on a separate note

Those of you who expressed interest on my metals pieces. I have been quietly debating the presentation of these pieces in  the back of my head while I am working on the cyanotypes for my thesis graduation exhibition.

If you care to comment, leave me a message here or on the other means available. I would appreciate your suggestions.

I am interested again in the ways we see, understand, and expect things. I am hoping to find a suitable means to convey this with something that is truly of a metallic nature as part of the finished piece.

I'm not sold on this as it seems too removed and not integral to the meaning.

Final Residency and Last Semester!

I am indebted to the very kind and generous Lisa Sibley for making these photos of my work at the residency. Thank you Lisa!

 Detail of one of the papers. During the making of cyanotypes on any type of paper in an earlier semester, I realized that since I was calling into play the elements of discard, I should then, use lots of discarded papers I had on hand from other projects. This was an etched print using water color paper.

Placing the papers on a column traditionally used to support works of art, i.e. sculpture, I focused on the irony by activating it even more with many discarded and strewn pieces of paper. 

I have to say a huge thank you to Jarod Charzewski this last semester for his intelligence, humor, and thoughtful analysis of the ongoing piece. 

What I have found in this last residency is that the whole piece is able to be re-worked and implemented in many different ways in terms of presentation. And that allows me to play on various aspects of the piece. 

There is still much work to be done. And along with it a thesis to write so I will be checking back infrequently to put in a few photos as the work progresses. 

I am working with the wonderful and intelligent advisor Sunanda  Sunyal at AIB. He has given me more (much more) to read since I've veered off the path of photography and into sculpture and installation. It's also enlightening to listen to him talk.  

I also have to say to my earlier mentor Susan Dunkerely Magurie that it was wonderful working with you and thanks to you I've made many amazing discoveries!

As you can see the yard is full of light and shadow. It makes an interesting interplay with the time and specifics of UV light.

Anticipating the final residency - which will also be the graduate exhibition! There is a lot of work to be done still!!!!

I have started more panels to beef up the size and give vertical lift. As per the factory method I employ, I lay them out and dry in the sun. For these foam board I coated first with a gelatin coating so that was one extra step.

Finishing Touches

We're heading towards the end of the semester. I have an internal support structure and individual pieces that I am going to hang during the residency. Coming up will be more prints (if the weather ever clears up)!

stacking

Looking good for the pedestal problem

This is the one I like best. It's a cardboard box that I hope I can color with cyanotype.

 

This is most of the work of this semester so far. There is still some that I have drying and others waiting for exposure.  I counted it once but already forgot how many. I'll have to see how many more I can quickly process before the end of the semester. It never seems like enough! I want it to be 4 feet high!

 

approaching storms

It has been so difficult to use the sun when the weather has not been cooperating. It wouldn't be so bad because I've been able to use the sun and expose the papers even when it's been 15 degrees outside.

But lately it has been either snow or rain. In fact we've had 2 storms this last week, one was a near white out in Duluth. We didn't get it quite so bad but we had close to 6-8 inches. Now they are calling for another storm coming in tonight or tomorrow and another 8 inches or more. Oh well.....

I've still laid out the papers on the snow but the constant temps above freezing and the intermittent drizzle make interesting patterns on the papers (and cause them to get soaked).

I've started treating other types of papers and substrates to see what and how they'll take the cyanotype and how well they will rinse off. It takes a good 5 minutes and often more to rinse to clear water. And I've had many papers start breaking down their fibers in less time than that and end up with a matted mess after rinsing.

This is yellow which is the cyanotype coating before exposure.

This cardboard has been exposed and is now drying. I thought it would fall apart during rinsing but it didn't seem to have too much problem.

 

Winter in Northern MN

I can't believe that they still had high school today. It is still -21degrees out at 10 am. OK so it was even colder during the night and 'got up to" -21 by 10:00 am.

In spite of this I'm using the winter sun to continue to expose the prints. It's bright and sunny despite the very freezing temps.

Here are photos from the residency. It's hard to tell that there are 150 hand made, double-sided prints piled up there. They flatten so much through their combined weight.

 

 

phonomenology

I realized that these are not only records of objects, both as a photogram of a direct object and also the negative, but the papers serve as a record of the day, time, and weather conditions. I started about half way through writing the date, time, and temperature on the back of the paper before setting them out.  One more way of including the hand of the artist!

It has been a strange fall/winter. We had no snow for the longest time and then finally a big bit for Thanksgiving. Back to the strange weather - it was 41 degrees and then started raining just a week later.

I had put out several papers to expose in the sun on the top of the canoe. Sometimes (there is so little daylight normally) when it has been extremely cloudy I leave them overnight to get the first possible sun the next day. In this case it rained the next 4 days. I left the papers since some of the ones were the very fragile paper stock that would rip when wet. Guess what? Then it got cold and the papers iced up and stuck to the metal of the canoe. So I left them again in the hopes that they would a) thaw b) get some sun.

I finally had to take them off (they did thaw) because we were slated for a huge storm. Well the storm went to the south of us so we only got about 6". But it had been extremely cloudy for almost a week after the 4 days of rain. So the papers have seen very little sun.

From T.S. Eliot’s The Four Quartets:
You say I am repeating
Something I have said before. I shall say it again.
Shall I say it again? In order to arrive there,
To arrive where you are, to get from where you are not,
You must go by a way wherein there is no ecstasy.
In order to arrive at what you do not know
You must go by a way which is the way of ignorance.
In order to possess what you do not possess
You must go by the way of dispossession.
In order to arrive at what you are not
You must go through the way in which you are not.
And what you do not know is the only thing you know
And what you own is what you do not own
And where you are is where you are not.

Rundown to the next residency

It has been a lot of work trying to get a huge set of papers burned and printed. I'm trying to close the gap now with some final pieces. It gets harder with little actual sunlight as the UV light only takes a few papers at a time. Unlike the yard which I can lay out several at once.

I will have a few more photos soon. But right now I've been putting in somewhere around 30 hrs a week on these things and I'm just about done. I haven't counted yet but I know I'm running out of storage room!

The latest writing is getting posted here - the artist statement. If I get a chance I'll try to link up the other papers.

I'd like to mention to anyone reading that if you are working along any of these lines, I'd love to hear from you. Let me know what you've tried and how it's going or what you're ideas are!

Artist Statement

 

In examining the meaning and expectation of what a photograph is, this work creates a tension and confusion in the viewer. Meaning comes from seeking to understand and organize the pieces as if a puzzle, making the viewer implicit in the work.

 

In the Haystack series there are multiple readings and several levels of associations that make the certainty of what it is even harder to pin down. This deliberate confusion invites questions, provokes reactions, and realigns thought patterns. By choosing to deny the traditional beauty, image, and preciousness of earlier photographic traditions, tension is introduced along a tight line of understanding and misunderstanding. Puzzling out meaning and re-aligning the idea of what constitutes a photograph is elemental in my work. 

 

Making marks

In a photographic sense I have been making marks on paper by burning and slashing the paper and then adding cyanotype to create a print.

 

 

 

 

Not only each paper receives the coating differently and responds to the varying amount of light I expose it to, but each type of paper gives a different result also.

 

To construct the final piece I need to make many more so back to work we go.....!

 

Works

I have been working with different papers. This is several burned and torn pieces of white Kraft paper using cyanotype.

 

Because these papers are not traditional water media when rinsed in the final step of the cyanotype they became too fragile and tore easily. Having burned them in the beginning the paper fibers were so weak in some cases that the whole paper tore into one giant gaping hole. To remedy that I began to sew a simple repair.

It was during my reading of Lyle Rexer's Photography's Antiquarian Avant-Garde: the New Wave in Old Process that I read about Bea Nettles using a sewing machine. I have seen her work and cookbook but didn't realize she had been shut out of the all male darkroom due to using a sewing machine.

I enjoy the additional feminist element. I hate that images and ideas can be classified or read as domestic or feminine. That of course is another issue of the baggage that all of us bring to what we see, hear, and think which I need to leave for some future time.

I have a lot more reading to do so I will leave now with this view 

 

Some writings

Here are something that I have wanted to post but have been busy and have not found time for until now.
My mentor Susan Dunkerley Maquire had me write out a description/evaluation of several pieces I showed her. This was an exacting exercise which I took a long time over. It was very interesting in how it developed the awareness of the pieces.

This piece with a semi-representational figure was not followed up much through the rest of my time working with the cyanotypes. I have spent quite a deal more time on creating the imageless pieces I have posted and will update later. This figurative image was done before the intense reading of Uta Barth that I was doing. I had been looking into the idea of traces and loss of complete image as a way to explore how memory works and sometimes fails. Reading Uta Barth and her idea of seeing tied into my exploration into highlighting how we look.

Here then is the description of one image.
Description of #4.

 

This is a traditional landscape format with a single female figure in a soft palette of pale to mid-tone blues. The isolation of the subject framed by fragile tree branches sets a lonely distancing tone. The lack of distinct and specific detail in the image area immediately challenges a fast traditional reading of a representational photograph.

The paper buckles and warps generating a depth that contradicts the traditional flat plane of photographic papers. The image is blurry and blocky where the figure and face should be, this loss of information raises questions about the meaning as well as reinforcing the feeling and depth of isolation.

The texture of the paper is evident not only in the in the paper’s rough surface but in its thickness which can be seen when the edges buckle. The uneven color coating is also another element of texture while referencing photography’s traditional use of light (and dark). Irregular staining creates blemishes in several areas of the paper, indicating the hand of the artist and adding an element of chance to the process. This milky sense of a veil separates the gaze of the viewer from a traditional engagement or entrance to photography.

Together these features create a piece that challenges expectations of what photography means.  

Fire

Just to keep you updated. I have shown a few of the beginnings of this new series. In exploring the cyanotype, I am using chance as well as planning to make these images.

You can see the marks on the paper from burning. I also have cut several to see how they will react/form after rinsing when I hang them to dry.

Here you can see the coating I spread over the paper. This is to help create a starch layer to give added color so the cyanotype doesn't sink into the paper too deep. And with that I have added a salt resist.

This is a finished piece (minus the burning) with a salt resist.

 

As you can see they are really removed from the traditional representation images associated with photography. I hope to get into the readings I've been doing later. Right now if you are interested the books to read are by Lyle Rexer. Very informative and they say all the things I've been thinking but hadn't put into words yet!

 

 

Chasing the Light

 

Here's a few pics from the meeting with my mentor Susan. In considering how the work functions - having been exposed to the properties of light and chemicals - it now doubles back on itself by using by using existing light to create a constantly changing view/piece.

These are all cyanotypes that have undergone destruction and distressing of the paper. They are printed on watercolor paper and coated with cyanotype then exposed with various images to create traces of light and dark. The key words here are deny, destruction, and deterioration.

I began by denying the representational image, the traditional idea of what a photograph is, the assumption of viewing something precious/beautiful, the flat plane of the photograph, and the machine precision of current reproductions. Here chance has been allowed to play an integral part. In rinsing the pieces, I have allowed them to take on shapes as they lay drying on various bushes in the yard.


In the various readings I have been doing and in my thinking after each reading, I began to think of photographs not of recording time so much as a deterioration of a memory. Death, destruction seem to me to be key elements of the "other" side of what a photograph is. Not only does the physical photograph deteriorate over time but our memories and connections with that image change and collapse over time. So I set out to emphasize that through the destruction of the paper. I also wanted to foreground how we see so many photographs in a slick glossy or matte presentation on a beautiful pristine surface.

 

Starting the next phase are these pieces. Here they are shown in their beginning stages. After they are sufficiently roughed up they will be coated in cyanotype and laid out to process under the sun (if the sun comes out again).
I hope it quits raining soon (although we really needed the moisture) so I can get a fire going.

Both Light and Dark

The work that I'm doing is about "seeing" and denying the expectations of the photograph. What is a photograph? What makes is photography? We see so many visual images today that many of us are unable to really look anymore. There is also the whole other discourse today about representation in photography.

Here is the shell at the beginning. A cyanotype on aquarella water color paper

Here is the shell after. I wanted to open it up to create a fragile skin that references decay, destruction, and change. Hopefully you will take away a sense of the use of light both in the process that created this and how it interacts with the piece as it now exists. Also I have eliminated the traditional flat wall hanging orientation.

My mentor Susan has had a lot of good questions and ideas so hopefully (cross your fingers) this will not fall like a lead balloon! (ha ha funny reference!)

Getting set up

I've tried to give a little more insight into the process I'm going through to make these images. Here is a piece of Araquelle Watercolor paper that I have scratched with a kitchen knife.

The cuts are randomly placed and don't go all the way through.

 

I also laid strips of photographic paper on Kraft paper. This is the heavier weight Kraft paper. I haven't been seeing this around as much as the thinner paper which is more prone to tearing when soaked.

 

After letting it dry I hope to coat in cyanotype.

Next I have to look through several images to create more paper negatives. I have been working through each image more slowly this semester to think about what I want to place as image, how I want to create it, how I want it to read, and what I want it to say. That doesn't say that everything will work out exactly the way I envision but I'm trying to allow some chance with a lot of thought.

 

The Fruits of Summer ......

What I've been working on this summer has to do with the process of sunlight on paper. I've included a few of the pieces that I've done and I'm posting a few more. After meeting with my mentor, I'm putting some of these pieces into a "digital studio" where I can study them and figure out ways to do 'more'. She had a very interesting story about Pablo Picasso using photographs of his work throughout all the stages to help him decipher and fine tune his work. I've also got a few more artists to look up, some I recognize the name and others are new. So there's a lot to do.......

 

 

 

 

Here's the front view.  This piece is made of several layers and the papers include light weight Kraft paper and tissue paper. I tried to print digitally and it kept jamming the printer so I figured I'd see what it looked like and if it would take the washing to make a cyanotype. It is very much about destruction.

 

 

Shell

 

I like how this happened into a shell. I was washing it out and then left it to dry over some plants outside. I have been playing with the idea of what a photograph means to me and the idea of liberating the photograph off the wall. That means a question as to how it would 'stand or sit'.

 

Scroll

This again was laid on the bushes to dry and as it began to curl I liked the position and way it was folding and only helped it a little.

 

                                                                   Landscape 1
To me these are interesting enough but not a finished work. I am going to see if I can find that certain something that makes it 'finished'!

Following the Sun

I've been reading interviews and other papers on the work of Uta Barth and connect with her idea of our perception and ways of seeing. I like her earlier work a lot. The latest series with the interiors are interesting and I have to agree I've always liked the idea of the play of light on surrounding surfaces but it's just not as compelling to me.

Here is my version or take on photographing in the style of Uta Barth. We went camping before the kids head off to college. The play of shadows and light on the road was appealing enough that I took out my camera. Then since I had been reading about the space the viewer occupied in relation to the focus point of her work, I started to think how about trying to photograph this "in the style of"

Then it went into thought of how she chose her images that seemed like typical backgrounds for portraits and snapshots.

Which at this point I wanted to try more abstract and something that I am always interested in - water and sky....

And that was really fun. I wonder where this will lead?????