Magic Realism

I had an excellent meeting with my mentor on Monday. I felt a little on the light side as far as artwork goes, but mostly because I spent a more time on these newer pieces. We ended up talking longer than usual though, and she brought up some pertinent questions on the direction of the work. In particular, she discussed my work in terms of magical realism, a phrase I wasn't very familiar with. Looking at examples of work from this style however, it's easy to see the relation. I plan to do more research on this. Part of me is slightly hesitant about this direction. Perhaps it's my background at an extremely traditional program where I did my BFA, but it starts wandering close to Sci-fi/fantasy genre work. There's a stigma in my mind saying that is not "serious art." There's a part of me that thinks art should be serious. I'm over-thinking it though. These somewhat "supernatural" events in a clear reality is something I am looking to achieve. So for now, perhaps it is best to embrace it.

Questions to consider:
Do I want the viewer to feel like they can enter?
Is this a threatening or safe environment?
What is the edge?
Consider sense of place, sense of space, and memory.

As I talked about my work, I realized many of the buildings I have used to far deal with enlightenment (such as libraries) and spirituality (churches). I think about these buildings also falling in to disuse, or, more accurately, separating from their original intent. In one library, the books had been removed and the rooms were empty to allow tour groups come to see the architecture. A similar story held true for the church. I want to recapture the wonder that caused these buildings to built, the confident authority of the grandiose details, and the utopian ideals of these structures. The viewer should feel like they could enter, but perhaps with apprehension.

Julie encouraged me to not only use "pretty" images, but to find the edge. She suggested blending many time periods together as well, and incorporating modern elements--this was mentioned at our last meeting and I think it is a great idea. Julie warned not to become to formulaic, which was already starting to happen ( though I think that tendency came, in part, from my efforts to understand how things were working together.) She also encouraged me to go really bizarre, to see how far this could be pushed yet still make sense. There is a lot of possibilities here. I feel excited about this emerging series. Now all I need is more hours in the day.

Print Success and Digital Cuts

It took about a week to get my new-to-me printer running. It must've sat for a couple months, and on my first few attempts, I was only able to one of the eight colors to show up. After reading a couple of online articles, and using a little bit of patience (and a fair amount of expensive pinter ink), I got it to work beautifully! Below is the first nozzle check vs. the last. I jumped for joy when that magenta finally showed up!

 I did a print on canvas afterwards, something I've been looking forward to doing. I used my own raw canvas, and coated it with a Golden inkjet ground product I used in the past successfully. The results were descent, though not as exciting as I expected. The fabric is too delicate for this project I think. It was distracting from the realism I'm attempting to create. The contrast was also a little lacking, but that's something I could probably improved with a heavier application of the digital ground product. The picture below lacks the clarity needed to see this, but the grain of the canvas I used was also a little heavy. Something that is thicker with a smoother surface would be a better medium probably. Initially, I was thinking having a texture would be more...clever, having a greater emphasis on the artifice, but now it seems redundant and slightly excessive.

I also recently completed another cut picture piece. I like thinking of them as "digital maps," because the grid I've used reminds me of strands of information I imagine exist in a computer. The idea of jumbling up a digital picture is funny to me, and severs to remind the viewer to the fragility of information. I introduced circle cut outs in this piece as well, which might work. The square shapes enforce the grid pattern more, but the variety is interesting too.

Panarams

As suggested by my mentor, I started taking some photographs specifically for some more surreal panoramas.

These are some panoramas from recent shoots I did in Copley Square, the Concord Conservation Center near my house, and the Maine coast. I plan on putting a few together soon, and cleaning up some of the ones I've already started to make them more convincing.

 

This week, I really want to print one a little larger. My models were about 5" by 17" or something. Varying sizes. I am extremely excited to printed because I was just given a 24" Epsom printer!!!

This is the same type of printer I've used previously, but this one is mine! So beautiful! Anyways, Julie, my mentor, suggested trying different materials, such as fabric, and seeing what works best. I love experimenting with printing, so I am excited to try this.

One of my friends showed me this image today:

It's by Ben Heine. He does the pencil vs. camera drawings which are interesting enough. Clever, but ultimately I feel are a little shallow.

It is interesting to see someone else's take on the cyclorama idea though. I like seeing his shadow when he's drawing, and the scale of his body as he works closer and farther away from the camera. Definitely takes a level of skill to get that perspective right.

Photography in the Digital Age, Geoffrey Batchen

Notes from my reading of Photography in the Digital Age,  by Geoffrey Batchen:

Photography started with death. People had to pose, unmoving, as if dead. In it's early days, it was used to commemorate the dead. Some feared photography would steal their life. Early photography struggled with life and death as photographs needed light to be seen, yet the same light also caused them to fade.
      All photograph is a manipulation. Digital photograph is entirely fabricated, but even darkroom photography involves invention and manipulation. Yet it also carries the impression of its subject, as if the objects reached into the picture plane. The object, however manipulated, had to exist at one point to be photographed. Computerized images however can appear as photos yet never exist. Digital images are in time, but not of time. Photography, however, does not have to be threatened by the digital. Photography has always involved different techniques. As long as the human survives, human value and culture will also survive. The machine will always be guided by human desires. Photography's dilemma coincides with philosophers' ponderings: photography represents a reality but reality itself is comprised of representations. By challenging the death of photography, one must also challenge what it means to be dead or alive. Photography's passing will coincide with another way of seeing--and of being.

My own thoughts:
This essay was published in 1999, and since then, digital photography has exploded. As a photographer in a photo studio, what I see is an over saturation of photography in the market. Cell phones, laptops, tablets, MP3 players, and almost any electronic device seems to include a complimentary camera. "Prosumer" equipment is cheeper and more accessible to people. I wonder what Batchen makes of it. To me, I feel as if it will reach critical mass. After that, who can say? People are less likely to come to my studio for a family portrait, because even though I can take "better," more crisp and professional images, the sheer quantity of images parents have of their children on their iPhone makes up for the quality of image I can produce. I am not concerned about this however. I am an artist first, and a photographer second. I am an image maker, and photography is merely a tool. Just as the earliest humans made images in caves, the most futuristic humans will have images around them. I create things and will continue to do so until I die.

Mentor Meeting

I met with Julie Graham, my mentor, today. It was an excellent meeting. We discussed my most recent developments, and the possibilities for future development.  This is the work I brought:

The first three were experiments I did with physical cutting. The first one, which is probably familiar by now, was done by cutting the illustration board. The middle two were done by cutting the transfer film first, and then transfer it. The middle two aren't as interesting to me at this point. It was a good experiment, but not worth too much more pursuing. Julie really enjoyed the top piece, and we talked about different shape to cut out, as well as the importance of imagery. It's kind of interesting to see the relationship of geometric and organic, but what does it mean? What am I trying to say? I told her how I began to see it as a digital map, and then we talked about maybe using an urban scene as the base image. Then we also talked about the grid being like perspective lines, and the black and white checkered floors used in Renaissance paintings, and that might be interesting to look for.

The bottom image is some model cycloramas I made. I simply pinned two pieces of foam core together to form a corner, and then attached the printed panoramas to the foam core, creating a soft curve. 

The above image is one that, from a technical stand point, seems to be working well. Julie was impressed by the seamless blend of images, and it's one of the ones I'm happier with. The ones that Julie said she felt worked the best however were the ones that more thoroughly showed a morphing of indoor/outdoor space, like the one below:

When she mentioned that, I had to agree. These images are more imaginative, and not something you could find somewhere. Julie suggested looking for more locations with the architecture I'm interested in. She also brought up the idea of making the images perhaps even stranger, by incorporating more modern elements or other pieces that don't fit in this kind of romantic scene I'm making. This is something I feel is worth exploring. I recently finished the novel, A Hard Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World. It was suggested to me during the residency, and it was a fantastic book. It is set between two worlds: a familiar, yet somewhat futuristic version of our world; and an imagined world of a city with unicorns and no memories. One of the links between the two worlds is paperclips. This was an enjoyable link to me because it's so familiar, so common. Something like that, to link this world to my created world, might be interesting to see.

Digital Maps and Cycloramas

This image shows some of the progress I've made on that transfer I was working on. This picture is actually a little old now.Since this photo was taken, I now have cut a lot more squares out, and layered the piece between four pieces of plexi. I was thinking of work my mentor showed me by Steven Baris. He paints on plexi and uses shadows to contribute to the work. The shadows come into affect on this piece as well, in a pleasing way. I will do my best to get pictures of it soon. I am still working on securing the pieces of plexi together for display. One of the things I am enjoying about this piece is how the squares almost read like pixels, and makes me think of streams of digital information. When arranging the pieces, I think about maps, and layers of roadways.

I used to intern at a photo studio in Manchester, and recently the owner wrote a post about building a cyclorama. A cyclorama is used by primarily portrait photographers to create a rigid, seamless backdrop. The cyclorama has a subtle curve where the wall meets the floor, thus eliminating a seam. The few I've seen are usually white or black. When I was looking at the white cyclorama, I began thinking of what an interesting canvas that would be. Then I began to consider how one could create a space that would have depth but would not allow the viewer to fully enter.

As part of my own photographic practice, I often create panoramic images at different locations. I've been considering presenting these panoramas in a cyclorama form. I don't want them to represent an actually place, so I combined different panoramas to create a new world. It's world you can see, but cannot access.

Here are a couple still in progress:

I enjoy the one on the left more at this point because the pieces blend together more successfully. I ordered paper so I can print them somewhat larger. Eventually, if this idea continues to show potential, I would love to display them on a large scale, perhaps 8'x10', or something. If I used my transfer method, I could make the substrate for the print out of a variety of materials, enforcing the idea that this is a created space. Perhaps combining the cut pieces into this work would be interesting as well.

New Transfers

I had my first meeting with my mentor last week, and it went quite well. It's so helpful to be able to talk to someone about what I'm doing, and to get an objective view. I think I'm in a good place overall. I'm not entirely sure what I'm doing, but I'm not completely lost, thankfully!

One of the things my mentor recommended was to gather different materials and do some physical collaging, verses my usual practice of combing things digitally. I just did a transfer today onto illustration board. I have never used this process this way before. I knew it was a possibility, but I always just assumed if that's what I wanted, I could just stick a porous substrate through the printer. This affect is actually quite beautiful though. The pigments sit above the surface in a luminous way that I just love!

These photographs don't show the luminance, but the idea is there:

 

I also drew a grid pattern on the board before I preformed the transfer. My original plan was to cut out parts of this grid to layer with other images, but now I'm hesitating because I enjoy the surface so much. I'll go for it still though. I can always repeat the process if I prefer it.