Off to the framers!
Stopped by The Framing Workshop in Glasgow with my wee assistant today to sign the mat boards of the 14 images that will be on display at the end of this month, show details will be posted this week!
Are things getting back to normal?
Well first off, what is normal anymore? I dropped off 15 prints to be framed yesterday for the show Uncontrolled Abstraction: The Elements. Hopefully nothing covid related shuts things down this time and that third time for this show to happen is the charm! The show isn’t till July so I will be posting an invite and poster hopefully early next month, happy days! In the meantime here is an image from the ‘sequal’ to The Elements show.
Cliche Verre Print - 4x5" negative exposed via fire (micro explosions) to a plate consisting of Carbon, alcohol, ink, steel, glue and film
When the going gets weird …..
The weird turns pro, or so said Hunter Thompson, in my case it’s more the weird turns weirder. I don’t know what exactly I was hoping for or going for with this one but it came out …. well weird right? But In a good way, like my last post it has a sci-fi space vibe going so it has 50% going for it. As I started to wind down the image making for this series “Space and Time” I was rly just throwing as many odd things at it just to get them out of my head.
Cliche Verre Print - 4x5" negative exposed via fire (micro explosions) to a plate consisting of Carbon, alcohol, ink, steel, glue, paper and film
Time to reflect and edit…..
Well my daughter is off for Easter break from school so I don't think I will get much darkroom work done. Which is fine because I have loads to do with the family for the next two weeks! I also just need to take a break from making new images for this project and spend more time on editing down what I have and making notes etc. Still plenty of images to share from the past six months though!
Cliche Verre Print - 4x5" negative exposed via fire (micro explosions) to a plate consisting of Carbon, alcohol, ink, steel, glue and film
Home and second home projects galore…..
Well been super busy with projects around the house and my second “home” being the darkroom even though it is connected to my house, but hey you know what I mean. Maybe I missed my calling with wood working cause the solid wood coffee table and shoe racks I built from scratch over the past few weeks are ace.
Cliche Verre Print - 4x5" negative exposed via fire (micro explosions) to a plate consisting of Carbon, alcohol, ink, steel, glue and film
Whats the damage…..
Well so far I have about 400 4x5” negatives for this project, ouch thats eight boxes of film and god knows how many hours invested on just exposing the film. Thats not included time it took to create each plate, scanning in each negative and general research time. I still have yet to actually print many of these, obviously I wont be using all of them. I will probably be using 15 to twenty in the end. So that means it is just about time to start editing them down, going through contact sheets, cropping, marking and saving notes on each one. It will actually be a nice change of pace to be honest.
Cliche Verre Print - 4x5" negative exposed via fire (micro explosions) to a plate consisting of Carbon, alcohol, ink, steel, glue and film
Just about done…..
So I have just about finished making images for Controlled Abstraction: Time and Space, it is really hard to know when to stop though I always just wanna try that one more just incase. Anyways, I still have hundreds to share huzzah! Hopefully this is our final lockdown so I can get back to actually having the three shows that were postponed over the past year, fingers crossed!
Cliche Verre Print - 4x5" negative exposed via fire (micro explosions) to a plate consisting of Carbon, alcohol, ink, steel, glue and film
Most photographers hate dust…
Most photographers hate dust, I hate it when scanning my negatives or in the darkroom and those tiny hairs drive me insane! However as an artist who uses photography I embrace it for this project. It helps add to the “space-scape” and I can’t avoid it, I expose my negatives in open air as in they are sitting bare on a metal plate being subjected to many different forms of exposure. Worth noting with this image and many of my others the small and large white specs are actually sand and carbon.
Cliche Verre Print - 4x5" negative exposed via fire (micro explosions) to a plate consisting of Carbon, sand, alcohol, ink, steel, glue and film
Nothing to see here…….
Cliche Verre Print - 4x5" negative exposed via fire (micro explosions) to a plate consisting of Carbon, alcohol, ink, steel, glue and film
The beginning is the end is the beginning…..
Or maybe “this has all happened before and it will all happen again” One is a music quote the other is a book, film/tv quote. Not that I would title this image or any other of my work either of these, they are just what comes to mind when I look at it.
Cliche Verre Print - 4x5" negative exposed via fire (micro explosions) to a plate consisting of Carbon, alcohol, ink, cork and film
Super massive …. white hole?
Going to be trying something new tomorrow, will either look the same or be totally different.
It’s funny, I have been creating black and white images of space that at the moment I can only imagine space in black and white with a strange 1920’s film vignette filter. Will be interesting to see what I can create in the same style with colour film ……
Cliche Verre Print - 4x5" negative exposed via fire (micro explosions) to a plate consisting of Carbon, alcohol, ink, steel, glue and film
Can you hear it?
If a star explodes in a galaxy and nobody is around to hear it does it make a sound? Actually no …. no it doesn’t, sorry the movies lied to you, no pew pew lasers either ;)
This is another one that I enjoy but find to be a bit too busy or cluttered……..
Cliche Verre Print - 4x5" negative exposed via fire (micro explosions) to a plate consisting of Carbon, alcohol, ink, steel, glue and film
Plan 9? What about Plan 1-8?
So I have been getting loads done with new images and general work in the darkroom. So may be coming close to the “end” of image making portion of this project. I have created roughly 300 negatives over the past year, so yea I don’t know, just starting to feel as if I have beaten my ideas to to death. Not yet though, so in the meantime here is Planet Unknown #5.
Cliche Verre Print - 4x5" negative exposed via fire (micro explosions) to a plate consisting of Carbon, alcohol, ink, steel, glue and film
Anomaly in the darkroom….
Spatial anomaly or just an anomaly that happened in the darkroom while working on creating stars and nebulas. May be a bit too splatty busy.
Cliche Verre Print - 4x5" negative exposed via fire (micro explosions) to a plate consisting of Carbon, alcohol, ink, cork and film
Enceladus wannabe…..
Planet Unknown #4, this one came out pretty cool . Reminds me of images of geysers erupting into space on Saturns moon Enceladus
Cliche Verre Print - 4x5" negative exposed via fire (micro explosions) to a plate consisting of Carbon, alcohol, ink, steel, glue and film
Onward and outward…..
The discoveries continue with Planet Unknown 3, there is definitely something pleasing about the form and texture with these.
Cliche Verre Print - 4x5" negative exposed via fire (micro explosions) to a plate consisting of Carbon, alcohol, ink, cork, steel, glue and film
Planet Unknown…..
So I have been going through many images and finding which ones work better close up as just my creative visualisation of an unknown planet. Here we Planet Unknown #2, I enjoy the simplicity of these and I think that is why they work so well. They aren’t overly cluttered or embellished by trying to create the view of a solar system or spacial event. They are also created with simple materials, well maybe not the light source since it’s a tiny explosion but otherwise just cork, steel, glue and ink.
Cliche Verre Print - 4x5" negative exposed via fire (micro explosions) to a plate consisting of Carbon, alcohol, ink, cork, steel, glue and film
Close-up of a “planet”
Planet Unknown #1
Cliche Verre Print - 4x5" negative exposed via fire (micro explosions) to a plate consisting of Carbon, alcohol, ink, steel, glue and film