Polaroid is back

A few years ago Polaroid went out of the instant film biz which created a vacuum within the possibilities of photography.

Lucky for us, a couple of artists bought the Polaroid plant in Holland and started The Impossible Project, an effort to resurrect that plant and create new instant film.

They have announced their first new product - a line of black-and-white film that fits in old SX-70 and Polaroid 600 cameras. Color is next.



via: The Consumerist/Balloon Juice

36 Shades of Prussian Blue

For all of us who enjoy the history and use of materials, the new issue of Triple Canopy has something just for us. "Thirty-six Shades of Prussian Blue" by Joshua Cohen, collects historical and scholarly observations on the origins, production and uses of Prussian Blue: the world's first artificial color.

Cohen:

Artists in the West had no reliable blue until the early eighteenth century. Ultramarine, extracted from the blue stone called lapis lazuli, was said to have once been more expensive than gold, and Renaissance artists had to negotiate with their patrons for individual drops of blue upon receiving their commissions (ultramarine means, literally, "over the sea," because most lapis was imported from Afghanistan).

Full text here.

via: Triple Canopy/CORE77

John Chiara and process

I've been looking at a lot of John Chiara's photography of late and came across this excellent video piece on his photographic process. Really fascinating and such a great body of work.

studio view

Thought I would share some working images of one of several new paintings.

The Everyday in Contemporary Art Practice

For the upcoming holiday weekend I've signed up for a small group art project/micro residency at 303 Grand in Williamsburg. If anything interesting comes up during the process I'll do my best to post some insights. Here are some details on the project.

The Everyday in Contemporary Art Practice
4 Day Workshop Series

26 artists gather at 303GRAND on Memorial Day weekend.
Rosenclaire have invited them to participate and co-create in a Theoractical focusing on The Everyday in Contemporary Art Practice for four days.
An empty space, tables, chairs, a digital projector, a computer, a window and a door. Pencils, pens, paper, ink, watercolors, sound and image recording devices, body and consciousness.

anatomy of a painting [5]

So before taking off again this week, I wanted to post the latest update on this piece. I went back into the midsection and I'm getting closer to the space and feel of the final piece. Still laboring on the grid and think I am closer to understanding it's role which will likely be more of a subtle aspect of the ground and less of an overlay. But then again, who knows...

anatomy of a painting [3]

It is a kind of immersion in substances, a wonder and a delight in their unexpected shapes and feels. When nothing much is known about the world, everything is possible, and painters watch their paints very closely to see exactly what they will do. Even though there is no contemporary language for t hat kind of experience.... James Elkins

Well, I promised an update in a couple of weeks but that was 2 months ago ! You see how this works, timeless meandering apparently. Above is the stage of this from a week ago and I have already made some new changes but mostly with color. The overall composition is the same as you see here. What's being introduced is primarily a push/pull composition for the atmospherics above and introducing the perspectival grid below. Since the last installment, I agreed upon the orientation of the ground and introduced a new color scheme which is more naturalistic in range and also beefed up the light element. This trend towards announcing the light will continue but I will likely reintroduce more dramatic color elements as the painting moves closer to conclusion. As to the grid imposed on the weathered ground, I'm uncertain. I want to readjust it somewhat as there are some errors in the diagonals, as well needed improvement on the spacing to further induce a recession of space. The other lingering question is whether this grid is a dimensional structure, a second tier of the ground or a reflection of light. I'm about to figure that out.

In closing, here's a detail:

anatomy of a painting [2]

So this is the new stage for the painting shown last week or so. This is a probing period, and like I said, I ditched the photocopy you saw in the last image. I like to attack the canvas(linen) at this point in the process with as much paint as I can reasonably manage. This is always, a wet into wet situation, rough, fast handling with highly charged colors. If I'm doing it right, I'm combining as many colors as I can at once. Of course there is a pre-set of colors, that are quite considered for mood, tempo and scale. I trowel these on and work the surface for a few hours - playing the drying times of each color - manipulating the high oil density colors against the more absorbent colors.
The results, if I'm on my game are that within the drying process I get rewarded with some encaustic type areas along with passages that feel geologic, and reflective. What I'm looking for here is a topography that will lead to other decisions. Lately, I am also concerned with the smoothness of the surface, and this seems to be pushing me towards and almost c-print quality.

Also, I want to have a certain freedom with the materials that can at times overwhelm me physically. If my arms and hands are not fatigued and aching after this stage, then I haven't fulfilled my obligation to get as much of my physical presence into the piece as I should. For me this is critical at this point in the process because I need to feel a commitment to and from the surface before proceeding into more complicated waters.

This "second stage" may repeat itself a few times until the skin of the canvas feels right, this skin being critical to how the paint glides in future passes. The glide has everything to do with how the colors combine and mutate seamlessly. Another critical aspect besides an internal commitment, is somehow getting a light to present itself. Light is very important to me and I need to have a source developing immediately upon covering the ground layer. This isn't necessarily directional light but should be evident throughout the surface in this foundational stage.

So I think I'm pretty sure about where this is going next, and I have a maquette or two in the wings. I should have a new update in a week or so on this one.

artist lists and process

Timothy Buckwalter has a good run of posts on process this week as well as the always present artist "list". You know you have one...

Artists profiled include Julie Mehretu, Kiki Smith, Robert Smithson, Mary Heilmann and more.


Image via Buckwalter - Philly based painter Doug Witmer's studio list

breaking up: an artist and her gallery

For artists, I think this is a useful post on the anxieties and frustrations of this difficult field.
Read here for the saga of the dreaded breakup and one artist's decision to be open about it.

When it happened to me, I was inconsolable. I figured I was an impostor anyway, and was finally found out. I wasn't really angry at the gallery, I was just deeply saddened because I kind of really liked them. No other profession demands so much of its practictioners. The stoicism, narcissism, and complete denial of reality one must deploy to continue on is formidable. I see people give up every day.

Pink Slip Mantra at Tire Shop [ the flipside at Winkleman]

Be a dripper

go ahead, meet your inner Pollock
(hint-just move your cursor or any key)