3 July 2009
done
Thursday was our final day of work, culminating in the big Scholarship Auction after dinner, where everyone could donate something to benefit the work-study and scholarship programs here. It’s always a lot of fun, and I have bought cool things for not a lot of money in the past. They serve wine with dinner (to get us in the buying mood) and people come from all over to snap up work by internationally known craftspeople and their talented students. It also means the end of the session – this really was our last day. Of course, it was mayhem in the studio. There was still tons of cardboard around from the Parade preparations, and from the minute breakfast was done it seemed as if everyone was running through the studio at full speed, with two or three prints going at once – myself included.
I was finishing up my own gum print, but starting to worry about the piece I was making for the Auction. Aside from pictures of llamas and things, 2-D work rarely does very well (with the odd exception), and I had prepared my students not to get their feelings hurt if some great photo they made didn’t bring in a lot of money. After all, it all benefited the scholarships. I had to take my own advice, too, so I did as usual and tried to make some odd object (photographic or not) as my offering. This time I got it in my head to make a Luck Book of “hollow-cuts”: (reverse silhouette cutouts) of some of the four-leaf clovers I have found over the years, including several I had found here this time. It was a cute idea, but I lack some of the necessary skills for making a good book (like precision and cleanliness…) I had done the cutouts a day or two before, but I needed to get going on the binding if I was going to get it done by dinner time.
Fortunately, I had people here like Ila and Amy (the Paper & Book Studio assistant, whom I’ve known for years.) They had plenty to say about how I could bind the book, even without the black book cloth I’d forgotten to bring. (There was none at the store, either.) Ila and I were both hitting the wall of exhaustion after teaching, however, and even with her sleepy guidance I managed to screw up two attempts at the first book. It was almost ok, but not good enough to show or sell. I went to get a kick-ass coffee from Crystal at the coffee shop, and got right back to work, re-making the book covers and doubling the binding, all done with thin black paper. I waxed the covers for shine and durability, and even made an embossed clover on the front. It looked pretty good – black and evil and lucky all at the same time.
The auction went pretty well, but seemed a little lackluster, although my book and my students’ work went pretty well – Betsy made an awesome Cyanotype Backgammon board, and even Andy’s Michael Jackson gum print sold for 50 bucks. But honestly, I was just too burnt-out to enjoy it all. I did manage to buy Jim’s genius pinhole camera, made from a wine bottle – a “Pinhole Noir, vintage 2009” as he called it – but didn’t really bid on anything else. A couple hours of passivley watching the auction (and a Pernod or two) had me nodding off. I crawled home, past the perfectly moonlit hills, and crashed out.
Friday is just cleaning up all morning, then an all-school Show and Tell. And then, we’re gone…
2 July 2009
slapdash dandies
Since no one will be here on Saturday, Wednesday the 1st is our Independence Celebration, and the School and Community Parade that goes with it. We’ve been talking about this in class since last week, but no one has really come up with a Big Idea we’d all be willing to do. We had talked about vehicles and giant rolling cameras and things. (Two years ago our class had a huge view camera, like some sort of Chinese Dragon that we carried and marched with…) But I really didn’t want to have to be in anything or drive anything or carry anything heavy again. I just wanted to enjoy it. I had suggested we make big pinhole cameras that could sit on our heads like hats, or be carried around as if we were extra-ridiculous tourists. That was enough to get us all going. As long as it was somehow photo-related and made out of cardboard and found scraps, we were good…
Unlike some of the other classes, however, we didn’t even start until the morning of the Parade, and I could detect a distinct lack of enthusiasm (on my part as well!) We’d already been having so much fun and doing so much work, I think we just wanted to keep our own pace. I knew, however, that all it would take was someone starting to have fun with it and we’d be ok, so I made a quick box hat that looked sufficiently absurd and could be easily made into a “camera” of sorts. Coincidentally, it fit on Laura’s head too (Laura showing clear signs of ambivalence about it all) so soon she was on her way to a hilarious Fancy Camera with Removable Flash.
Of course I decided I had to do something particularly complex and make a large bellows camera. I spent much of the morning researching how to do it online, never having made my own camera before, but I ended up procrastinating for hours since I just wasn’t in the mood for much math or complexity. Meanwhile, Jim was over at his table constructing the perfectly precise angular bellows, teasing me a bit as he worked. After lunch I figured I needed to do it my way – easier, sloppier and perfect for a parade. I found a quicker method online and proceeded to hack and fold and fake my way to an awesome camera, in the process realizing that while I seem good at making things look old, in truth I’m just good at getting things dirty…
The enthusiasm sure kicked in before dinner, and we made a huge mess in and around the studio. We had Fancy Hats, a Polaroid costume, a film box and all manner of insane randomness. Steve found himself duly inspired by Time of the Gypsies and made himself a crazy stack of boxes to run around in. Leah made an awesome cardboard drum, and Beth wore her Soft Sculpture Pinhole and played the clarinet. We traded jackets – she wore my red band blazer with the bird and musical note (which I think I wore for the Parade two years ago) and I wore this amazing long band coat she had just found in Jupiter. My camera was almost a squeezebox but became an insane hat. When we assembled after dinner, we looked like the hilarious Slapdash Dandies that we are – some even with moustaches.
(click to enlarge the image)
The Parade started at 7:30, leading far around the little valley to the Pines dining hall and the hill across the Llama Knoll, on which they were preparing the fireworks. People from all over the community had been arriving steadily to watch. The Parade must have been quite a sight, as I’m sure it always is with a bunch of artists and craftspeople putting their efforts (well, some of their efforts) to the spectacle. All the other groups and classes looked just as silly as we did, dressed up and dancing all the way. My favorite was Ila’s clay class, who had made a huge puppet of the school’s founder, Lucy Morgan. (There were a lot of Lucies around…) But as we rounded the bend we pulled out our secret weapon – Jim had used a pole and garbage-can lid to make an old Magnesium Flash (actually using Aluminum Powder instead) that we popped off once during the march and again in front of the judges. With Jim’s efforts we managed to win the Most Extravagantly Frou-Frou award, one of the four or five bizarre trophies handcrafted in the studios…. Damn I was proud.
We spent the rest of the evening lying on the hill, eating ice cream and drinking Fancy Beers (or Fancier things like Pernod and Chartreuse, of course…) The fireworks were both homegrown and spectacular, exploding directly against the moon and clouds. I watched the heavy sky and started to think about going home. It’s been way too much of a fantasy life here, but I’m more determined than ever to let the rest of my life – that old tough one with bills and battles – to match it as much as it can.
1 July 2009
stay, relax
I am either a really great teacher, or the absolute worst. It was only Tuesday of the second week of our workshop – total crunch time – and instead of pushing my students hard to get things done, or even just getting out of the way and letting them work, I’d planned two separate social events for the day. To start with, it was Leah’s birthday (she’s one of our Core students) and we planned an afternoon Field Trip of sorts down to the lake where Betsy lives. I mean, I told them to bring their cameras, of course, but we all knew it was about ice cream and swimming, not Photography.
However, like the other days, the morning started with a buzz of printing. A few students have actually made decent 3-color gums, with one student, Evan, cleverly working in a color wheel. Jim is making progress on his 3-Process Color Print, but there’s still balancing to do, and he may need to use a different yellow paint to get it to work right. Laura has moved from graphic floral gums into 3-color prints and a new panoramic pinhole camera. Leah has quietly made amazing images of the crazy flying machine she built. Zen is painting on faded Cyanotypes; Steve is doing negative-positive prints on black paper; Beth is sewing onto gridded images; Betsy is layering images of patterns and faces; Ayla has one of everything; and Andy’s busying himself with gum prints of Michael Jackson (made while wearing one rubber glove.) Almost everyone has made real leaps in conceptually combining the imagery and techniques, so I should just relax. Of course I know I’ll be hovering over them individually to get them to finish something perfectly awesome in what little time we have left, but they’re pretty damn awesome already.
I made some progress on my own prints, but still need to bind this book of four-leaf-clover silhouettes I’m making for the auction. I wasted a bunch of the day stressing about all these other things to do (the 4th of July parade is Wednesday!) but still went forward with our party plans. Right after lunch I went and bought tons of ice cream and nice beer at the grocery store in Spruce Pine. It’s weird that you can buy beer and wine here now, since it’s been a dry county for all the years I’ve been coming… Even weirder that I didn’t end up spending too much of my own money which I usually do when I throw a party or something here. one night last weekend Jim had taken me aside and handed me $100 for the “Social Fund.” He told me he didn’t want the young students worrying too much over money and what to buy, so we could drink well together. “I only do this for classes I like,” he said.
At Betsy’s we all gathered and stuffed ourselves on ice cream. Most people swam, but none as much as Boo Radley, Leah’s dog, who freaked out every time someone dove in, and ended up doing laps between the dock and the shore until he was exhausted. We lounged, we lolled, we lay in the sun, and by the time we left (to make it to dinner, of course) we were all so relaxed. I carried that with me for the rest of the day, and into the night.
Our class party continued (in its mellow way) with an outdoor screening of Time of the Gypsies under the trees and stars, a half moon rising above the mountain. We tossed ourselves on blankets as the night grew colder, and drank wine and chartreuse and the good beer, too.
30 June 2009
prussian blue
Yesterday, Monday, was another perfect day – not only the weather, which has been ridiculously lovely, but also the work and the exhaustion that comes with it. I am fried, again and already, even after a weekend off. Well, Saturday off anyway… I spent the first part of that day hitting every antique store on the way to Asheville, driving down in my friend Cassandra’s convertible, which really is the way to ride down those windy mountain roads. I didn’t end up buying anything (except some random bits and things I needed at the Craft Store in town, and some blackberry ice cream) but I did get heavy inspiration from one store full of amazing 19th-Century objects – hairwork rings, daguerreotype jewelry and all manner of beautiful lost goods. It’s made me think more about what I want from my work – the strangeness, the history – if only I could get any of it done. Back at the studio by the afternoon, I only had to step in the door to be in the Teacher Spot again. I chose to spend the rest of Saturday hiding out, even avoiding the 90’s dance up at Northlight. Quiet, quiet and mountain rest.
I did manage to get some things done on Sunday since the studio was empty for the morning at least. Inspired by the Print Class’ experiments with layering and sanding back their images, I started making a gum print with hidden imagery, to see if I can sand back to it. Frankly, it’d be easier (and less dangerous than making airborne dichromates) simply to brush back while the image is developing, but I’d like to see what’s possible that I haven’t tried before. I also borrowed some of the nice wax they’ve been using on their prints. Right now I am only aiming at making something that is beautiful and a joy to create by hand (as one usually does at a Craft School, I suppose.) I’ll think about it all later.
I got in a good solid day’s work on Sunday, and thought I was rested enough for a full demo day to begin the week. The students have all been working incredibly hard, but also playing and socializing more than other classes I’ve had. I don’t quite know how they manage both, but I can tell they need something else to think about. The goal for Monday was to add Cyanotypes into the mix, not only as a solid base for gum overlays, but also as a stronger (and easier to make) Cyan layer for 3-color gums. In addition, Jim, my older and technically brilliant student, wanted to make a 3-color print using three different processes: Cyanotype, Cuprotype (from his own formula!) and a yellow gum.
Somehow I’d only just realized that this is really a Color Class – and I mean I only realized right before demo… I walked in and found myself talking about Sir John Herschel’s early experiments with natural dyes and colors in order to create full-color Photography (a word he coined, by the way.) This is, of course, the Anthotype and our wine-stained version, which I’d originally proposed as a lark, now seemed more a conceptual anchor to what we’ve been doing. I kinda thought I’d get them making blue prints and walk away, but of course I now needed to do the full How-To-Tone-Cyanotypes thing, if only for more and yet more color.
After lunch we got Jim going on his processes (and learned a few things on the way, such as how Cuprotype was too opaque an emulsion to be an overlay, but did, in fact, stay unaffected by the Cyanotype) and he continued to school us on the chemical details of our work. It’s geeky as all hell, but I was never an educated chemist, so I’ve delighted in discussing the difference between Ferric Ferricyanide and Ferrous Ferrocyanide…
As usual for this class, everyone worked like crazy and didn’t stop. I was exhausted by dinner, and they continued to print and shoot and experiment and question on into the night. After the Glass Instructor slides, I went down to work on my print, but there was hardly any room to squeeze in the UV box. The whole class was there (except Jim, who has the sense to be a morning person.) They had a million new ideas after today, of course. They made Coffeetypes. They printed reverse gum highlights on dark toned Cyanotypes. They also drank and jumped around and got Heavy Deep and Real at the picnic table, while the paper soaked, the dichromated colloids hardened and iron was reduced to Prussian Blue.
27 June 2009
perfect daze
I’m afraid these blow-by-blow recaps are getting tedious, so I’ll try to be more concise. There’s just so much filling every single day (and night), I can’t possibly make sense of it all. We’re hitting a real stride anyway now, and I am no longer worried about the Social Engineering part of teaching, particularly after Friday’s class… They are truly a delightful group of talented people, working and playing just so well together.
We were slow to start that morning, but filled the pre-lunch session with notes and recaps and the sharing of discoveries. We were supposed to have a mid-session cleanup this morning, but for some reason one of our students, Ayla (the young stylish one whom all the boys on campus follow around) decided to have a late-night clean all by herself. Betsy declared it “Hug Ayla” day, but that may not have been such a good idea… The boys were a little too eager.
Our weather was gray for the first time all session, so I decided to skip our Anthotype demo, which was really too bad since I was going to try it with wine today*, and looked perfectly ridiculous this morning, overdressed as usual and carrying a half bottle of wine to breakfast. We still had plenty to do, since I had them all making pinhole cameras. It’s such a simple and goofy thing to do, and almost everyone had made one before, but it was surprising how much they all got into it. My original schedule had today being a Play Day – fun demos and goofy cameras and plans for our 4th of July Parade – and it was.
The afternoon session saw us all out on the picnic table. Some were casually dropping back inside to coat a gum, or load a pinhole, while one student played the clarinet and another cut paper hearts out of all the scrap paper on the table. One guy, Steve, went to his room, dumped out his clothes and made his suitcase a camera. Soon we were all running down the hill to the newly-baled hay for pinhole, analog and digital photo shoots. This quickly devolved, of course, into various hay gymnastics and circus tricks. We could not stop laughing at ourselves and each other, the more so when we realized we were the spectacle for everyone beginning to queue for dinner.
I’m going to stop worrying about whether they’re happy now.
26 June 2009
overexposure
Thursday was supposed to be at least half a day off, but when I got to the studio at 9 (much better rested, thank you very much) almost the whole class was there, already printing. The energy in there has not abated at all, but I’m sticking to my plan and insisting people take at least a small break at some point, as much for myself as for them. I slept a bit better last night, but I’m going to stay exhausted this whole trip, I’m afraid. This is a beautifully creative insanity, but no less insane.
There are so many things to do, aside from the teaching schedule. We have a big auction next Thursday to benefit the work-study program. It’s a lot of fun, and it’s the official closing party for the session, really, but it’s hard on us 2-D artists. Up here, people would way rather buy a basket or a pot than someone’s clever and hard-won photographic artwork. I have warned my students that this is how it goes, and not to have their feelings hurt if their best picture doesn’t go for much, since every bit helps the program. But I encourage them to come up with some Photographic Object to put in instead. We’ve done well in the past with decks of cards and books and weird cameras and things. Hell, almost any picture with a llama on it sells ok…
There’s also the 4th of July, which will be celebrated here on Wednesday the 1st, since hardly anyone will be here on the Saturday between sessions. This means a big all-school parade, with prizes and things like that, and yet another opportunity (responsibility?) to come up with something clever and Photo-related to do as a group. In addition, we need to think about making a class photo for the Wall of Fame in the studio.
Meanwhile, the weekend is looking very social, what with old friends and new coming to Penland to visit. There are various parties and events every night this weekend, including the big Northlight dance Saturday night, which becomes a bigger deal every time I come here. Apparently, this one will have a 90’s theme – the Core Student organizers have made incredible Letterpress announcements for it with images of Lady Diana, Pulp Fiction, Bill Clinton, etc. They don’t do much by half-measures here.
Of course, the studio work is increasing too, both for my students and for me. I made a new test of the 3-color gum, which would have been good if I hadn’t over-cooked my magenta (grrrr). I left the studio while it was printing to go drop some paperwork at the main office, and when I came back the “Penland Tanning Bed”* had been reset for more time, too much for my exposure. My own fault, of course… but I ended up with a picture of a pink hill. It’s actually kinda cool and rather hilarious, but not exactly what I was trying to do. I wouldn’t mind figuring out a way to make that process more artistically interesting rather than just technically interesting, and yesterday I helped a few students make color separations in order to get their own versions going. I’m hoping someone will do something crazy and gorgeous with it.
As the students hit their stride, I can already feel myself backing away, relishing the very few quiet moments in the studio so I can start thinking about making something for myself. All those beautiful things I saw in the Print Studio on Wednesday (and a second time yesterday) have got me thinking about what I could do in Alexandria, and how to begin here. The Print Assistant, a smart and lovely young woman named Nicole, brought me a couple of sheets of Rives BFK prepped with layers of transparent base, the way they’re working over there, in order to begin a possible collaborative project. I’m not sure the gum bichromate will stick to it, but I’m determined to try. It would, of course, be easier for me to make a gum and then have them print on top, but who does things the easy way around here?
As I carve out a tiny bit of space for my own, I’m finally starting to think about making my own work. I’ve only recently been back in the studio in any real way, and I rely on the inspiration and experimentation of this place to push me into something new. I have quite a few pieces that need finishing, but more than anything, it’s time to start fresh. Maybe some little experiments will help.
