Gallery Opening at Biola University

full size test

20 Days till Gallery show

It has been a long time since I posted last.
I am posting now so you can see some updated picture of the process. I have switched up the process a little from wax only to keeping the paper backing and dipping that in wax. Then placing the varnish medium on top. You will see now some progress shots of my failed experiments.
Here Grandpa is what I want them all to look like:
In this photo (above) the gloss medium is split into 3 sections. Left has nothing on top. The middle has the matte varnish medium on top. The right side has the wax medium on top. You can see in the picture below the different sections better. In this one below they sections are backwards. No medium right side. Middle is matte varnish and left is wax stuff. I still haven't tried dipping the whole thing in wax yet. That is what I was supposed to do with the empty part.
Below I will post the rest of the progress. The faces all have lines in them minus one.



This is the Mattes I was looking at for the second time:

Day 12 &13

I have been working on a picture of my mom. I am still working with it. I have three copies of the same picture that I am working on. Today I started melting the wax on it then remelting and changing it. I just remelted it because I didn't like it. I am trying to get it right. I will post some pictures up of it tomorrow.
Thank you.

Day 11

I edited my favorite photo of my mom and put the medium varnish on. Tomorrow I will put it in the wax.
Here are a couple of the old piece just as a reminder for myself and what I like and don't like.

Day 10

Photo shoot of Troy and Mom
I used day light as the only light source, a reflector gold or silver, a mirror to bounce some light onto the wall for my brother's, a window shade to bounce some light on the side of my mom's face. 50 mm f/1.8, ISO @ 250
I am still editing but here is a hint.





I am still not happy with the color. I want to add some grain and maybe blow out a corner. I also need to touch up some spots on face, and sharpen using the highpass filter (my fav). I do like the lighting though.
The hand picture is a little too grey.
I am trying to keep in mind what will look good under wax. I added a little more contrast so that it will pop better under the wax.
I bought some beeswax yesterday to try and some candle wax that has the same color as wax but much cheaper to see if it will be a good color too. and another creamier color wax.
It is funny when you scroll down on the blog you can see how influenced I am already by Sally Mann's work. Especially with my mother's pictures because I tightly cropped her face.

Day 9

Something I am liking: http://markpowerblog.com/2008/05/06/ars-moriendi-the-art-of-dying/

Also I pulled some stuff off google image search that I want to show everyone.
This one is by Walter Schels.

The four images below are SALLY MANN's work. She is amazing in every way. I have enjoyed looking at her books at borders, photos from her life. I wish I could get into this more. I like the style of the second one down I believe it was titled number nine or 11 but the color and fall out with the glass plate quality is beyond anything else. An the way the photo folds away from the glass in the body shot is so exciting. I want to have a unique quality like this in the work I make for the show.


For now I am thinking of making a plan. I am so tired of sitting around with out pictures to use. I am determined to do a photo shoot tomorrow. Of my mother or my brother. So get excited to see some action.

Day 8

I looked at some ghost story websites like the one below and watched some videos. I wanted to get started on another plate. I cleaned out some wax and started melting a large plate with the vanilla colored wax. Tomorrow I will work on that some more.

The Brown Lady
Probably the most famous and most authentic of all ghost pictures, the Brown Lady would be Lady Dorothy Townsend, living in Norfolk, England in the early 1700's. It was taken in 1936, during a photo shoot for Country Life Magazine at Raynham Hall in Norfolk, England by Captain Provand and Indre Shira. The photographer saw her coming down the stairs, and began yelling to Shira, who could not see anything, and thought he was delusional. She is known as The Brown Lady due to reports of the spirit being seen wearing a brown brocade dress.

www.winterrowd.com

Day 7

Day trip and the movie Ghost.

Day 6

Today I made some sketches for the shoot I want to do with my brother. I wrote down some plans, sitting positions and clothes. I will do it time this week. After that I finished up the piece from Friday and Sat. I used the blow dryer on it to soften the etches. I really like using the blow dryer it give me more control than using a lighter. Since I knew I wouldn't be using it I wanted to try perfecting the edges. This time I cut it tight to the picture size, remelted the edges and pressed so that it was embossed or curved down on the edge. I made this plate pretty thin compared to the first one but it is still sturdy. I had to do this because you couldn't see the picture yet. I enjoy making the plates so I did it anyway for practice. Here are all the pictures of the piece:

Day 5

Today I worked with the wax. I transferred the doll image into the wax. I scraped into it which I like. The product is no good though you cannot see the picture it is too bright. I want to shoot again on Monday with a model. I will take a picture of the wax Sunday or Monday so you can see. But there isn't much to see. Thank you.

Day 4

Haunted When It Rains
"Book of the Dead" Victorian Post-Mortem Photography
http://ame2.asu.edu/projects/haunted/ISA%20index/book%20of%20the%20dead/book%20of%20the%20dead%20photos%20page2.htm

These are all different images found on the net. All through google search. I was looking for different positions, lighting, and objects used. The ones taken from utube videos made by Now I lay me down to sleep (http://www.nowilaymedowntosleep.org). This is a great organization that helps families. I will do my best to keep the names with the children of the ones I have.




This one above I was interested in the urn. I don't know how far I could go with it maybe a couple angles and macro of the face but would it fit in with the rest? why not try?


Noah Steven Graves
Hope Margaret Donovan, hands
Hope Margaret Donovan's feet
I love these intimate photographs of the feet and hands with soft lighting. It shows it to be a very delicate situation. It is some what cliche but the intamicy is important.


Here is an attempt to make the picture look older using Lightroom with the aged photo present with a little more editing. I want it so have some wear and tear in it though. I can do this with my hands when it is printed before I transfer it. Maybe use some of Barry and Loren's coffee dipping ideas and such. Keep in mind I will not not not not not not be using this in the show. This is just a test to see how it goes with digital shooting and printing rather than using original mourning portraits.

Day 3

This day was not too productive. I was working on my the pictures I took in photoshop trying to age them and adding layers then my computer slowed down and froze 40 minutes later so I gave up. The file I was working on got deleted since I hadn't saved them. But... Here is a poem I found at one point or another that I haven't uploaded on my blog yet.


This poem is by Edna Miller taken from the book Death and the Humanities by Sharon School.

Day 2

Today I began by making sketches. I got one done and got board and decided to take pictures instead. Click here to see slide show off all of them. They will be overwhelming so I will pick my favorites tomorrow at the beginning of the day so you don't have to see them all. I began with my mother (at the end) then found her doll and used it as a model (sneaky idea right?) This doll is my new best friend for modeling. Keep in mind I was paying most attention to different shutter speeds, some different apertures but I mostly stuck between 5-1.8 and the focus point changed. So if you have any preferences let me know. This is just a practice shoot I intend to get a baby asleep so I can take them (who knows how that will work).
After I pick a few favorites I think I will try to age them in photoshop using different methods to see what effects I can get. If anyone happens to look at these and like certain ones best please write the number of it in the comment section. It would help if you open the link in a new tab for the mac users and a new window for PC lovers. Thank you!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/34097531@N07/show/

NOTE: 100 Days till Senior show

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Day 1

Studio visit interview with Christian Boltanski:

http://www.tate.org.uk/magazine/issue2/boltanski.htm
'I began to work as an artist when I began to be an adult, when I understood that my childhood was finished, and was dead. I think we all have somebody who is dead inside of us. A dead child. I remember the Little Christian that is dead inside me. What drives me as an artist is that I think everyone is unique, yet everyone disappears so quickly. I made a large work called The Reserve of Dead Swiss (1990) and all the people in photographs in the work are dead. We hate to see the dead, yet we love them, we appreciate them. Human. That's all we can say. Everyone is unique and important. But I like something Napoleon said when he saw many of his dead soldiers on a battlefield: "Oh, no problem - one night of love in Paris and you can replace everybody."
http://www.tate.org.uk/valueart/value/working/artworks/boltanski.htm
The photographs of anonymous dead people were selected by Boltanski from obituary notices in Swiss newspapers. The lengths of fabric gathered around the shelves are shroud-like and also evoke the curtain of the crematorium. Aside from this suggestion of 'memento mori' the harsh beams that spotlight each face evoke references to interrogation and torture. These aspects together with the sheer scale of death suggested by the title and by the repetitive presentation employed here have led commentators to find references to the holocaust. However by nominating the victims as Swiss, a neutral people, the association is muted and allows for more intimate, personal and wider, historical reflections.


Boltanski is right that people disappear quickly. It is interesting that he creates a piece with the intent of showing faces of the dead swiss children and to reserve them. In the second site they talk a little more about the conclusions drawn from this Idea and I think it just barely hits the point at the end. It seems that the choice of the Swiss is because they are neutral so this is not in any way war related but really just to reserve the dead. Although a lot of Boltanski's work is war related here he strips away all hints of war and presents only the people as they are with a normal everyday death. This is what I am doing with my project. I want to eliminate all ideas of war and horror so that it can be simplified to just the reservation of them, memories, keepsakes, and the way they effect those left behind. Although my research began on ghosts in a literal sense it has turned into a broader definition. The imprint of the dead on those they left behind. Not just their old bedrooms and hair brushes but the memories and the flickers of moments imprinted in people minds of them. This is the ghost they leave of themselves.
Boltanksi quoted Napoleon,
"But I like something Napoleon said when he saw many of his dead soldiers on a battlefield: "Oh, no problem - one night of love in Paris and you can replace everybody."
This idea is not common amongst most when they are presented with this image but since Napoleon has been around it for years he is immune to the reality. At first reading this you would think Boltanski is wrong and ignorant because anyone would know that those men had families and it is sad to see they are so young and dead. But in reality how many people mourn for the billions of people who have died through out all the wars in the world (or trillions). Death happens every second around the world and most people ignore it because if we took it all to heart it would be a tragic community. We are allowed to be immune to it and if you bring it up it becomes a short-lived conversation. This is why it is important to put it the conversation on hold through the art, to create a calm and quiet space where one can have a conversation with the art rather than one with a person.
Boltanksi seems to understand this idea. In one of his self-portraits he titles, "Life is happy, Life is sad". This is where the death conversation can come to a conclusion because the other reality is that although all this death happens there more beauty in life to overpower it. Because for every one person who dies there is a lifetime full of happiness (or the search of) but it is important to keep an equal playing field for both rather than being ignorant to one. This is where society has failed. We have kept death under our beds and we can only look at it on our own time because to talk about it is taboo.

The Hour Log

I will log all my hours below:

Monday, January 5: 3-7pm and 8-10pm= 6 hours
Tuesday, January 6: 12-2, 2.5-5.5 and 7-8pm= 6 hours
Wednesday, January 7: 3-6, 7-8pm= 4 hours
Thursday, January 8: 2.5-8.5pm= 6 hours
Friday, January 9: 3.5-8.5pm= 5 hours
Saturday, January 10: 5-6pm= 1 hour

WEEK 1 TOTAL: 28 Hours

Monday, January 12: 4-9 pm= 5 hours
Tuesday, January 13: 12-2, 4-8 pm= 6 hours
Wednesday, Jan. 14: 4.5-7, 8.5-11 pm= 5 hours
Friday, January 16: 4-10 pm= 6 hours
Saturday, January 17: 6-7 pm= 1 hour
Sunday, January 18: 1-5, 9:20-2:20am= 9 hours

WEEK 2 TOTAL: 32 Hours

Monday, January 19: 3-4pm, 8-9, 10-4:30 am= 8.5 hours
Tuesday, January 20: 3-9: 6 hours
Wednesday, Jan. 21: 2.5-7.5= 5 hours
Thursday, Jan 22: 6 hours
Friday, Jan. 23: 7 hours
Saturday, Jan 24: 3 hours

Week 3 TOTAL: 35.5 hours

Friday, Jan 30: 5 hours
Saturday, Jan 31: 2 hours
Monday, Feb. 2: 4 hours
Tuesday, Feb 3: 5 hours

Week 4 TOTAL: 16 hours

TOTAL HOURS SPENT: 111.5 hours