I am a firm believer in the thought that the medium we choose to work with has the ability to speak volumes about us.  My favorite studio practices are photography and sculpture.  My photographic preference is B & W Fiber Base paper. I like creating new images by layering old ones on top of one another.  Most frequently I accomplish this by layer a FB print with a Ortho Litho print. I prefer analogue photography over digital photography because it’s a more hands on process and I feel like I have more control over it.  I also feel that the process is part of the art.

My sculptural medium of choice is stone.  It stubborn and cold, but once you start working with it warms up to you.  Not much is left up to chance when it comes to stone, and most shaping is the result of careful planning and effort.  Basically, it’s the perfect medium for a control freak.

Because basically, I am a control freak.

Much to my chagrin, some of the most amazing things I’ve created are attributed to a total lack of control.  

[This is where I introduce my favorite mistake.]

My first experiences developing and printing on Ortho Litho film were disastrous.  I was the photo lab manager and one of the stronger photo students so I could hardly admit I was doing something incorrectly. I blamed it on the chemicals, changed them all and tried again.  Same result.  So I then blamed it on the film being bad. I mean - come on –  I had control of everything and I had not made a mistake. Right? Right. So I threw the print that wasn’t developing from the developer into the garbage can, and called it a day.

An hour later…

My friend comes running out of the Litho darkroom yelling at me to look at what I had thrown away.  The picture, which was a portrait of my younger cousin, had started to develop as the developer sat on it in the garbage can.  I just hadn’t waited long enough.   [Insert karma slapping me in the face here.]  Being in the trash can, and not the developing tray, the developer left on the film turned didn’t develop it all the way – it only developed the darkest shadows. It also left various deposits in shades of brown and amber while creating ridiculously awesome patterns and textures on the film.  What you see above is a scan of the piece of film as it looked taken out of the trash. 

After scanning it, I decided to use it as a contact negative in the color darkroom.  I sandwiched the piece of film between two pieces of glass and placed it on top of color paper.  I didn’t plan the color settings – I just turned knobs as I saw fit – and I got an array of various colored copies. 

And because of this I found myself letting go of my need for control little by little.  It led me to purposely let things get out of hand on occasion.  I took this route with one of my other Ortho Litho projects and created one my favorite images. [This is an example of a layered FB & Litho image as well.]

As my need for total control lessens I find myself more willing to let other view or read my work, I’ve found that my writing has improved, and I’ve found that overall it makes the process of making art more of a hobby and less of a job or task. 

And hey- isn’t that the point?

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