So my old tablespoon had to go all Uri Geller on me...

...but that's quite alright, as I just pushed it back into shape again. Had not used it for a while- or shall I say it had not been used for a while...as I have been up in the mountains and not here baking edible objects.

Just heard the buzzer go off, prompting me to run into the kitchen and remove from the oven 2 of the ginormous-est, most bitchingly delectable shaved-chocolate-bar, coconut and pecan banana breads that you have ever sunk your sweet beak into.

I have only had 2 apples and a small handful of raw almonds for food today, so am looking forward to a slice or so.

Haven't really made much art since returning from Penland, so much other stuff to catch up on...like mom's house, our house, Graham's b-day, getting ready for G to begin high school, etcetera, etcetera...

I am planning on printing some large- maybe 20" x 20"- black and white darkroom prints as some point soon...then to hand-tint them...for an invitational exhibit in Cabarrus County this coming January. I am giving a lecture to go with the exhibit.

The digital prints are coming along- most have been printed 24" x 24" and are soon to be mounted onto the painted hollow wooden boxes by a real champ of a friend, Martin Chadwick. Find his work at http://www.chadwicksworld.com He is a brilliant drawer and painter.

So, the new show is happening in a couple of months- specifically the month of October- at Flanders 311. I still need to come up with a title and a statement and all that stuff that goes with putting on a show.

Still super-loving the new studio and studio-mate at Artspace. Sure was worth paying my dues...we have so much room in the new space that it is practically obscene...!!

Anyways- going to make another digi photo tomorrow morning as I have been blessed with yet another inspiration. Gonna use the luna moth this time :-)

bird weddings only a fond and distant memory...

Re-entry into 2109 is so strange! Felt as if I had been at Penland for months... that's how intense and absorbing the experience is there. Met and made friends with so many wonderful people. Got super close to the surreal nature there, both flora and fauna...and felt quite pampered food-wise. :-)

So- back to the land of laundry, house cleaning and grocery shopping! I really don't mind tho, as this is my part of the family bargain..these tasks i do quite willingly.

Can't think when i will have spare time to get back into van-dyking again perhaps by September. Can't let these new skillz get rusty....!

only the bugs have time for naps up here....

so what day is it?? saturday...and of course it is nice and sunny and i am not exposing prints... *sigh*. but i have been mucho productive in the past couple of days- making salt prints and van dyke prints and toning cyanotypes. yesterday i began painting on the cyanotypes and van dykes with peerless brand watercolors. really stunning results. therefore i am happy. my "show and tell" will consist of these...i really feel like i learned and like i accomplished plenty while here.

yesterday i was a bit down in the dumps (but a bad day at penland is still better than a good day anywhere else) when a kind young woman named Tilly and I began a conversation at Dorm 54 where we are both staying. I had my laptop with me and showed her some of the little creature photos i have been making and she gave me a luna moth she had found! super-sweet and serendipitous, as i had been wishing to find a luna moth here...will make a photo with it when i get home tho..

this morning i took some digital pictures with the little bird figures and 1: a little baby bird skeleton to make an "anatomy lesson" pic, and 2: the big duck and the little booklet violin to remake the "music lesson" pic. the mushrooms that the critters sit on are intensely huge- about 13" diameter - 2 of them side by side. nature rocks.

lindsay is taking a break from working and house-clearing-out to actually come and see me today!! big yay!! we will have a wonderful 24 hours together then he must return to Raleigh as we are leaving Graham and Byron "home alone"... :-)

channeling the ghost of henry fox talbot...

man! but this place is *so* intense... such good stuff coming out though. we coated our salt, salt & gelatin, and egg albumen papers with silver nitrate this morning. this is exactly how sir henry fox talbot, of lacock abbey in wiltshire, and of inventing the photo negative fame, did it back in 1840!! *wow*!!! :-) for me, who mines the past to look toward the future, learning this was wonderful indeed...

after drying, we exposed them- making photograms...i used queen anne's lace and some curly stem thingies and some delicate lil vine leaves. all but the albumen turned out well. that's fine with me as i do not desire to use eggs as an ingredient in my photo medium anyway (!)

our afternoon was spent observing the glass class pouring into casting molds, and with more exposing and printing. i reached super saturation point at about 5pm. i just had to walk out of the studio and go take a shower and sleep for a couple of hours. brain is back to the norm as of now...

coated some pescia pale blue paper with van dyke brown tonight - will let it dry all night in the darkroom then let it cure for a day or so. i'm hoping i can make some nice prints, which perhaps i can later hand-tint with w/c or marshall's.

tomorrow we tone the cyanotypes we made last week, and make more new ones...

stay tuned...and art time, same art channel :-)

Gotta go back....*wayyyyyy* back...

...to last Saturday morning. Got up early - went to 7 am yoga, then cleaned up and started on more digital negs and van dyke printing. Exposed and printed negs til about 2pm, when my roomie Emily and I drove thru Bakersville, almost ran out of gas, but made it coasting on fumes up to Carver's Gap at Roan Mountain. We hiked a short 1 mile uphill thru the gorgeous spruce forest filled with fairytale mushrooms and weird plants. Then the sky flooded our eyes as we emerged from the forest and we could see 360 degrees the land and sky around -we were on top of the world.

Went back to the studio to work thru the evening - about 9:30 I headed in the pitch black darkness to Dorm 54 to change clothes for the big party- but...on the way I fell!! off the road shoulder, onto my left hand. I spit and cursed the rest of the way to my room, feeling my hand and worrying that I had sprained my wrist. Luckily, only my palm was affected, and then it was only bruised. Still, it hurt...(and I am left handed...tho it has not held me back doing any studio work).

Can't do any more cat-cow, plank, and downward facing dog in yoga class, tho... :-(

Sunday began with a lie-in, then off to early breakfast at 9 am. I ended up skipping the brunch as the food baby is back (eg, my tum-tum has grown a bit), so am desperately attempting to cut back the calories...for example- taking only 2 pieces of legendary Penland bacon instead of the usual 4. Emily had chided me for my 4 piece bacon serving, but then I noticed she took 3 cookies at supper, so I felt justified in a friendly lil counter-chide :-)

Th rest of Sunday was all about exposing and printing van dyke brown negatives. I have made about 30 prints since beginning the course- plan to make at least that many more.

Today (Monday) we coated out paper with 3 versions of salt print bases- salt water, salt and gelatin solution, and albumen (egg whites and salt)- the vegans in our class only coated with salt water.

I coated some paper for van dyke to print tonight, then 6 of us, including both teachers, headed to the South Toe River swimming hole. Fun indeed. Photos will be posted on facebook presently (presently for me means whenever i get around to it..hopefully before I actually get back to Raleigh).

Exposed and printed more van dyke prints tonight (exposure via UV light box) and now heading for Dorm 54 to relax and read this book on Friendly Witchcraft I found in my mom's house. Nighty-night :-)

beautiful indian pipe productive day

Another crazy-busy day...up early to go to yoga, then saw my roommate Mary who showed me an Indian Pipe fungus-flower she had found down the path...so I grabbed my digital camera and ran down with the rabbit, little doll and little dog, right before class and shot some pix- and you are looking at one of the results. I had to dig a little hole in front of the figures to get the camera low enough to get a good vantage point.

Exposed and printed van dyke prints all day long- unfortch all of our prints got bleached when the water pumps got flushed thru with chlorine - sad. Oh well. We will print more tomorrow.

There was an exhibit opening at the Horner Gallery tonight. Later on a wide-open party here at the photo studio - it's still going on as I type. I am partying with them vicariously :-) Hitting the hay in a little while. X

I'm in love!!...

...with a process I learned today known as "van dyke". It is a 19th century contact printing process that imparts a beautiful dark brown color onto watercolor paper.

Today was another busy busy day- made some digital negatives, exposed and developed maybe half a dozen van dyke prints using both analog and digital negatives- that doesn't sound like much...hmmm...also shot a self-portrait using the 8 x 10 pinhole camera, sitting in an antique chair in front of a bunch of honeysuckle and weeds in the Penland parking lot clutching onto one of my grandmother's victorian dresses in the drizzling rain. Developed the film after dinner tonight...getting a better handle on the composition, finally.

Gonna have an earlier night tonight. Busy day ahead tomorrow :-)