Openings Connecting: August 2011

Tuesday, August 16, 2011

RANCHOS de TAOS: my friends walk with me in spirit

a short walk around the San Francisco de Asis church...a big circle... two graces plaza gallery opening of the collaborative show in my last post that included my work took place this weekend in june, and that's one of the businesses on one end of the walk-around, and there are some special spots no longer used on the other end.

long time loved space of mine. many memories. the el cortez theater and martinez hall were across the street. a friend's studio.

{the weekend included some rare alone time for me in taos, and the honor of some of my friends coming to the opening: old friends david and duane hopper & bob watkins from and during the last 40+ years; dear art friend renee howell from 5 years of sas colby summer workshops together at the mabel dodge luhan house; new friends holly sievers and robert cafazzo, gallery owners; and unmet until that weekend blog friend caterina giglio.}

Monday, August 8, 2011

the Buddha and the Bridge

JUDITH'S BUDDHA

the original photograph

transformed by gum bichromate process:
sized arches paper, printing 4 times with negative
after coating first with ultramarine blue, then
transluscent yellow, again with black, and
another coat of blue...pigment added to gum
arabic solution...

and the Gorge Bridge...two printings, both with black...

first step is creating a digital b&w negative from the original

photograph...size paper, coat with layer of gum+watercolor

pigment powder, dry, expose with negative to ultraviolent light,

bathe a few times, dry, layer next coat of color,

register negative in place, expose, and so forth.

Learning new processes teaches me a great deal about myself.
I most likely will not use this technique again with all its
complexities, but it is intriguing.

try /www.gumphoto.co.uk// for more on process~~~

Monday, August 1, 2011

CHANGE is Good

TIME TO TURN MY HEAD

TO PLAY IN A NEW WAY

     what will happen to the Buddha above this weekend?

I'll be taking that image into a 2 day workshop here with
EE Smith...exploring what can happen using a
19th printing process: GUM BICHROMATE. . . its alchemy and mysteries
   can make magic~

     we shall see

FOUR DIRECTIONS/FOUR VISIONS: Two Graces: First showing for me, JUNE 3, 2011

With no directions home, I found Taos in the late 60s. It felt like home immediately. It still does. I know this sentiment is familiar to countless others.

The mountain stopped me in my tracks, and I stayed for several years. Since that time, I circle back annually.

To me, that circle is symbolic of this body of work at Two Graces. This is a time in my life when I've been fortunate enough to experiment with art making. Not surprisingly, I found myself drawn back to the images in the Ektachrome slides that I'd taken in the early 80s of Chaco Canyon, the San Francisco de Asis Church, dusty roads, and the ever changing skies of Northern New Mexico. The spirit of this adobed land lingers in my core and manifests itself within these works.

This past Michigan winter was spent creating enlarged negatives from my thirty year old slides, pulling part of my past into the present via today's tools of scanner and computer. Using traditional silver-gelatin darkroom processes, these resurrected and modified negatives acquired a new life. The majority of these prints are the result of this mediated reincarnation.

The smaller images took me into photographic processes from the mid-1800s. These handmade platinum/palladium prints are created coating vellum, for translucency, with these metal salts and exposing them to ultraviolet light. They are then bathed in the alchemy of the darkroom. The tonal qualities are unique in each print. Finally, 24k gold is layered to the backs of the prints, emanating the warmth, glow, and depth of these beloved places.