Ideas....thoughts

So I have had a great day! Got into my classroom and prepared for school to start again which will be interesting to see how I can balance life, art, and teaching. Ill think about that more in two weeks. :)

I met with Bev Conway who was a great inspiration to me today. Her recent work is using a process that I admire and am currently in the process of gaining a greater understanding for it as well. Things that came up in out couple hour conversation with her:

Maybe it is about color?
What about the reactions that two materials make while exposing?
Is it about the mark making?
What am I trying to make?
Maybe I do need to work in a mixed media.....
What is important to me?
It is ok that its not an emulsion made of the material being photographed.
Im in a good place.... i think.... :)

Our conversation was strong and long lasting and if I had not had prior plans then it probably would of gone on for some more time. It will happen again Im sure. One thing that stuck with me about this meeting was maturity. This is true and this is why I am here. Events in life have brought me to this place and my maturity has pushed me here to pursue this crazy idea called art.

Things I am going to try:

immersing the paper in the emulsion of choice
composing an image using flowers from my garden
keeping it simple and studying mark making.
embracing the digital side of this process more and being a little more open to scanning my images and looking at them in photoshop.
placing veggies onto emulsion even when its not dry and exposing
coating digital papers to see what kind yields a strong color.
Moving away from the consistent use of the leaves on paper but what do objects do? what if i used something that was completely opposite and not as delicate as a leaf?
When using vegetation can I just throw it and let it fall on the paper? Is composing it going to be too contrived?

Found these artists today, check them out here:

http://www.alchemy-studio.net

James Hajicek and Carol Panaro-Smith

Had some really great things happen today in my exposures and can not wait to let them dry and scan them tomorrow. I will post pictures for sure. 

Another Great Day for Exposures.

So here is my current darkroom. I love it! I am feeling a real connection with my daily life of eating, exercising, getting outside and my photography. Last night was a great finding for me and I hope that I can push that further. What Im most interested in right now is the root and leaf exposure that I am doing with the kale in this bottom image. I have some of the kale roots exposing on the its own leaves, This kale had been attacked by pests in my garden and I had to just let it go because they had got the best of the kale leaves so what is supposed to be lush green leaves are deteriorated and chewed. So I have composed them on the best emulsion I have exposing right now which is the beets. I am really anxious to see what comes of it. I have some fennel, grapes, red cabbage and beets just put out today. Some just have leaves to see if they make an impression and some have egg shells and berries pressed into the paper to see what kind of images it yields. The sun is hot and bright today with what looks like a clear one so hopefully Ill have results by the end of the day when I get out of my night shift at work. I am really excited to scan these now and see what comes of them. I am also re-photographing the cucumbers on their leaves and putting a glass in between to see if it changes how the leaf curled and the cucumbers stuck to it. This process will be interesting during all four seasons.........

Before work I will be taking the hosta leaf out of its exposure. I really have my fingers crossed there! 

Scans

This has been a productive day for me. I went to the store and re organized my entire digital darkroom or should I say office....you know the feeling you cant do anything because you are unorganized. Well that has changed. I am in a much better place with all kinds of energy although after writing this post I probably will retire due to pure exhaustion. I might be able to get a little reading in.....we'll see.

Alright so after organizing and having all my exposures outside exposing currently, I felt good and wanted to re-visit some prints I had already made. So I scanned everything, for the most part. 

I have two mini series here. One is of leaf printing, more so separated into two sections. Some with organic prints of their own produce on the leaf. So a slice of cucumber on the cucumber leaf. I really like these....

                                      

The next set are the three leaves I printed on and had some success from negatives. They are interesting and I do have to admit to enjoying the scans. It makes them clean and the colors are so unified that it is far more attractive in some ways.....

Now there is a set of four anthotypes that I have done throughout this time experimenting. I decided I was going to scan them tonight and see what I got out of "color correcting" them in Photoshop. To my surprise, although I did expect something, they emphasized the emulsion and the silhouettes that I got on these photograms became far more beautiful than they were before. I am not very intrigued by this process and anticipate doing more. This was a good couple hours in front of the computer exiting and scanning these images. My original goal was not to take it into a digital world but it really helps to display the elegance that is represented in these images.

 raspberries

red cabbage

 grapes

Cant wait till tomorrow I have some sweet looking paper downstairs in my darkroom drying waiting to be exposed. 

Busy Day.....

Here are some experiments that have also been put together today. I coated some more paper with beet, swiss chard, grapes and fennel emulsions today and will be putting another coat on before bed so they are ready for the morning. I am testing a swiss chard leaf in both ways to see how it prints on an anthotype and how a negative may print on the chard. I have found it is all about the way the leaf turns. For instance tree leaves are too "green" with chlorophyll I believe, is too strong of a pigment to change and there for create the difference in color between the leaf and the images being pressed on the leaf. 

Here is a couple kale leaves printing their own roots on themselves. We shall see what this yields. Caleb Charland and I talked about this process when we met and it was something worth trying. Not sure if the print will be anything worthy but the experiment will be worth the shot. Since the kale leave was so good at exposing itll be interesting what it shows after a couple days but I dont think Ill have much luck looking for leaves and their roots such as this. I have a garden and thats the only reason I have this root right now.......

So now I am experimenting with the vegetable on its own matter for emulsion. I coated this paper the other day and I will be putting a plexi over this to keep the singles down to the paper. I also put a large chunk of the red cabbage on the bottom right to see what kind of light may be able to get through and it might be that I leave that portion of the print there for a while to expose. Not sure if the res cabbage is too dense either..... well see.


This is a previous test of a piece of red cabbage on a coated paper but this paper was coated a while ago and was with wine I believe. You can see its organic shape but its not a strong print and it probably could of used a couple more days but it have me something to work with.

This is what happened to the kohlrabi that I exposed. The ring is fascinating but the vegetable itself is a little transparent and so the sin over time really just went through and exposed the center of the vegetable, not like the cucumber. But the leaf is a good leaf to print on and I will use it again.....I wish I could scan my cucumber print but I am going to have to do it once and once only because it will break int he scanner so I am a little hesitant on doing so but I will in order to make prints of these leaves. And even though the idea of printing themselves on each other in interesting maybe its not necessary. Maybe if I find a strong emulsion like beets I can continue with the rest of the ideas just with a beet emulsion. I will be putting another kohlrabi leaf outside today to print. I am trying to set everything up on my porch so that I can potentially throw a tarp over it if it should rain to protect the work but it seems like I have a good week ahead of me and should not have a problem.


Bought some materials today at the store to help organize my digital darkroom and studio. I also bought a large board to hopefully put together another camera obscura that is larger and capable of a larger exposure.....its the building that gets in the way right now because it takes me a little while to figure things out.

Camera Obscura

So here it is. I used a plastic bag from an old paper box and a sheet of cardboard to make a holder for the lens. Four sticks evenly broke are used to hold the cardboard up. A hosta leaf, the best one I have found for exposing besides the kale leaf, is underneath. I have done an experiment this time by putting a Baggie of water on the stem of the leaf. Ill leave this for a couple days. Looks like weather is on my side this week so hopefully a couple days will be good. Ill be making another obscura with a kale leaf after I go to the grocery store. Exciting and I hope it works! Also made some more emulsions today and will be coating those and maybe playing with adding a substance that may make the emulsion a little more dense and thicker for coating. Stay tuned! Meanwhile today I want to go photograph some film so ill be taking the camera out. :) want to work with some color again. 

Inspiration next door....

Just would like to give a shout to a wonderful woman who has is the past guided me and will hopefully guide me again in my photographic process. When receiving my book on Anthotypes I had recognized a name, Beverly Conway. She was once a teacher of mine at the New Hampshire Institute of Art and now is a dear mentor and friend....

I didnt realize when you said "you're following my same path" (or something along those lines) that that was what you literally meant. I hope to sit down with her this upcoming week and pick her brain again in a more precise way. You can check her work out on Alternative Photography's website which is also a great resource.

http://www.alternativephotography.com/artists/beverly_conway.html

Here is an old image she made of me some time ago...