Mat Cutting

Yesterday my new artist friend arrived and we started right away learning how to cut mats.  She had purchased, what I would cal the portable mat cutter.  It's the two-piece version:  the ruler on one side of the metal piece and the groove for the blade on the other side with the hand held blade cutter.  It's a little harder to use because you have to try to keep everything in place while you're moving.  She had a good idea to get a piece of plywood to use as a base, with a raised edge to help contain the mat board.  She mastered that in no time and we proceeded on to putting the window mat and backing mat together.  Then I showed her how the larger version of the Logan Mat Cutter works, which is a little different and easier to use.  She's going to practice at home to perfect the cutting as it does take time.  It was a successful morning and we had a good time together.  I felt like I'd known her forever.

Before she had arrived, I was working on some written instructions on how to mat, how to frame, etc.  The High Hand Gallery is offering art classes and the night before at the meeting it occurred to me that I could probably give lessons on how to mat and frame.  Newbie artists always have a learning curve with this, so it is something I could perform at the gallery.  So I think I will continue to write up the instructions, finish them, and that would give me my background for the class and a hand-out.

I previously mentioned that I was in the darkroom and printed out three 11x14s of the No Hands Bridge.  When I went to pour out the copper toner I was just about a month and a half too late for that batch.  So I ordered more from Freestyle and I'm expecting it today.  Then I can tone the picture and mat and frame and I'll be done with that project!

Robert Doisneau's Kiss by the Hotel DeVille

This morning I'm going back into the darkroom to print out the 11x14 size No Hands Bridge.  I got it all set up last night.  I just need to pour the chemicals out into the trays and I'm ready to go.  I'm also going to tone the print in a brown/copper toning solution to give it an antique look.  It's due a week from Saturday so I need to get on it.  Just in case, I'm going to go ahead and print out the digital photo that I decided I wasn't going to enter into this centennial event. I want to be sure which one looks better!

That's pretty much what's on my agenda today.  Tomorrow I have invited a new friend up to my studio who is also an acrylic artist and she wants to learn how to cut mats.  So that will take up my day.  Tonite I'm headed down to the High Hand Gallery for our bi-monthly meeting.  I usually help with the re-hang of the new artworks that is happening right today, but my ribs are still really sore and I wouldn't be much help this month.

When I first started to 'develop' my skills in photography, I didn't know a lot of other famous photographers.  I knew Ansel Adams and Galen Rowell, but that was pretty much it.  In my early conversations with my NYC photographer friend, Dave Beckerman, we discussed Robert Doisneau's famous Kiss by The Hotel DeVille photo.  The public thought it was 'real', but in all honesty he would hire actors and stage these scenes.  He was born in France in 1912 and lived until he was 82 (1994).  He was trained as a lithographer and worked as an engraver; then was hired as a photographer for the automobile company Renault.  Following that stint with Renault (he was actually fired), he then worked for both French and American magazines and chronicled Parisian life in black and white.  Doisneau's famous Kiss photo should not be confused with the kiss photo in Times Square on V-J Day 1945, taken by Alfred Eisenstaedt for Life Magazine!  Doisneau took a humorous photo of Pablo Picasso sitting at a kitchen table, with croissants that branched out with four finger-like extensions in front of him on the table making it look like his hands were really huge!  Very subtle indeed!  Here's Doisneau's Kiss...

 

Canvas Prints

Yesterday I delivered my new artwork to the High Hand Gallery and that was a relief!  Set up the matted and framed Artful Bra Poster on an easel in the gallery too!  Today I'll follow up making the greeting cards to match the new artwork to take to the gallery.  I'll take some of the older ones home for now.

I called Big Canvas Prints and spoke with Barbara.  She clarified a few of my questions, since I'm a novice at canvas prints.  In regards to signing the image there are several options: 1) I could send them my digital signature and they would place it on the image in the lower right corner; 2) some of the clients sign their prints with a Sharpee, either on the front or the side; and 3) some send them a Certificate of Authenticity to include with the canvas print.  In regards to option number 3, they would drop ship directly to my client (if that were the case).  I also asked what would be the largest I could print with my images at that size and she said 70" wide x 40" high, and a lot of other sizes in between.  I also asked her about the extra blank canvas on the edge, and that is the portion of the canvas that they use to 'stretch' the canvas.  If I wanted, they could trim it for me, or I could trim it with scissors.  And finally, yes that was the glossy.  It's not a high gloss and I really like the way it looks.  It's almost matte looking, until the light shines on it.

Here is the other color digital print that I framed from Oia, Greece.

Big Canvas Prints

Guess what I got in the mail yesterday?  That's right!  I received my two gallery wraps and they look beauteous!  They are both 16x24, came with a hanging wire, however, I'm not real sure if I'm really happy with the finish on the back.  I had ordered the 'mirrored' edges and I like the way they came out.  I think the blank canvas where the image ends could have been trimmed some.  Other than that, I'm pleased.  I also can't figure out if it really is glossy as I ordered, it might be.  I am definitely happy with the finish.  The lady who took my order said she had mistakenly clicked on the matt finish, but that she would correct it to glossy, which she did.  The colors were true to my original image.  They were both packaged in Styrofoam sheets, with Styrofoam packing material, in a heavy duty cardboard box.  No damages.  Awesome!

One of the issues I had with the gallery wraps was:  how do I sign it?  Should I sign it on top of the UV finish?  Inside?  On the stretcher frame?  I didn't sign them, but what I did was add a card with all the information and stapled it to the back off the extra canvas.  I think I'll email the company and ask them what their clients do in that respect.

So, then I decided to 'try' cutting some mats.  It was a little painful at first, but since I'm right-handed, I was using my right hand and arm, and just used my body weight to put the pressure on cutting.  First I started with the poster for the Artful Bra event for practice.  That came out really nice.  So I proceeded to cut the mats for two images from Santorini that I asked my husband for his opinion on which frames to use.  One of the digital images is black and white and I put it in a black wood frame with a little line of gold in it, with the white mat board.  It looks very sophisticated since the lines in the actual photo are clean and striking.  The other color digital  image is framed in a grey 3" wide wood frame with a white mat.  It is mostly whites and greys and a little rust color in the gate and urns.   I took a break for dinner and then finished up late last night.  Today I'll take them down to the gallery for the re-hang that starts Tuesday.

I thought I'd share the black and white image.  I titled it, "Oia Ocean View".

Slippery Ice!

I didn't say anything yesterday in my blog about my major fall yesterday morning.  I was taking the dog out on the leash first thing, the sun's out, and I'm looking down at the deck wondering what the heck is all over it.  It looked messy with blossoms.  Well, yes, there were blossoms, but they were also covered in ICE!  And the last thing I remember is thinking, "...I'm going to have to blow this deck off!"  Hah!  That's AFTER I blow myself off the deck!!  I hit all three stairs going down and landed really hard on my left ribs.  My dog is halfway down the driveway and doesn't know how to deal with the dangling leash, I'm crying, and I'm calling her back to me because if she sees a deer, she won't come back.  My husband can't hear me because he's still sleeping.  I'm hosed, right there at the bottom of the steps.  My dog's licking me in the face now, worried.  I finally get the strength to get myself up and go back in the house and wake up my husband.  So yesterday, I basically, laid low.  I'm still very sore, but I guess I'll live.  When we got in bed last night, I told my husband, this is just like what Gilda Radner said, "It's always something!"

So my dilemma now is that I was supposed to cut mats today.  Yeah, right.  Well, I'm going to try and see how it goes.  If I can't then I just won't have any other 'new' work.  I have some standard mats already cut, but these are digital sizes, I might have a problem.  I have those two canvas wraps that I'm hoping to get in the mail today or if not today, then Monday.  I can still use some of the new stuff I have hanging in the gallery now.  So I guess it's all good.  I'm not going to worry about it.

Joan and I got the okay on the poster I did for the Artful Bra Show.  Awesome!  I'm going to draft up a chart on the musicians we're hiring for the year that I've also been working on.  And I can also finish posting our events on TheLoomisNews website.  It's not like I don't have anything to do.  I think I'll print out some images for postcards on the new art work I'm bringing in to the gallery this month and make cards.  I'm INK RICH!!

Ilford Galerie Gold Fibre Silk

Wild and crazy day yesterday.  Storming and raining outside, mad printer in the studio inside!  It was really a lot of fun to print out images from Santorini yesterday.  I was having a heck of a time printing the images the sizes that I wanted.  It was like, 'what the heck is going on here'!  So finally it comes to me, '...what if I use the program that came with my Canon T2i to print?'  Oh, yeah, now we're talking.  I couldn't believe that it made all the difference in the world.  Then I really started going to town printing.  Because I was taking pictures in Santorini - and just about every other stop we made - anywhere between 10 - 12 Noon, I increased the color saturation to 20.  That seemed to do the trick.  I don't like to manipulate my images, but I guess there's always some room for improvement.

I had also taken some pictures in monochrome.  I like to try out different papers.  So for some of these black and whites, I printed on Ilford Galerie Gold Fibre Silk, which gives the images a warm look.  The surface of the paper has a rough feel to it.  I love the way it looks.  Then I tried printing a monochrome image of the Santorini hillside on the Ilford Smooth Fine Art Paper.  I didn't like the result.  Sometimes it looks pleasing - other times not.  Then I reprinted the hillside image on Epson's Ultra Premium Glossy and those were much better on glossy.  I dry my images in the same racks I use for my darkroom prints.  I layer them with the light weight papers that are used in between my non-glare glass.  I save them just for 'stacking' purposes.  Comes in handy.  Digital prints also need drying time.  If you don't let them dry for a day or two and you immediately mat and frame them (with glass), the remaining moisture in the print will later fog up the glass - and that ain't good!  It means you have to take them apart, clean the glass and re-frame them.  

Today I'm waiting to hear back from the High Hand Gallery's powers that be, as to whether or not the flyer has been approved.  I hope so, I don't want to do that again.  At least not now.

I had to 'warm' this image up so you could get an idea of what it really looks like on the Gold Fibre Silk.

Quick Note

It's all ready 10 a.m. and I'm not even dressed or showered!  I came out to my studio at 8:00 a.m. to continue working on the poster for the High Hand Gallery's Artful Bra Show.  I started late yesterday afternoon and worked on it until dinner time.  I am not a graphic artist.  It's very frustrating for me.  I made one poster in my Microsoft Digital Image program.  Then I tried one in word because it had better selections on backgrounds, but when I went to print it out, the layers printed individually!  I just went online to look for a 'free' online graphic program and found several, but here again, you have to be a graphic artist to use them.  I might go back online and try Paint, I have used that one before.

Yesterday late afternoon my Epson ink arrived!!  Yaaaay!!  I'll also start doing some printing today.  I'm going to be pretty busy until I finish this darn poster.  So until later.  I've got to get busy!