"A Lot of People Don't Realize What's Really Going On"

Some photos of my work in our class's pop-up show on 643 Congress St. during the First Friday Artwalk in Portland this past Friday December 2.

Bored in 216

Recent Developments...

So...playgrounds. I decided I wanted to continue working with cyanotypes. I was toying with the idea of drawing with the cyanotype medium but I decided I also wanted to continue using it for printing photographs, but I needed some sort of concrete subject matter. I really like photographing spaces from different vantage points, from within the space and outside of it and I particularly the way light effects our relationship to certain places. In thinking about this for some reason playgrounds kept coming to mind. I realized swingsets/slides/playground equipment/etc are things I always seem to be drawn to when I'm out in the world taking photographs. (As evidenced by the photographs below, among others, that I have taken for various other photographic projects over the last few years).

I realized I'm drawn to the image of playgrounds for 2 reasons: 1. because they are places that I think trigger memories of childhood and thus imply a sense of memory and time passage in general. and 2. because I love the way you can give kids such a loose framework for entertainment and from it that are endlessly amused and create an entire imaginary world.

These ideas of imagination, creativity, transcience and memory that playgrounds stir up for me all seemed particularly appropriate for the cyanotype medium and the way I can control the framing of a photographs and create a sense of a wash or maybe a few streaks of a memory.

Photographer Billy Mandle spoke to our class last week right when I was toying with these ideas. One of her projects involves photographing confessionals and something she said really resonated with me. She mentioned wanting to work with the idea of forgiveness but struggling to figure out how to convey such an abstract idea through photography which is such a literal art form. That's how she landed on confessionals as something concrete that represents such an abstract concept. This is something I've definitely been struggling with as I've gotten into photography so hearing her solution to this problem was really valuable and is definitely influencing the way I'm approaching this project.

Anyway, that's enough for now. But I've begun shooting some and am excited about the various possibilities playgrounds afford. But yet unsure how watercolor/drawing/any other media will play into this project (see goals below). I do know there will be no people in the playground shots. Though they may be incorporated through drawing...

The False Mirror by Margritte

Just discovered (or rediscovered?) this piece by Margritte during my art history class. Thought it was funny in relation to the cyanotype I made a few posts below.

New Goals

1. Post long-overdue explanation of my new cyanotype/watercolor/drawing project involving photographs of playgrounds that I've begun (and--shocker!--am sticking to...for a while at least) before this Wednesday.

2. Test various options for combining gestural drawings with the photographs and figure out what works best. This will help move toward creating at least 2 final works for the upcoming critique. Think about making piece that includes a few pieces as a set (diptych/triptych/etc).

3. Finish shooting.

4. Acquire (and use) larger water color paper. Also try cyanotyping on wood panel.

Back to Cyanotypes?

Well...after beginning about three different projects and presenting them in our Blitz Crit this past wednesday I've realized how unenthused I'm feeling about most of them. I may continue with the music project on and off because I haven't quite given it a chance, but for now I'm kind of just feeling like I have the artist's equivalent of writers block.

Because of this, I'm thinking I have head back to the cyanotype + watercolor process and try out some of the ideas I had this summer that I never got to try. I'll be moving on from just depicting light and water, but the medium in general seemed to offer a lot of possibilities that I wanted to try at some point. This seems like an opportune moment because why not keep up with a process I put a lot of time into mastering and take it somewhere new and different?

I've spent the semester so far struggling to bounce back from what I felt like was a really successful artistic experience this summer, and generate ideas I'm as passionate about. I think instead of fighting that, I'm going to try to work with it and feed off the momentum from the summer project but without the same coastal studies fellowship parameters.

The main idea I'm currently interested in playing with is the notion that cyanotypes give me the control over how much of a photographic rendering the viewer sees, where it is on the page, what we see and how it relates to the watercoloring around it. For me this brings up the larger idea of the contrast between painting/drawing and photography. I'm interested in what things make more sense to be seen in a photographic rendering versus a looser, less realistic interpretation. And the idea that even though a painter can sometimes achieve a quality photorealism, viewing what is clearly a photograph has a different effect on the viewer.


So...this week's goal:

• Create a least 10 cyanotype/watercolor pieces. Try to experiment with all the different ideas I've had including: painting the cyanotype part in certain shapes, using the painting cyanotype parts to define negative space, incoporating a cyanotype photograph into a small part of a larger painted scene, painting it in the form of text/a word/a number, try using colored paper, try tea-toning the prints, try scanned in images like maps, newspapers, etc as negatives in addition to pictures.

• sub-goal: take any additional photographs necessary that make sense for the images I'm creating here.

Above is very rough example of something that might result. I think these will end up being sort of whimsical. This will also be good for me because I've gotten very caught up in trying to think through all of my ideas and have been way to cerebral about everything and prohibiting myself from just producing things and trying things for fear of them being horrible. So, other subgoal--not be afraid of things being tacky, kitchy, cheesy, etc. If/when they are I'll be the first to say it, but I've prevented myself from following through with ideas in the past because of that, when really just some tweaking/refining can solve said problems.

Ok, that was long. But sums up my current state of mind.

Update

I've now got two projects underway...

--> I'm still acquiring mannequin hand photos and have started printing them. Now that I've got pretty, luster paper I've started actually being picky about getting accurate colors in my prints...so that's a positive, new development.

--> Also, my musician project is underway. I've drawn and/or photographed one campus band and three solo musicians so far and have others lined up. Below is an example of something I'm thinking of doing with the resulting drawings. This was one of my rejected gesture drawings so I am just using it as a sample. I'm intrigued by the way this turns a drawing into something that occupies space and creates shadows.

This is fairly unrelated to anything I'm doing for senior seminar right now, but this is of my favorite paintings and I can't help thinking of it now that the leaves are changing here. I first saw it this summer at the Farnsworth up in Rockland.

Romance of Autumn by George Bellows, 1916.

Music + Art

In my drawing class this past Thursday we spent about an hour drawing a singer/songwriter as he played his music for us. I had the absolute best time doing that since it perfectly combined my love for music and art. This got me thinking about whether I want to continue in this vein somehow for a project in the future. I was thinking about drawing/photographing musicians as they play/perform/practice/etc.

Just an idea, for now, but maybe I'll pursue it eventually...

Goals (set 2)

1. Continue with the mannequin project. Continue editing through photos I have, keep shooting and make at least 10 prints.
2. Make something that I/the viewer would want to touch (but can't). Whether this is a collage, a painting, photo, etc is open.
3. Continue to brainstorm on idea of touch and actually write down ideas I've had/continue to have before I forgot all of them!

4. acquire necessary materials for upcoming film photo or cyanotype project...

more ideas...

Turns out the 9+ hour van ride from Philly back to Brunswick was prime time for thinking about my project. We were inundated with peoples' thoughts and and advice about art and with lots art itself all weekend so that definitely helped to get some ideas flowing.

Right now I've narrowed my focus (at least for now) to the idea of touch. This is a really broad idea but has got me thinking about lots of different artistic ways of addressing this. Art is not normally something you touch, but often you want to, and I like the ideas that tension brings up. I want to play around with this in both sense of texture/tangibility of pieces and subject matter in paintings, photographs, collages? etc. So, still broad, but I have tons of idea rather than zero, so that's progress.

This focus morphed itself over the past week into shooting photos of mannequins' hands. The mannequins attracted me because of the way they sort of act as stand-ins for people. I noticed that it's really the hands and arms (or lack thereof) that tend to make the mannequins look least human/alive because of the resulting unnatural looking gestures. So I sort of addressed my previous goals but also figured out new things I want to explore, which is essentially what the purpose of my original, sort of arbitrary goals were. So that's where I am. The next set of goals will go up in a second but first...some people, and some mannequins.

Mannequins:

Goals (first set)

For the next two weeks:
I know I want to work with people/the subject of human relationships/interactions somehow. I haven't done much work with people in art lately because it always seems like a less accessible subject, particularly when working within a tight time frame and around people who also have limited time. Because this semester affords me more flexibility in terms of time and scope of projects I really want to try to delve into this a little bit more. I'm not sure what exactly I want to do but for these first two weeks I'm going to explore my options.

The goals:
1. shoot (digitally) scenes involving/featuring human interaction. Explore both posed and candid. End up with at least 20 photos that I really like/think capture something about human relationships.
2. spend a few hours/sessions sketching people around me. (on quad, in Portland, in a coffeeshop, etc)
3. Begin collecting works of art that capture something about human interactions that resonates with me.

more progress!

(contrary to the way it looks, it's not on tinted paper i just don't have a good camera/scanner accessible right now)

Progress...

Still working out the kinks but here are a few rough but mildy successful drafts as proof that I'm making progress and working hard. Hopefully more successful examples sooooooon!

John Marin

I'm sitting at Bard Coffee in Portland on this grey, dreary day and figured I'd post a quick update. As this week comes to an end I'm gearing up for the final two week push. I've been doing a ton of experimenting but I'm realizing that it's about time to start working on the real deal. I had to come here to go to ArtMart and procure a new brush that's low quality enough to ruin with cyanotype chemicals and to buy the paper that I'll be using for my final pieces. I was not thrilled about the prospect of driving to Portland simply to buy paper since the route from Brunswick down here has been turned into a series of road construction projects. As soon as I got here, however, I realized I've been meaning to go to the John Marin exhibit at the Portland Museum and guess what? It's free starting at 5pm on Fridays. So that was a happy coincidence! I've been sitting here killing some time so that I wouldn't have to pay to get in but am about to head over and am very excited to see what they've got in this exhibit. I did a final term paper on Marin for an art history class a year ago, but more importantly, Marin is known for his unconventional watercolors of the Maine coast. I've been going a little overboard with the watercoloring and still have not produced any samples other than the one from the last post that I'm pleased with. I'm getting there though, and am hoping this exhibit will inspire me! Marin's a cool guy...worth checking out: http://www.portlandmuseum.org/exhibitions-collections/current.shtml

And now just for kicks..a few photos that got lost in the fray from one of my trips to South Bristol, that I was extremely happy to rediscover yesterday...

maybe?

I intended to spend the week sorting through photos. I've been doing lots of that but to break up the somewhat tedious task I took breaks now and then to test out potential ways to combine watercolor with the cyanotypes. That process has been something of a struggle. Early on I was tempted to just say the photos work better on their own but I think that's an obvious and easy conclusion. While it may come to that I'm forcing myself to be a little more creative and am keeping up with the experimentation a little bit until I can make a more informed conclusion. Below is one example of the current path I'm going down in which I'm applying the watercolors at the same time as the cyanotype chemicals (before exposing the photograph). I'm intrigued by the play of the colors with the prussian blue of the cyanotype and the way I got the more expressive effects of watercolor to merge with the more crisp lines of the photograph. This is just a rough draft but I figured I'd post it as some evidence of what I'm playing with at the moment....

The Process

Step 1.

Step 2.

Step 3.