The Painted Photograph Exhibit: Almost Ready!

Happy Monday everyone!

Jen Perena here with good news: my photos have been hung!

Thanks to Megan and Adele for all their efforts to sequence and space and hang the work (I helped for a few hours….but it was really all on them)!

work waiting to be hung
My work, patiently sitting in Digital Studio 1, waiting to be hung – note the ’empty’ frames in the middle….

We started putting the show up on Wed, Jan 2, amid the building construction (knocking down walls in the Pottery and Book Arts area) and the re-organization of the Silver Den. It was pretty hectic, and we decided we could probably only tackle the brick walls.

adele sequencing
Adele, our master show installer, sequencing the work for the brick walls

Adele and Megan kicked things off with sequencing the first 12 images in the ‘vegetation’ series, which were all completely matted and framed and ready to go up. Megan thought that these particular images would look best on the brick walls, where the warm tones in the brick could bring out some of the subtle color in the images.

It was surprisingly hard to settle on the sequence because we all felt that so many of the images worked well side by side, but after about an hour of moving images back and forth to see how they looked next to each other, we finally started hanging.  Megan showed us how the hanging system worked, Mark helped us get the ladder, and with a few fits and starts trying to do math and figure out the optimal spacing, we got everything up!

We left room for my Artist/Show Statement, which will also go on the brick wall (a different spot than we’ve used in past exhibits), along with a ‘bonus’ 25th image which is matted differently to specifically show the brush strokes and highlight the ‘painted’ nature of the work.

work on the brick wall
Some of the ‘vegetation’ series on the brick walls

After we finished hanging Wednesday afternoon, I took a dinner break, and then went back to the Center to finally finish matting the remaining 7 pieces I had left off with the previous weekend. I had attempted to do them earlier in the day Wed, but it was too dusty with all the activity and I gave up.  I ‘finished’ around 10:30 pm, but still wasn’t done as I decided I didn’t like how the “25th” image looked unmatted….so more tweeking would have to happen.

Even without that one done, on Friday, Jan 4, Adele proceeded with hanging the next 12 images, my ‘winter’ series, which she reported was easier to sequence. The work is displayed in groups of 4 on the white walls, and the plan is to put the vinyl show signage on the far wall, below the lights and above the 4 portrait-oriented frames.

work on white walls
‘Winter’ series work on 2 of the 3 the white walls

Then on Saturday, Jan 5, I fixed the ‘mounting’ for the ‘bonus’ image, and while I was at it I reviewed a few of the frames in the winter series where the prints had appeared to have slipped under the mats – upon review it was just shadows caused by the lighting, and the fact that the watercolor paper doesn’t sit totally flush under the mats. We tried fixing this with frame springs and extra backer board to no avail. At this point it is what it is!

Finishing touches are still to be done: affixing the labels and vinyl signage, touching up the glass (removing finger prints!) and frames, putting putty on the corners of the frames, and printing and posting the show statement. But it will all get done this week, and we will be ready for the ‘vernissage’ (new word learned from a European friend who asked me about the opening reception…)!

I hope you can join us – this upcoming Saturday, January 12, from 2 to 5 pm. We’ll be in the Sunken Room Gallery on the 2nd floor. Free parking is available on the street and in the lot of the Blessed Sacrament Church across the street. The building is also ADA accessible and we have a lift for anyone who needs it. There will be snacks and beverages too! See you then!

Prepping for The Painted Photograph Exhibit

Hi everyone! Jen Perena here, using this weird limbo time in between Christmas and New Years while the Photo Dept is closed to prep for my upcoming exhibit.

I spent some time the week before Christmas scanning all of my kallitypes. I still have some editing to do, but the goal is to prepare digital files (essentially coming full circle, as all the images started as digital photos on my iPhone!) which I can use to make a book or a zine.

Scanning
Scanning my kallitypes

I’m not that great with Photoshop, but Megan showed me how to crop and edit my files for a book versus what to do for a zine. My goal with this task is to prepare something that will be available while my exhibit is running, though I am not sure I’ll be able to finish in time for the opening.

Editing scans
Editing scans of my kallitypes in Photoshop

Then just after Christmas I started matting and framing. This is the most labor-intensive part of the exhibit prep: cleaning all the glass, measuring all the prints, cutting all the mats, assembling the ‘sandwiches’, and putting the frames together. Without messing it up!

cleaning glass
Washing the glass: my least favorite part about matting and framing, though it can be a good workout!

I know a lot of people would hire someone else to do this part, but it’s not the way I was ‘raised’ by Pearl and Glossy. Though tedious, it makes the difference in how the entire show looks once it’s up on the wall.

For this exhibit, all of the images, which are pretty close to 8×10 size, will be matted and framed to size 16×20. I was hoping to have a total of 20 images, but looks like I will have a few more. I was fortunate to be able to borrow some framing supplies so I didn’t have to purchase all new frames and glass….and that was actually a huge $$ savings.

matting supplies
Matting supplies: two-ply and four-ply mat board, and flat black Nielsen metal frames, in 16 and 20 inch pieces

These photos are from last week when I framed the first six prints. That session lasted about 4 hours….which was an hour longer than expected (I usually do one frame in about 30 min), in part because I sliced my finger while cleaning a piece of glass (Pat Cain would be so mad at me!) and had to get bandaged (and clean up the blood) before proceeding…. and in part because it’s been over a year, and it takes a bit to get back into a flow of remembering how the mat cutters work and how to put frames together.

measuring mats
Marking the mat boards in preparation for cutting

The mat cutters can be tricky buggers. You need a sharp blade, adjusted to the correct depth, pieces of foam core lined up to the side so the large mat board lays flat and doesn’t bend, and a ‘clean’ piece of board underneath where you are cutting. And putty – don’t forget the putty! Otherwise the cutter slides around all over the table.

cutting mats
Using the Alto mat board cutters to hand cut all my mats

I managed OK for the first few, but then started to see burrs on the beveled edge – indicating either blade depth was off, or the blade was getting blunted, or the paper underneath was too chewed up, allowing paper fibers to pull up into the bevel cut – or it could have also been all three; In the end the clean line I was seeking was not happening, and I had to sacrifice several pieces of my beautiful white four-ply mat while I continued to troubleshoot.

inspecting the beveled edge
Inspecting the beveled edge and smoothing out the little rough bits

Thankfully friends were able to help me with some tips and techniques, showing me some things I had forgotten (like using an emery board to file small burrs off the beveled edge), and by the time I am writing this post, 17 of the prints are matted and framed to my satisfaction. This is good AND bad news, since I still have 7 more to go and we were planning to start hanging the show on Wed, Jan 2…..

Anyway, I hope to finish the matting and framing in time….then we need to fine tune labels, finalize my show statement, and plan out refreshments for the opening – Saturday, January 12 from 2 to 5 pm. I hope you can all make it!

In the meantime, head over to Instagram and check out the @i.heart.roc feed – I’m taking it over starting tomorrow (New Years Day!) through January 4th, and I’ll be sharing some of my favorite places and things in Rochester.

Best wishes to you all for a Very Happy New Year!

Kallitype Update: Review and Feedback

Hi everyone! Jen Perena here with a quick Monday morning note about my progress over the last week. Unfortunately I have no photos to accompany this article, but there has been progress!

Over the last week I painted more and am almost completely done with the hand watercoloring of the kallitype prints in my vegetation series. My goal had been to finish all of the painting by Saturday, but there was just too much going on at work, and too many interesting distractions with the ROC holiday village, Christmas markets and winter activities all around town last week and weekend….and…shiny object! I had to find a balance…

So, I applied at least a base layer of color to the majority of the images, and then on Sunday morning, I showed the entire body of work, at it is, in progress, to a group of Artist friends, to get their feedback and input. And it was very fruitful!

My hopes going into the session were the following:

  • Decide which 10 images of each theme (winter and vegetation) would be the ‘final cut’ for the exhibit (driven by the fact that I have 20 frames to work with) – out of the roughly 14-15 images in each theme grouping; it was hard to decide and I might end up with 24 total images instead….
  • Get a rough idea of how to sequence the images in each theme; we achieved the ‘rough idea,’ but need to see them all matted to really finalize it since the prints are a mix of landscape and portrait formats…
  • Get feedback on the hand coloring – some of which is more bold and some of which is more subtle, and then determine if making all of the prints uniform is important or not…some liked the bold, some liked the subtle….we did not come to a perfect agreement on this topic….
  • Decide how to mat all the prints: cut tight mats to the image dimensions? Cut larger mats to expose the brush strokes at the edges? Skip cutting the mats altogether and instead affix the images to the top of the mat board using double sided acid free tape? I think we are going with tight mats framed to the size of the negatives – it will look neater, more traditional, more ‘standard’, and will hide the edges on a few of the prints where the brush strokes are more of a distraction than interesting…

While we accomplished everything I had hoped, there are still some decisions I need to make on my own, and that means a bit more work, so I am back at it this week.

Next goals: scan all of the images towards the creation of a photo book or zine, come up with titles for each piece, and then begin the cutting of the mats….

Stay tuned! I’ll post more photos next week!

Kallitype Update – Hand Coloring Continued

Greetings and happy December everyone! Jen Perena here with a short update on my progress with hand coloring my kallitypes, and a few notes about what comes next.

I’m now about half way through painting the prints in the vegetation series, and am starting to feel a little pressure to get everything done, including having all my work peer reviewed, then scanned, then matted and framed, by the end of December. The way that Christmas falls this year (on a Tuesday) means we have a very small window of time that we can hang the show (based on Photo Dept/FCAC holiday closures and end of year tasks), and while we have a back-up date (a single day in January where we could work around groups that will be using the Sunken Room) I would really like to have everything done and in the hands of the talented Photo Dept folks who will hang the show before the end of the year. So yes, some of the pressure is self imposed, but it has to be that way or I will procrastinate!

Here are a couple of my latest works. The first is an image of a cactus that I saw in Austin, TX. I had never seen a cactus like that before, but since seeing it I am noticing similar ones all over (botanical gardens, plant sales, at friends’ homes), and so I finally looked it up and it is a ‘crested euphorbia lactea’. (If you disagree leave a comment and tell me what it is!) The color ‘in real life’ was sort of yellowy green to blueish green, and very pastel; for the watercoloring I did a mix and I have to say this is my favorite one so far.

cactus1
Hand-colored kallitype of Crested Euphorbia Lactea cactus

The second one is an image I made during a recent trip to Ganna Walska Lotusland in Santa Barbara, CA. If you’ve never been, it is like a botanical garden on steroids – you could walk around for hours and hours and still not see everything; in each ‘season’ it is different, and they are always updating the gardens and displays. I’ve visited twice in the last few years and it is one of my favorite places – full of color and texture, and lots of amazing things you won’t see anywhere else. This is from a row of aloe-like plants that lined a walking path. The sun was at just the right angle to make a lot of shadows and thus a lot of contrast, and I took numerous shots of this same section. I think this one is the most interesting composition-wise, though I need to play with the color a bit more – I want it to be more subtle/less saturated.

aloe1
Hand-colored kallitype of giant aloe-like plant

I hope to finish up all the watercoloring this week, have my peer review next week (my choice to show the entire body of work to some trusted friends for input and final culling), then scan everything (I might create a zine….), and finally mat (or affix) and frame everything the week of Christmas so that by Friday 12/28, all 20 images are ready to hang.

I’ll write at least one more blog post between now and then with some of my final decisions (cut mats or affix to the top of each mat board? make a zine or not? etc). In the meantime, hopefully you have received the promotional postcard in the mail, and if not, here it is, front and back. Included are the gallery details and hours, exhibit dates (start and end) and dates/times for the reception as well as my Artist Talk and Demo. I hope you can make it!

 

Kallitype Update: Layering on Color

Hafa Adai! Jen Perena here, fresh off the plane from Guam….well, actually I have been back in Rochester now for a few days, but with the jet lag (Guam is a 15-hr time difference), I am all kinds of messed up time wise, and I have been mostly sleeping since arriving home, so it seems like only yesterday I was on the beach….

My two weeks in Guam went very fast; there were ups and downs: we were lucky with awesome weather and lots of sunshine (only sprinkled on us once); but my back went out on day 3 of the training workshop I was delivering and I had to be hospitalized (briefly – I was released 6 hrs later….); my husband was able to fly over from the Philippines to celebrate our 24th anniversary with me and we had a great day touring the island followed by a very nice dinner; but I gained too many pounds to count stuffing myself like a pig from the decadent and delicious island food; my training workshop was a great success thanks to the hard work and dedication of my students; and then I arrived home to roughly a foot of snow, 38 degrees, drizzle and gray skies. Hafa Adai! (Which means hello and welcome in the local Guamanian Chamorro language).

Anyway, I have been using the time I have been unable to sleep productively! Finally I made some progress watercoloring the ‘vegetation’ set of kallitypes I made in between Italy and Guam.

Me, bundled up because I don’t want to put on the heat yet, watercoloring one of my kallitypes

Getting back into it reminded me of the challenges I faced the last time I hand colored some of my kallitypes a few years back: when to stop and leave it alone! And, surprisingly, I used some of the darker images as practice, and I kind of like them better than the lighter, more underexposed ones, which I thought would work better. But you be the judge. Here are a couple samples:

This is the print that I deemed overexposed – but the color against it looks really nice
This is the slightly underexposed print and I don’t like it as much. What do you think?

Check out my  #kallitypegirl Instagram page for a few more examples of recent hand-colored kallitypes and let me know what you think! I’ll leave you with one photo from Guam to get you through what looks to be a cold and dreary week:

View of Ypao Beach on Tumon Bay, northern Guam (also the view from my hotel room….)

Adios! (Guam was colonized by Spain in the 1600’s and a lot of the Spanish language lives on in their day to day speech!)  And Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Community and Collaboration Part 2

Since I wrote my last post, and with my lecture series coming up in 2019, I’ve been thinking more and more about Community in the context of a healthy art practice.

 

For me, it can be really easy to isolate artistically. I struggle with some common self-sabotaging creative blocks like:

 

“Someone else has already done this, what’s the point of my doing it?”

“Someone will steal my ideas or get credit for my labor/ideas.”

“My ideas aren’t really important, good, relevant, etc…”

 

These, among a litany of other personal and collective messages about creativity and artists, can really get in the way of a successful creative life. Community, but especially the COLLABORATION that emerges from Creative Community, is a way to break down barriers to art making.

 

Over the next three posts, I will be sharing encounters I have had over the last couple of weeks that emphasize the importance of community and collaboration as an artist. This week, we’ll start with Louis.

 

Louis Chavez

 

Photo of Louis Chavez by Megan May, iphone

I met Louis through a friend of a friend. Louis Chavez is a Southern California transplant like me. They like to say, “We’re both California Girls.”

 

We both escaped our dessert hometowns to find healing and queer community in the cool moist air of the Northwest Coast. We’re ‘85 babies. We both love film photography. And, for now, we both reside in Rochester NY. Obviously, a collaborative duo destined in the stars.

 

Louis has encountered a lot of generosity as they have developed their photography practice. Friends, fellow photographers, willing to lend film, cameras and other resources in order that learning and creative development were possible.

Photo of Megan May by Louis Chavez, Film, Kodak Portra

 

Louis has taken this kindness and paid it forward with me. They’ve been willing to lend me film as well as their time and knowledge so I could understand my love of large format film photography better.

 

We’ve been meeting weekly for the past couple of months now. I feel very comfortable with Louis and during our last session, I started to get into an element of my performance practice that I usually only express when alone. I love the images he captured of my weird expression experiment.

Photo of Performance by Megan May photograph by Louis Chavez, Film, 120mm

 

My first two packs of 4” x  5” Kodak Film came in the mail this week (Ektar and Portra if you were wondering).

 

I’ll be moving much of my photographic practice into large format and I couldn’t be more excited. This wouldn’t be possible were it not for the collaboration and generosity with my friend Louis.

 

My ideas and my expression are important to Louis. He finds me inspiring and says so. His knowledge, patience, and support helps me feel confident and inspired too. When we work together we talk, laugh and create art. This collaborative relationship provides me with an experience to push back against of my limiting beliefs about my work and its importance. It is a very valuable bond.

I’ll be teaching a Lecture Series in the winter titled, “The Art of Being an Artist.” Lectures will take place on the third Thursday of the month January-March. In January my lecture will focus on the role of community and collaboration in my life as an artist. Look out for a full schedule of my lectures and classes and FCAC in the winter schedule!

follow Louis Chavez @llouischavezz & chavezlouis.com

Community and Collaboration Part 1

 

Hi Everyone!

 

Over the next couple of posts, I want to share my experience with community and collaboration as an Artist and why I think they are essential aspects of a healthy art practice.

 

As you know from recent posts, I moved here from Southern California. It’s a big distance to move and besides from several acquaintances and a couple friends of a friend, I didn’t really know ANYBODY.

 

Luckily, I moved here to be an Artist in Residence at a Community Art Center. Like it or not, by default I was going to be part of a community!

 

As a person and as an artist, community and collaboration have given me several very important things over the past couple of months.

 

First of all, the Community is a resource. It is a place to belong, to learn and to share wisdom, knowledge, and experiences. It is a balance between giving and receiving in a social and relational context.

 

Here is why this is important for Artists: sometimes we have BIG IDEAS and GRAND VISIONS. These big ideas and grand visions need a lot of support. They usually require us to develop new skills, find venues to share our work in, financial backing, people power, materials, time and space. That’s a lot for one artist to contend with. Or come up with alone.

 

Flower City Arts Center has connected me with people who have knowledge and skills I don’t have. Connecting with them is helping me grow my skill set and my art practice. It is also helping me refine the concept for my show in April and is helping me build relationships that are beneficial on a personal and professional level.

 

I have also had the pleasure of teaching while at FCAC. I have interacted now with both adults and youth in a facilitator position and this has been incredibly valuable. As an artist, teaching allows me to gain confidence in my own knowledge and skill set. Teaching helps me to experience first hand what value I bring to an environment. This is truly a remarkable feeling.

My teaching experience helps me refine my problem solving and organizational skills, helps me continue to define my value and purpose within the community and helps clarify where I have room to grow.

 

How has your community benefitted you as a person and an artist?

 

Stay tuned in for my upcoming posts on the same theme. I’ll be sharing about specific classes and people who have been integral to my residency so far!

 

I’ll be teaching a Lecture Series in the winter titled, The Art of Being an Artist. Lectures will take place on the third Thursday of the month January-March. In January my lecture will focus on the role of community and collaboration in my life as an artist. Look out for a full schedule of my lectures and classes and FCAC in the winter schedule!

Kallitype Weekend Update

Hi everyone! Jen Perena here, fresh out of the darkroom. Well, 15 hours ago I actually left the Silver Den, but it FEELS like I am fresh out of the darkroom!

I finally resumed making work this past weekend (after almost a month of not making any work!), with a goal of finishing all of my printing so I can fully concentrate on water coloring the pieces for the ‘vegetation’ half of the show. I’m not 100% sure I accomplished that because I left work drying on the rack, and it always dries down darker, but I feel good about it.

Here are a few pics (iPhone photos of the work fresh out of the wash, so please excuse the reflections…) of what I made on Saturday. I spent 5 hours in the darkroom and made 8 prints that day. This set had close to the “right” exposure times (3.5 minutes) based on the richness of the final tones, though they look a bit too dark and flat to me:

Kallitype of large aloes or some kind of agave or succulent; I love this one but it is a little too dark for hand coloring
This one definitely has the right exposure, but could benefit from a teeny bit more contrast for my liking

 

Kallitype of snap peas and squash blossoms – also a tad too dark for hand coloring

 

Kallitype of kohlrabi – pretty good, but see if you can detect the ‘invisible’ root (it was purple and came out so dark it looks barely there)

On Sunday I returned to the darkroom, but when I checked the rack, I felt that the dried-down images from Saturday were a bit dark, so I reprinted everything at 3 minutes, plus added a single drop of the dichromate contrast booster to the emulsion chemistry. After washing each one, I felt they looked closer to what I am going for in terms of slightly underexposed so I can watercolor into the grayer areas. Unfortunately I didn’t get any photos of the second set; after 6 (more) hours and 9 (more) prints I was pretty tired, and it slipped my mind.

Next week at this time I will be in Guam; I am heading there for work for 2 wks and will be back Nov 17. I will try to make at least one post during that time…but it won’t be about my work (kallitypes nor watercoloring nor actual reason I am there)….more likely tropical waterfalls and beach scenes, which I know you will all love as November gets colder and grayer! But soon, I promise a sneak peek at my watercoloring!