Bodie Ghost Town 2012

Busy week amidst the smoke up here in the foothills.  I finished cutting mats and framing some of the new pieces for the High Hand Gallery's next re-hang on Monday.  These are all from the Bodie Ghost Town Series of 2012; all of which I have never printed.  It's interesting that I almost passed up some of these images, as I didn't (or couldn't) see their true value.  That happens sometimes.  Once they are enlarged, it's like WOW!  ; )  Take this one for example.  I had no clue about the colors in this shot.  They are so subtle, that I had to see the whole thing enlarged.  But then again, a lot of the time I really do see in black and white, so it takes me awhile.  These colors lend even more so to the antiquity of the whole image.  I love it!  These images were printed on 13x19 Museo Silver Rag and that paper just makes them so much more beautiful.

Of course, there's always the making of the labels and the inventory list.  Working at the gallery tomorrow, so I'm hoping to get it done manana! ; )  I will also be bringing home the majority of my European framed pieces, as they will be in the October Auburn Artwalk.  

I'm really looking forward to fall and winter as I am anxious to get back into the darkroom.  It's been way too long, but it's also been way too hot in my studio to close that door.

More Photo Transfers

It appears I have too many competing interests right now for me to 'plow' into my darkroom! ; )  New gallery in town I discovered with a friend, three upcoming events, having fun with my new Galaxy phone and it's photo options!, and more!  I love the 'cartoon' setting!  I took an image of an image of an image!  Let me explain that one:

So I took an image of a garden setting in Carmel a couple years ago.  I printed it out and turned it into a photo transfer.  Then when I was playing around with my new phone and the cartoon setting, I made another piece of artwork!  Crazy!

Transfer

Original Photo

Cartoon

 Over the weekend I did whip out a couple more photo transfers from my Zen garden stash of images.  They came out really great!  One thing I noticed was that ink jet ink can sometimes look dull on water color paper especially some of the transfer images that I don't add water color to.  So I headed to the art supply store and found a digital finish gloss clear protective coating to spray on them.  Well, it did work in that it toned down the flatness and gave it more rich-looking colors.  However, the smell was unbearable!  Yikes, next time if I have to use it I'll spray outdoors!

The other task I performed was that I created a 'gallery' on my web page for the Photo Transfers.  That's also when I found out my website was 'full'.  I've been wanting to design a new website anyway, since I've had this one since 2001, but just haven't gotten around to it.  I don't know if I really have the time for that right now, so I just deleted several of my old galleries to make room for the newer stuff.  Pretty easy fix!!

Gallery Life

Trying hard to get back in the flow of life here at home. We've lost a dear family member, so it's going to take some time. In addition, we were in the middle of the kitchen remodel and that project is just about done too.

Last weekend at the High Hand Gallery was the Third Saturday Artists Reception and though the weather was storming with heavy rain, there were plenty of visitors. In addition there were three live artist demonstrations: Pauline Amerine drawing her fruit and vegetable with pastels; Ann Bowns painting a silk scarf; and Unni Stevens making block prints! So it was quite lively to say the least. We also had some live music for the evening - a gentleman was playing the electric guitar with some soothing sounds. And the really good news was that I sold one of my framed photos specifically hung for the 'Keepsakes' show titled, "Autumn Leaves". So that was pretty cool for moi! What that means now is that I need to replace it - PDQ!! I've already decided to frame another fall leaf theme type photo, and I'll need a frame for that too. And I need to do it tonite! So, I'm off to get that done and it's also raining again today.

Here's the picture that sold this weekend!

Framing and Double Mats

Surprise, surprise! I found a brand new black metal frame still in the paper in my supply of frames for my 'Winter Snow Lion' color photo! Then I started looking at my mat board supply and I saw the flash of the steel gray-blue piece of mat board pass thru my fingers and I thought - perfect! I'll do a double window mat! I've actually only cut two of these before as it is hard to do to get perfectly even! But - voila! It came out pretty nice I must say, and then with the black frame, it just makes the whole picture pop! It took a few hours to put this one together but it was well worth it.

I've whittled it down now to two photos each of the four categories: Historical Keepsakes, Transient Keepsakes, Mother Earth's Keepsakes, and Forgotten Keepsakes. And I have four B&W and four color. I just have one picture that I will do in the darkroom for this show. The picture is the Old Veteran cypress out on Point Lobos. I've shown it before, however, I haven't processed it in the darkroom. Labs always printed it out for me. And I looked at the ones I had in stock, but I'm not really liking the quality now. Funny how that works.