Language

As promised...my first Surface Research project. The assignment was to create a pop-up structure of a word and describe the word visually. Then we were to draw the structure as a still life. I used the word "language" for my pop-up and additionally made two pop up face silhouettes facing each other, as if communicating. On the faces I wrote the word "language" in 8 different languages in a pattern. I then covered the rest of the paper with this pattern in much smaller print. I don't think this piece was as successful as it could have been; the drawing could have been rendered better with more care and effort. I am disappointed that the drawing turned out as flat as it did. The only real depth is found in the left face and the L. But! I will brush this project off and continue on. Meanwhile, I might consider revisiting the idea of repetition of words to create a pattern in the future.

Letter Abstractions

Tonight I finished my second project for my Surface Research project (I know I haven't posted the first one but I haven't yet photographed it). In Photoshop, I took letters in different fonts and blew them up and arranged them until they created an abstract, unrecognizable image. The first 6 contain one letter and the last 3 are a combination of letters. I might do some experimenting with Photoshop beyond this project; these were simple and fun to make and turned out looking pretty cool. See if you can figure out which letters compose each one!

Narrative

My first assignment for Time Studio (digital media based studio class) was to create a storyboard and capture it photographically in 10 frames or fewer. Thanks to Gwen and her boyfriend Kyle for being my characters and pretending to like each other...I know it was difficult. :)

I realize these photos are poor quality, but I think they suffice for an exercise in storyboarding.

Gum Bichromate

Hello everyone! I'm back in Richmond at school with all new classes so keep a look out for new work. But before that...here are a few prints I worked on over winter break. They are Gum Bichromate prints. Perhaps the style looks familiar if you have ever...stepped foot in my house, know my dad, live in Chapel Hill, or are one of the very few who knows about the process.

It is a process created in the mid-19th century of painting a combination of powdered earth pigments, gum arabic, and light sensitive potassium dichromate on gelatin-coated paper. After the mixture dries, the negative is exposed, laying on top of the pigment. Then, the negative is removed and the paper is allowed to soak in water while the image develops.

Over a couple weeks I worked on 4 prints (but 2 images). Each time I went into the darkroom I spent about 2 hours with additional time in between printing sessions for the prints to completely dry. I ended up with these four prints. Each has 8 different layers of pigment. Some worked better than others. The image of the chairs took much better to the process than the one of the buddha statue.

I am so lucky to have had the opportunity to jump right into the process with all of the materials (and assistance) I needed available. Thanks Big D! I had so much fun getting to know the process.

I will show both the image on the paper and the image cropped (as it would appear matted or framed).

To read more about the process: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gum_bichromate

To see prints by the gum bichromate master himself, check out my dad's website at: http://www.woodsedge.net/

or his page at The Frank gallery (of which he is a founding member):
http://www.frankisart.com/artists/dehmer_a.html

DO IT!

PS- If you look a couple posts back, you'll find the photographs I used. I recently took them on a Diana F+ toy camera.

Instax

For Christmas this year I got a Fujifilm Instax 210 instant camera (substitute for Polaroid which is no longer in production). It's a really fun toy! Here are a few shots I've taken so far.
PS- The actual photos are slightly less saturated than these scanned images..I had scanner trouble.

Baking cookies

Happy New Year everyone!! My friend Meghan and I spent our New Year's Eve making chocolate chip cookies...but wait! Not just cookies! We made a stop motion video of making cookies--check it out!


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WdfzD7TYUEY

I think there are around 850 photos in the video. Shooting took 4.5 hours and putting the video together took an additional 8ish. Next semester at school I will be in a class called Time Studio in which I will mostly be working in electronic media like video and photography and I will surely make a stop motion film. So I'm really glad I've practiced and am fully aware of how much time and focused attention it takes to complete one. I also now know that it is really nice to work with someone else doing stop motion (one to move the pieces, one to click the picture).

...And what better way to start the new year than eating fresh cookies? :)