seasonal miseries

The real anthotype season is in full swing and I conflicted by competing projects including the show in Japan this September. I've been collecting sleepwear which I'll discuss in the next few days. 

I've been gleaning red tulips petals from the University of Dayton campus and combining them with some purple tulip petals frozen since St. Valentines day.

 

 I had coated a few sheets of Fabriano with canned beet juice and decided to layer the tulip mix on top. While it was wet it seemed to increase the pigment density but after two coats of tulip on top of the beet emulsion, things went awry. It got lighter. 

My wife, the painter that she is, suggested putting more canned beet juice on top. My initial feeling is that it is improving but I'll look at it tomorrow in the daylight.

when papers go bad

Handmade papers like washi have always presented challenges for me, the handcoating emulsion dude. Did they have enough size? Would the paper fibers cooperate with the chemistry? One paper would work well with Vandyke brown, actually really well, but be horrible with cyanotype. 

The latest struggle was when a good paper turned bad. For the last six or seven months I have been struggling with a change in my favorite paper. When I first started using the Kozo Unryu paper there sometimes were 2-4 pinholes on half a full sheet but the last batch would have 15 to 20. These pinholes would act like a drain in a sink by pulling the photo chemistry I was applying out the back side of the paper. The result was a larger, lighter spot on the front of the paper. On the backside of the paper, corresponding ovals of chemistry would show up, evidence of the drain effect. These would process out after fixing the image but the light spots on the front would remain.

When I first started using the paper, I could easily spot 1-4 spots that would occasionally show up. But the lates batch would easily result in up to 12 or 15 light spots that were too much for me to carefully touch up.

I was taking a shower (I do some of my best problems solving in the bathroom) and was thinking about an image I was working with in gum and remembered that I had been coating that paper with an acrylic solution to create a barrier to prevent staining. Or maybe I was thinking about the shower drain and how the vandyke brown solution was getting pulled from one side of the paper to the other. Something "clicked" and a solution was realized.  I realized all I had to do was to coat the back side of the paper with Gamblin PVA (not the glue but a related size). It created a barrier to keep the chemistry on the front side of the paper.

The pictures show the backside of an unsized sheet from earlier in the week (top) and a sized sheet from two days ago (bottom). Both prints in the images have not been "fixed" which allows the brown stain on the back to be better visualized.

Tonight I looked at the first one to be processed and dried. I can still see tiny dark specks on the back side of the paper but I have eliminated the larger light spots on the front.

Now I can get back to work with this paper.

next up...salmon

I don't know why I was worried about mixing colors. I always had this idea that the water content in an anthotype emulsion would wash away an underlying color.

I started coating another sheet of Fabriano with onionskin and ran out of time before the solution got too ripe with bacteria. After about six coats I had to toss the old onionskin solution. Soon afterwards I got either stupid or courageous and decided to open a can of beets and apply the beet water to the paper.

Voilà!  Salmon resulted and the layers didn't really wash each other away. It's like I'm learning how to make watercolors.

This does create some new possibilities and problems. I can go back and add a different color on top of an already finished anthotype and purposely put it out of registration (these are essentially photograms).

Six weeks

Yesterday evening I "brought in" the yellow onionskin anthotype effectively ending an exposure that I started in late February.

Here's the assembled anthotype followed by an image of it disassembled:

the appearance of being active

Tomorrow should be a good day of sunlight so I am strongly leaning to "bringing in" the first onion skin anthotype.

What follows is, admittedly, just the ins and outs of recent exhibitions for record keeping.

Last month I was able to exhibit Forty-six at IceCube gallery in Denver, Colorado loosely part Denver's Month of Photography. The exhibit, Icebreaker 4 was juried by Nora Burnett Abrams, the associate curator at the Museum of Contemporary Art Denver.

Also last month, the Annual Works On Paper exhibit at Rosewood Art Center's gallery came down. I was able to sow three anthotypes including Somnambulist #3 (Cut Grass Poultice) and the tow little saffron anthotypes, Nightie Negligee (Barbie) and Sleeper Set Pajamas (Ken). Somnambulist #3 was selected for and award of merit by juror Robert Robbins, Chair of Drawing and Printmaking, as well as a professor in the fine arts department at the Columbus College of Art and Design.

Later this month I will be installing work at the Riffe Gallery in Columbus for the exhibit Photography's Back to the Future curated by Catherine Evans of the Columbus Museum of Art. Look for installation shots later this month on this blog. The work included in this exhibit happens to be all vandyke brown, specifically Forty-six, Mis-mitosis and Don't Take This Personally.

Few and far betweens

Quality versus quantity.

I won't even attempt to use that as an excuse for the few and far betweens which represent my postings to this blog.

There have been a few shows which I will write about tomorrow to keep up appearances. The appearance of being active that is.

The onionskin anthotype #1 is almost ready to come in from the sun. Except for a string of bad, wet days, it has been in all sorts of daylight from cloudy to bright sun. The amazing thing for me is the change in the amount of sunlight it is getting compared to the pokeberry anthotype and the four month winter exposure. To be consistant, there are two winter pokeberry anthotypes. The sleeping dress anthotype needs to be documented. Contrast is a bit low on that one due to the amount of pigment soaked up by the washi I used.

I am coating a second, larger sheet of Fabriano with yellow onion (skin) pigment. I found myself with a nice, big window of time to boil the skins I have been collecting.

The weather has been cool enough to allow for me to stretch out the brushing on of the onionskin broth over several days. The liquid will eventually begin to ripen too much and the coating will come to an end. But for now, no smell so I anticipate brushing on the liquid through tomorrow to build up a rich manila envelope color.

I am also continuing the smaller "hers / his" anthotypes. These also are onion skin based and should be assembled into frames, wrapped in plastic and started today. FYI, smaller pieces of paper (under 20 x 24 ) are easy enough to coat via dunking and agitating in trays. I found it easier, albeit more streaky, to coat the emulsion onto bigger sheets of paper by brushing on the pigment solution. The two pieces above received about 11 - 13 dunks with an older batch of onionskin liquid and another 3 - 4 with the latest solution.

Brushing, dunking, exposing and playing with doll clothes. No wonder curators have trouble with me.

the nostalgia for seeing an ocean horizon

As a way of moving out of the back of the blue sky gallery, a decision was made to utilize the overhanging dry wall that diagonally bisected the space. I really can't pinpoint when I decided sidewalk cracks were going to be part of the show, but I had hoped to begin installing it the week before "Your Turn" opened. The idea was to create a crack near the ceiling as a way to make use of more of the gallery. Bridgette Bogle and I didn't have time to execute this by February 1st. The actual photographing of the cracks happened mid-January and the printing finally commenced a month later. Last weekend was a quick run to Columbus to pick up an additional roll of 100 feet of generic luster paper, the other having run out by the time I got through the first crack.

These "sidewalk cracks" were printed out 15.5" x 67". Some were connected to each other in pairs. One set formed a triptych. Bridgette created her own crack with pink ribbon which was marked in intervals with blue and green masking tape. This made each of the sections part of one larger piece we ended up calling "lost horizons".

I haven't had time to properly document this part of our collaboration but I am posting a cropped detail of an image from the closing.

The name comes from the James Hilton novel Lost Horizon (and the subsequent movies) but is meant to reference my nostalgia for seeing the ocean horizon from my childhood home in San Diego. The cracks become a horizon line high above the gallery floor which mimic the height of the ocean horizon viewed from a hill.

However...in the process of determining a print size for that massively long strip of gallery space, I printed out three smaller versions of the sidewalk cracks and stacked them on the same sheet of paper. There is something appealing about this scale and arrangement that exists independently of the gallery installation. There may be more of these.

collaboratory

Just a note. Tonight was the closing reception for "Your Turn" which was an experiment into collaboration with my life partner (OK, wife, spouse, significant other), Bridgette Bogle. 

More on the results when I am recharged. For now here is an image showing her wall painting titled "Snow Window" into which I introduced a photograph of fingerprints from the space.

Maybe it works.

The decisive Anthotype moment

In any medium there can be a moment when you are finished with your making but not recognize it. There can also be a moment when one thinks something is finished and one doesn't recognize that the making needs to continue.

This isn't indecision necessarily but the opposite namely a wrong decision.

Anthotypes are prone to this error in the decision process. I usually stop them too soon, take the whole thing apart, look at the underlying exposure and put everything back together and continue the exposure.

Here is the pokeberry anthotype of Clem Wolfham #2. It's pretty dark but this time I think I'll err on the side of print density. There are subtle details that are difficult to make out in the documentation but I think it will buy this print a few more years of life as it goes from storage to exhibition and back to storage.

Onionskin Anthotype Day 1

Another day and another anthotype. Over the last couple of weeks, I been squeezing in a little bit of time to coat a sheet of paper with brown liquid made from boiling the skins of yellow onions.

The paper has about eleven coats of onion skin broth. The pajama is in-labeled meaning their is no name from a previous owner. It has been cut along the seems to leave only the button front and collar. The paper is Fabriano Artistico Extra White Hot Press.

Icebreaker 4

Forty-six is making its way across the continental divide to be part of Icebreaker 4, an all media, un-themed juried show at Denver's IceCube gallery. The gallery is located at 3320 Walnut Street in Denver, Colorado. The show was juried by Nora Burnett Abrams, the Associate Curator at the Museum of Contemporary Art Denver.   An opening reception is scheduled for March 8th,  5-9pm and a Juror’s Conversation event is planned for March 14, 3:30pm. 

The exhibition will be on view from March 7th through March 30th. 

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.

been framed lately?

In case you are in the Dayton area, please stop by Custom Frame Services and see what Dave Crowell did with "Hairy Cemetery Nut". Some really amazing reclaimed wood stock surrounds the floated print.

http://customframeservices.com/content/photography-by-francis-schanberger/

Please visit them during the hours of 10 am - 6 pm Tuesday through Friday and Saturday, 10 am until 2 pm.

1029 Wayne Avenue, Dayton OH 45410

Their phone number is 937. 220. 9020

Registering my patience

The anthotype I've given the working title of "daughter" had a bit of a mishap. The sleeping dress slipped a bit off the paper revealing the amount of image that has occurred. I had to cut the plastic wrap off and carefully re-register it twice. Coming up to its third month of exposure with a few days in the garage during heavy rains, this is where it's at.

Remote Trigger

This could be an archive Monday entry but I haven't really followed through on that concept. Last Friday I had planned to shoot a new Dr. Frangst image. Shooting a picture. Sounds simple unless your Gregory Crewdson.

To resurrect Dr. Frangst, I have to locate the pants, the shirt, the glasses, etc. The coat isn't a problem. I have lots of lab coats laying about and now have two with cyanotype, photogram designs that can be employed as costume. 

The view camera that's another matter. I have to load about three holders for a total of six pieces of film. I have to make sure the shutter is firing after a recent class demo went awry. 

Perhaps the most vexing problem is the Fernauslöser. What, you ask, is a fernauslöser? Translated literally it is a remote trigger. Specifically for the project it is a 10 m long pneumatic cable that activates the shutter on either my 12 inch Dagor lens or the 14 inch Ilex Paragon. 

Quickly before this blog descends into the specifics of view camera dialogue...one small reason the Dr. Frangst project fell to the wayside is der Fernauslöser. I switched, late into the second iteration of the project, to a mechanical self-timer which negated the need for a pneumatic cable release. I was getting tired of the bulb occasionally not doing its job in tripping the shutter. Initially the mechanical remote did the trick but it required a bit of attention. I was in earshot, I could hear the timer winding down and I could also hear the shutter open and close. 

I soon discovered that sometimes I couldn't hear the timer or the shutter. Maybe it was an early sign of my impending tinnitus. Regardless, the Dr. Frangst images became less and less a part of my output. I think the use of the pneumatic bulb was key. 

Friday, I spent a few hours breaking out the remote trigger. I have two. The first one is a Kaiser with funny cartoons on each side of the box. One depicts a visitor to a state park carefully driving over the bulb to take a picture of himself in nature inside the car. The second shows two table tennis players, one of which is about to step on the bulb and take an image at the decisive moment of the match. 

My other Fernauslöser is made by Rowi and is a bit older. Perhaps late 40's or early 1950's. I am including a photo that graces the instructions below. 

For two hours I cajoled the bulbs and cables, finally cutting off a bit here and some there and combining the two into a functional remote trigger. 

Look for more pictures in part two of this entry.

Solar Minimum

Anthotype update: they are getting there. It has been over a month and the only evidence of fading has been the small areas where the spring clamps had covered up coated areas of the paper (see picture below).

The thee or four variables that may be extending the exposure time:

1. Intensity. We are three weeks away from solar minimum.

2. Duration. The Anthotypes only receive about three hours of sunlight per day not counting the time when the neighbors" trees block out direct sunlight with their branches.

3. Wrapped in not entirely transparent plastic. Since they are kept outside the plastic tarp is necessary and a contributor to exposure time suck.

4. Extra strength pokeberry. The double costing and undiluted pokeberry emulsion are much more resistant to bleaching.

Freebie Friday

As an alternative to Black Friday and as a means of shameless self-promotion, I am offering a free postcard to anyone within reading distance of this blog. Please email me your preferred mailing address to frangst@gmail.com

I'll even mail it overseas for free!

This is a self-produced card for the Ohio State University Urban Arts Space exhibit featuring the Pajama Pants Rose Petal Anthotype.

cat ears

Shortly before going to Boston in 2011, Ki snapped this instant photo of my cat Chasputin on Impossible Project film. It's on page three of an online exhibit on Aline Smithson's Lenscratch blog. The exhibit is called Pets and Favorite Animals and can be found at http://www.lenscratch.com/2012/11/the-2012-lenscratch-pets-and-favorite.html?m=1

Hairy Cemetery Nut at Custom Frame

Posting entries can be like big steps or little steps. Today is a little step.

Dave Crowell over at Custom Frame Services has selected my business card out of a glass bowl, randomly I've been assured, for a free frame. As you can see, he has chosen to float it and present it in beguiling, distressed wood. Head over to his shop at 1029 Wayne Avenue in Dayton, Ohio to see it on display, now until the end of January. They are open from 10 am - 6 pm Tuesday through Friday and Saturday, 10 am - 2 pm. http://www.customframeservices.com/

Photo courtesy of Custom Frame Services (possibly captured by Charmaine Griffith)

Francis Schanberger discusses his anthotypes

Francis Schanberger discusses his anthotypes, a photo by amymyou on Flickr.

Four of us our wearing four eyes! Thanks Amy Youngs!