have yielded a sticky and weak liquid that really reads blue and the paper smells like root beer.

strategies: 

1. Maybe I can do multiple passes to build up density (suggested by Bridgette). 
2. Let the emulsion evaporate over several days without heating to create a reduction that is denser with pigment.
3. Throw in the towel.

my color purple handiwork, part I

These are the beginnings of my attempt to continue the sleepwear sleepwere sleepwhere series (the title is morphing). The first test at making an anthotype emulsion from the small purple flowers yielded a dilute, blue liquid. Friday I hunched over and picked about 260 grams of flowers off which I have been stripping the petals this weekend.

 halfway through the bag on Sunday

I've gone through the bag, frozen the petals, thawed them out, crushed them down a bit and now they are re-freezing. Tomorrow I should have a nice slurry to add ethanol to pull the pigment out which I will filter and hopefully have enough to coat some large pieces of watercolor paper. At least one big enough to lay a polyester sleep robe with a paisley pattern on it. Now I really do need to look at the work of Jim Dine.

stripped, frozen, and crushed

dr. frangst video from 2005

This was a video interview with Annegreth Nill talking about my work in July 2005, part of the Made in Ohio exhibit at the Riffe gallery.


Here is the link:


http://www.ohiochannel.org/medialibrary/Media.aspx?fileId=129354&returnTo=Collection

the color purple

If there is one good thing about letting the wild reclaim the backyard (to a degree) is that I don't have to go very far for potential pigments for anthotype.

Today I successfully mashed up and pulled out the pigment from these small purple flowers sprouting all over the front and backyards. I collected about twenty flowers, stripped off the petals and immersed them in Mr. Boston rum. Not seeing any color migrate to the alcohol, I poured the mix into my mortar and pestle (the darkroom one, not the kitchen's) and worked it until I had a purplish heterogeneous mixture. Pictures tomorrow. In the next few days I am going to harvest all of the purple flowers and place them in tubs with a bit of water and let the wonders of freeze/thaw fracture work its wonders in (and out of) our basement freezer. 

The next anthotypes will be the color purple.

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.