a semester later...

So these are a few of the prints from my final portfolio exchange for my advanced research in printmaking. The edition totaled out to be 16 prints, but 12 of those were distributed to other students in the class, so i do not have them. these are three of the 4 i retained because i thought they were the most successful.
So the prints were built up with layers of fun. the first layer on all of them was a collograph (don't know what that means? Wikipedia does, i just don't feel like explaining it). Then some of them (all of the above three) got a second and different textured collograph that i inked up in a transparent white to push back the first collograph. the rest of the prints got chin colled (def: a collage process in which papers are laminated using glue and pressure prior to or after the final inking of a print). and then i laid down the final etching layer which is the outline figure, farmland-like lined plots as well as some finger-print texture and some hands which are meant to look like part of the landscape texture too...
what was the point you ask? well, let me tell you! I named this print "Moro Reflex" which the term for the falling reflex that babies get when they're laying down... it was a less cheesy title than something to do with Icarus, alright? the idea originates from another print (to the left) and has a little more complexity. It all started with a Mars Volta quote, "One day this chalk outline will circle the city..." i liked that image, so i made a print last year, but never really completed an edition of it. So this year i changed it a little, but used the same linework (which i like and am still scared of doing things like aquatinting...)
It has to do with identity, landscape, setting, etc. I like that looking at the images of "moro reflex" it's up to the viewer to discern where it is and what exactly is going on, like is the figure a silhouette or a solid shape.
the texture is really nice too. yay for collograph, it did all the work for me :)
semester is over now. haven't taken many photos since i started drowning in my classes, but i'm hoping to get some things done this summer. we'll see how it goes though.
it's going to be crazy.

another cop-out entry

I fully intend to sit and bullshit an entry one of these days when i actually have something interesting dwelling on my mind. Right now i'm a little preoccupied getting work done for classes.
anyway, please admire the photo from my camera phone.
and admire the billboard remarking on the awesomeness of this tree.

just because

Detail shot of some chipping paint.

sad little lonely frosty bench.

Is it spring yet?

My patience for winter is slowly ebbing. I think i would like it to be 50 degrees and moderately sunny if that's ok with everyone. As much fun as the winter and snow has been, i think i'm ready to move onto greener pastures... or at least for the pastures to start actually getting green.
Trying to think about what the objective of this blog is anymore. It hasn't really stepped into its function of getting me to shoot more photography, and i'm actually kind of disappointed that the only images i have time to shoot or even upload are digital and not even that new.
Life is taking some twists and turns at the moment, but i've been trying to focus on finishing the workload i have set before me this semester rather than thinking about it. I'm working my butt off to get things finished in my printmaking class and it feels like i'm just running in place. I have a litho stone that's been sitting waiting patiently for me to go etch it for more than a week and i haven't gotten to it. frankly, i'm a wee bit scared to do it. it'll happen eventually.
hopefully i'll have some more interesting things to impart soon. maybe take some time to reflect on the things that have been running around inside my head. I'm on this kick of circus characters in my print class that's proving to be fairly entertaining.
The materials we're discussing in my literature class are also very interesting to me, but i haven't got a firm grasp on the history so it's not very easy for me to follow it all.
It's spring break. I should be napping and lazing about...
what the hell?

On A Roll

This blog is now associated with my printmaking class's blog: http://printana.blogspot.com/
check it out, it'll have interesting imagery and sources for printmaking.
now, back to me :)

I've been making an effort to shift gears recently. It's proving rather difficult.
when i kicked off the fall semester i was kind of up for doing a bunch of printmaking. My day of the dead block was a breath of fresh air. I wanted my sharp gouges and oily inks and instead i was enrolled in a photography class. as the semester progressed, I got really into the Gum Bichromate and fell in tune with my photography.
then the semester ended
Now the spring semester leaves me in the opposite position. I feel like i was traversing an interesting road in my photography, and i find that dynamic difficult to transfer into my printmaking at the moment. We had a demo on Lithography on Monday, a process i'm rather excited to learn and test out.
particularly interested in the possible integration of the xerox transfer coupled with drawing on the stone.
that aside, i have images! yes. new ones at that.
For christmas i was given a sweet little toy camera, made in the USSR, that i fondly refer to as Smena.
Note that this is not an actual photograph of my camera, i was lazy and got it off of google images. Anyway, it shoots 35mm film and has fully manual options, f-stops 4-16, shutter speed from bulb to 1/250th of a second. oh, and it's a range-finder, so despite the fact that it has a focusing lens, you kind of just have to guess how far the subject is away from you and hope for the best. unlike the holga, the focus actually seems to do something, so i have had to make the effort of actually using it. sometimes i still forget...

So to give you a sense of how you actually need to pay attention to focus, let me give you two examples.
one, not focused. and one that is... sort of. I rather enjoy the lack of control i have with range-finder cameras. I guess that's part of why the Holga was so fun and liberating, there was a seperation between what i saw and what the camera saw. I couldn't sit and painstakingly focus on my subject, an act that definitely drew me into the image more, but at the same time took away from the instant and experience of the subject.
My basic method of shooting involves going out with a camera and looking for things that catch my eye. That can sometimes be rather difficult for me, not because i can't find things to take pictures of, but because i'm so overwhelmed by visual stimulous. The world is so fabulously fascinating in many different ways. I sometimes have to step back from what i'm doing and try to make the decision of whether or not something is really meant to be photographed. There are some times when it's better to just take the experience as it is and not try to capture a piece of it on film, because it's never going to do it justice. I guess that's also one of my issues with tourist photography. Why spend hours, days, weeks, traveling somewhere only to experience it through the lens of a camera?
But i digress... So this "fire' garage door isn't all that interesting of a photo, it's just kind of my little ego boost as far as my prowess in getting a range finder to shoot what i want in the frame the way i want it to. Doesn't make sense? just think of it this way, the view on a range finder, specifically the Smena, is about two inches to the left, and and inch up from where the lens is actually shooting. That doesn't really have a huge difference in how the image will turn out, there's just a slight variation in how things will line up. i was just really proud of myself for getting the whole of the word in the frame. Yes. another nerd moment. Bear with me.
this image of the road signs just kind of trips me out. the sign was tilted toward the building and then i tilted the camera while shooting it, so the entire world in this image is a little askew.
something is definitely not right there.
all of the images were shot in Wallace, ID and i must give a little note of appreciation and thanks to Matt.
for the camera
for the roadtrip
for being awesome.


If you don't know where you are going, any road will get you there.
-Lewis Carroll