The above works are printed on a textured "grip" fabric that I really enjoy. There are little ribber dots on the fabric that absorb the ink differently than the rest of the fabric. During our meeting, Bryan suggested more aberrations perhaps, to create more interest when viewing closer. Using distance to my advantage is something I am interested in, and it's been beneficial to think about this work being viewed further away and up closer. I think of that as more of a painterly technique, but it also relates to the optical affects I'm working with. Bryan also felt the images needed more contrast, which I think might need to be achieved through an additional pass through the printer. Because the fabrics are so absorbent, the contrast tends to get lost in printing. Another suggestion was to work with these in a triptych, as this format acts like a strip of something, and makes it feel like there's more of an image to see. I think because these images are more recognizable contributes to this. A triptych could be made of three images taken moments apart, from different perspectives, which could also provide more to the content in terms of time and movement. These works have potential strength in numbers, working together.
I created two prints using the mesh and muslin fabrics layered on top of each other. Bryan pointed out that even though the fabrics were the same, the works themselves were almost complete opposites. The first is the largest fabric print I've made so far, at approximately 48x100 inches. I folded the fabric and put it through the printer three times with overlap, creating the darker bands. Currently, I plan to display it so the lower half folds on the floor. Bryan mentioned Mariah Robertson in relation to this piece because of how she will change the presentation of her work to fit the proportions of the space it is displayed in. This organic way of presentation suits this piece in particular, and much of the work in general. The literal flexibility provides a range of possibilities. This piece was created from a pinhole image, and is a landscape with light trails of a passing car. Bryan said if the landscape isn't important in the final image, which in this case it definitely is not, perhaps I could try letting go of the camera aspect altogether. He had several ideas, ranging from an iPhone photo, to a Photoshop generated image, perhaps an actual color gradient. He encouraged me to print larger, and to also do some studies in monochrome, ad look at how the colors interact when folding onto the floor. Abandoning the camera completely feels a little bit like jumping off a cliff to me, but it could be a good jump. I'm still processing that idea. I see how further reduction could benefit the work, and definitely think the monochrome studies would be helpful.
I made two pieces using the glass transfer technique I entered the program with. I was personally excited by doing that, wanting to see if it worked effectively. I really enjoy the results, for the deep colors, and glossy surface. I'm still a little hesitant about this material with this body of work though. It still seems to strongly reference stain glass, which I wonder about because of stain glass's didactic history that I'd love to avoid. What I love however, is how the colors get projected onto the wall behind them (unlike my early work, I did not back these with a painting, allowing for colorful shadows). Bryan suggested breaking the glass, taking advantage of the follies of the material like I do with fabric. He mentioned Glen Baldridge, who Bryan has shown together with before, and made silkscreen prints on glass. In these pieces, broken glass collected on the bottom of a shadowbox-like frame. I can see that potentially working. We also talked about presentation of the glass pieces. It's important that works lean, to allow for that play of light and shadow that works almost like a contact print. Initially, I really liked the work just on the floor, but Bryan pointed out at this scale (18x60 inches), these pieces are too low to observe well. I agree, but still love the rawness of that presentation. The concrete floor at Bryan's studio in particular was a nice combination of materials with the glass, which I could perhaps work into a satisfactory display. Again, with this proportion, multiples work well, and Bryan thought I could even do multiple of that same images. Recently, I thought more about this idea, and it occurs to me that on a smaller scale, these could almost reference the barriers that are sometimes between traffic on the highway. I remember as a kid being fascinated by glimpsing the view between the slats on the barriers. It could be an interesting direction, possibly more sculptural than I've considered before.
The final thing we discussed was a group of "straight" images that reference similar ways of seeing in a more concrete way perhaps. These photographs can hold their own, but also speak to my other work. It was actually a little bit of a revelation to me to see these photographs next to the other work. I take thousands of pictures a year, and it's fascinating to me to see how the camera records subtle shifts in surface, distortion and reflection. Until now, I've always felt like it was a more background element of my practice, but Bryan's prompting has made me reconsider this. I am very intrigued by the ideas of showing these works together. For our next visit, I preparing a kind of mock up of a show, to decide how everything will be presented. I'm looking forward to it.
