Openings Connecting: when trees talk...

Thursday, February 16, 2012

when trees talk...

WHEN TREES TALK, LISTEN,

ESPECIALLY DURING THE SILENCE OF WINTER

WHEN
BARE BONES
REVEAL

THEIR SOULS

& YOURS

12 comments:

mansuetudeFebruary 16, 2012 at 7:06 AM
you are a wonderful photographer, heart based sight.
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ValeriannaFebruary 16, 2012 at 8:44 AM
I've been known to sit silently in the forest for hours, listening. Trees are good company.
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Caterina GiglioFebruary 16, 2012 at 12:41 PM
so true... xox
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ELFIFebruary 16, 2012 at 12:44 PM
un regard bien affuté.. j'aime ces photos..mais je me réjouis de voir le printemps..
une bise froide depuis la suisse..
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Kelly M.February 16, 2012 at 12:46 PM
beautiful in their starkness, their spareness. wonderful work!
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Cynthia MonicaFebruary 18, 2012 at 10:03 AM
Absolutely gorgeous photos!!! The majesty of trees is so profound and your images just capture their essence...
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SethFebruary 19, 2012 at 8:03 PM
Stunning post. The black and white format here is so powerful.
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ArtPropelledFebruary 20, 2012 at 6:00 AM
No wonder many of us talk to trees! Stunning photographs Neva!
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Renee HowellFebruary 20, 2012 at 9:12 AM
your winter looks good.
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Denise Pelletier artiste graveure QcMarch 5, 2012 at 6:25 PM
Gorgeous!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!all the new images are great......always more and .............
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WenMarch 26, 2012 at 4:41 AM
I once met a man who was a tree, he showed me all the wonderful lights he could see.
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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.