photography – Page 2 – Flower City Arts Center

My Favorite Things About Risograph Printing!

There are lots of exciting things to try at Flower City Arts Center. As the photography and digital art intern this summer, I got to get a taste of the facilities offered here. One hidden gem of Flower City is the Risograph Printer. I was lucky enough to be able to play around with the printer and create a few designs, and I fell in love!

What is Riso printing?

For those who don’t know, the risograph pringint process is sgjhimilar to screen printing. Your original image is scanned on the Riso and burned onto a “master copy” which is then wrapped around a print drum which pushes ink through the screen and onto paper.

Here is why printing on the Riso is so unique:

Color

The riso printer is a wet ink process that uses bright ink to create delightful color on the page. Because each ink color is printed separately, the overlap of inks creates interesting color layering. Adding colored paper changes how color appears as well. Flower City currently offers 7 ink colors which is more than enough to create bright, beautiful work!

Texture

Part of the charm of the Riso printer is its uniqueness. Because of the printing process, ink coverage can vary to create an interesting speckled-like texture. No two prints are exactly the same and it gives the prints the feeling that there was a human hand creating them. As always, texture of paper can add a new element to the print that is accentuated on the Riso.

Versatility

With the Riso, the sky is the limit! Digital files, drawings and photography can be easily translated and printed through the Riso. That is why it is a favorite among graphic artists, designers and photographers alike!

Ease

I am no technology wiz, so when I was I would be printing on the Riso I was intimidated. But, to my surprise the process was extremely intuitive and easier than I had ever thought. Once you get a sense of how the process is executed, it is easy to get comfortable.

Learn More

Come on down and jam to some Lizzo while printing on the Riso!

If you are interested in learning about this process or getting a chance to use the machine check our upcoming Riso Projects Class and our Intro To Riso Workshops!

Click here to learn more about the photography and digital art facilities!

Classes You Won’t Want to Miss This Month!

July is jam-packed of awesome classes at Flower City. Here are a few you will not want to miss out on!

Stop Motion Animation Workshop
July 20th, 12-4pm

Join our Artist in Residence Megan Barrette to learn basic concepts as well as advanced stop motion and animated portraiture techniques. Click here to learn more or register!

Copper Photo Transfers
July 22nd, 6-9pm

In this class you will learn how to take a digital file and turn it into a long-lasting treasure. From digital file to emulsive photo transfer to copper plating–using fire and imagination you will walk away with one 6″x6″ piece of copper artwork. Click here to register now!

Cinemagraph Workshop
July 25th, 6-9pm

In this workshop you will learn how to isolate part of an image as moving while the rest is a still. Our Artist in Residence Megan Barrette will lead a group shoot and teach you how to create wonderful images like the one above! Click here to learn more or to register!

Collages + Zines
July 26th, 6-9pm

Learn the history, process and purpose behind zines in this one-day workshop. Students will make their own self-published works through collage, image, text and drawing. Click here to learn more or register!

Panoramic Photography
July 27th, 10am-12pm

Interested in learning more about panoramic photography? This class is for you. The class will discuss lenses, tripods and software ideal for taking that perfect panoramic shot! Click here to learn more or register!

Viva! Family Album (Ages 55+)
July 30, 10am-12pm and August 6, 10am-12pm

Partnered with Archival Methods, this class is perfect for those who want a special way to honor their family photos. Using archival methods and materials, students will learn how to preserve their photos and will walk away with a 25 page photo album. Click here to learn more or register!

Intern Introduction: Riley Donahue

Hello there! My name is Riley Donahue and I am a student at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. I am currently studying Visual Communication. Much of my artistic interest lies in digital art and bookmaking. I also dabble in photography and painting. In the future I would love to work in Marketing.

When I am not at Flower City, I work at a summer camp with children ages 3-5. I really enjoy getting to share crafts with them and bask in their natural creativity! In my free time I am an avid traveler returned from a trip to Peru just before the start of my internship. I love getting to experience new cultures and draw inspiration from beautiful places. I am a also huge fan of hiking and being in the outdoors, preferably alongside my 4 dogs.

This summer I hope to be able to improve my digital art skills as well as branch out and try new mediums or techniques. So far I have helped out with Flower City’s Photo Garage Sale which has given me great real-world experience and given me the chance to come face to face with many of the people who support this wonderful place! I am so grateful for this opportunity and cannot wait to do more!

My art Instagram is @rdonahuedesigns.

AIR Introduction: Megan Barrette

Hi everyone! I’m so thrilled to be here this summer as an Artist-In-Residence. I’d love to take this chance to introduce myself.

Nothing makes me feel more vulnerable than photography. Before it was my job, before it was my course of study, it was first my greatest means of connection. Not only was it a creative outlet, it quickly became something that made me feel like I was valuable in the eyes of other people. So much of my ego hinged on what I made that, when the time came to actually follow it, I became more fearful. School was difficult; I thought about quitting numerous times. Post-grad was even harder, trying to advocate for myself and my worth as an artist. But creating my own work outside an institution or installed structure is a different beast entirely. It’s so much easier to make my art in a vacuum. To show it to the family, friends and fellow artists that love me.

On sharing work, one of my closest friends reminded me of this recently:

I’ve had incredible, supportive friends echo sentiment to me the past few weeks. I am so grateful for this opportunity to be an Artist-in-Residence at Flower City Arts Center. It is nothing short of a dream come true. My goal here is to make something that is honest and that hopefully connects you and me.

Photography is usually my way of working through a recurring thought. I tend to find catharsis in the construction of metaphors that make the world feel less chaotic. I don’t know if life is truly as symbolic as the narrative I actively pursue to build or if I’m reading too much into it. But my mind tends to ruminate – to overthink, and I’m trying to find solace in making the details matter.

I love to live in the space between analog and digital. I often incorporate motion into my work as a means of experimentation and expression. The classes I will soon be teaching will be motion-based workshops!

During my residency, I’ll be working on developing imagery that explores the relationship between photography and memory. I’m really looking forward to the next couple of months here participating in this great community and making work alongside other artists. I’ll surely be sinking a lot of time into the Lighting Studio and new Digital Art Studio, so I hope to see you there!

And as She Came, She must Go

Endings.

It takes a great deal of grace and experience to learn how to make the most out of an ending.

Today is my final blog post as an Artist in Residence in the Photography and Digital Arts Department at the Flower City Arts Center.

The culmination of my year-long residency resulted in something I prayed for deeply and repeatedly but didn’t expect: stepping out as a performance artist.

My whole life I have been interested in movement. When I was three I refused to remove a tutu for three days straight. I wanted to be a ballerina. In my teens, I was an athlete using nutrition and exercise to sculpt my body and my endurance. In my twenties, I fell in love with yoga. I have always loved to dance and challenge my body to move, stretch, grind, and groove.

The artifacts of my residency–deeply researched and painstakingly curated photographs–are now being stored away until further notice. However, in the gallery space where they were on view during the month of April, they contributed to an enveloping feeling of transformation.

I make art for my mental well being because I must. Yet the truly fulfilling experience is the impact my art has on my audience. The feedback I receive about personal insights, inspirations, and transformations from people interacting with my work fuels my soul. I am grateful to have received a healthy dose of uplifting feedback from the Rochester community. This reveals to me a community ready for a transfusion of new feminine archetypal energy.

The work pushed me. My choice to do a performance haunted me. I had to show up for myself in ways I had never done before–push myself along and over edges that scared the heck out of me. The reality of the performance caused such fear to rise up in my bowels that I asked myself frequently, “why did I do this to myself!?”

I did it because I must. Because I am unsatisfied with a life of status quos, mediocrity, and normalcy. I crave the depths, connection, transformation, inner purpose, beauty, connection, healing, joy, sorrow, expression, recognition. I am grateful to myself, to my guides, to my mentors and friends, and to Megan Charland who had faith in my vision. So, I built an altar and sanctified a space for transformation to take place, within me and within the other, in unison.

Now What?

A tiresome question for an artist at the apex of a big project.

It is an abrupt sort of question to receive right at the level of commencement or just following.

My response: Let’s just be present a while in what is currently surrounding us or what has just emerged. I anointed myself in my own menstrual blood and buried myself in a mound of dirt. What follows is a psychological grace period where I slowly integrate the power of my actions and take long naps.

There is a practice of staying indoors with a newborn baby for 40 days just the following birth. This second gestational period post birth allows the child’s nervous system to fully settle. The kundalini teachings say that after this time if taken in rest and connection with the parents, the child is set for life with a healthy nervous system.

Who does this? In a fast-paced world that demands much of us, most newborns are in car seats, whizzing around the world to social gatherings, before they are a week old. I have thought of this practice often in the time following my performance, feeling deeply renewed and unknown even to myself as I reconfigure who I am and what I am capable of.

You will be able to find me at the Flower City Arts Center through the Spring for a number of elementally charged classes. You will also be able to find me at The Yards throughout June as one of six artists in residence in their summer program. I am looking forward to deepening my commitment to ritual and movement practice, building community, and producing more experiences to evaluate and enjoy our aliveness in.

Body Autonomy and Femininity

What does it look like for a woman to have agency over her body? What does sexual sovereignty look and feel like in the bedroom and on the street? What sort of relationships evolve with self, soul, body and other when a woman stops seeing her body as a vessel of god’s will and a vessel of her own free thinking, powered by the divine creative principle?

When we begin to re-imagine the feminine in its entirety, and femininity as a powerful expression of sensuality and creation, a healing takes place within our minds, identities, and communities.

Throughout my residency, I have used the camera within my domicile and in the studio to catalog an ongoing inquiry of my relationship to sensuality, intimacy, sexuality, performance of femininity and expression of empowered feminine principles. I have worked with significant feminine archetypes, costume, lighting, set design and movement to navigate feelings of isolation, desire, morality, and internalized oppression whereas my body has been the subject of considerable collective sexual objectification throughout my life. As I reflect on my time at the Flower City Arts Center I recognize how much I continue to hold myself back in expressing my body, and my work, as my own. Too often, I seek external permission to be transgressive as a means of cultural transformation.

I recognize I am taking part in the cultural changes currently underway. Yet, I am still finding my voice, learning how to amplify it in an ocean of wisdom that continues to build momentum against systemic oppression of the feminine, nature and a queer, inclusive future. This is to say there is work to do, and I am here to do it. My mission at this moment is to come into more clarity, synthesis, and efficacy in implementing my vision, my philosophy and my dharma in the world. I am here to be a leader, a cultural change agent, and it is my commitment to be very good at it.

Myths of the Sacred Wound opens Saturday, April 6th-27th. Opening Reception from 5-8pm Saturday, April 6th. Live Performance at 7:22 pm.

Failure is Not an Option

Bad News.

I sent my 4×5 Portra 160 film and one roll of Portra 400 120mm film from the last three studio sessions I have done with the hopeful anticipation of getting back some beautiful images. I was going to take these large format film sheets and make composite images for my final prints for my show opening April 6th.

One-for-one, the 4×5’s were unexposed. The questions that arise here are:

WHY? WHAT HAPPENED?

We used the meter and set up the lighting. Yes, the lens cap was off,. Yes, slides had been removed. We even used my digital camera to set our exposure and aperture to get a good idea of out lighting situation. Likely, they’d be a little underexposed, but since I’d be scanning and digitally printing I had some room for error. I could always bring up the exposure in photoshop.

But something, somewhere, at some point, got lost in translation.

Edgar at Praus couldn’t figure why. Megan Charland promised it would drive her mad until she figured out what could have happened; she’s reaching out to fellow film heads to get some answers. Louis Chavez was incredulous.

Personally, I had to take a moment to just allow the disappointment to sink in. There is heartbreak here. It’s sort of the worst case scenario when it comes to film development; your film doesn’t turn out or is ruined at some point in the development process.

I watched. I breathed. I bathed.

Then, I made dinner. And in the middle of making dinner, surrounded by potential turmoil and the churning of a New Moon in Pisces, Mercury stationing Retrograde and this unfortunate failure, I had a resolve.

This is a test. A test of my resilience, my creative perspective. A test of surrender, problem solving and determination. I wasn’t gonna get caught up in a failure spiral. Instead, I was going to be a f*$king bad a$$ and turn this all into creative potential immediately.

I wrote a blog post for my Creative Cycles Mentorship page (here). And I decided to focus on what WAS working and what I had to work with.

Good News.

The 120mm film that Louis Chavez shot for me turned out great. I have also used my digital camera as a back up in every one of my sessions to ensure there was some form of an image to work with. You know, just in case the film sucked or turned out poorly.

I have time, resources and community support to work my final images into something beautiful, profound and important. I have time after my show to reshoot in film if I so desire (which I do).

My resolve was to understand and accept that a failure within a process is not a reflection of my identity. I failed, but I am not a failure. The failure is an opportunity to learn, grow and develop my character, my creative ingenuity and my problem-solving skills.

This failure gives me an opportunity to ask the images what they want and need from me and how I can be in service to their final expression rather than take a controlling and perfectionist driven position.

Surrender, allow flow.

My resolve was to focus on what WAS working and what I DID have rather than drowned in the despair of what wasn’t available and what didn’t turn out.

Isn’t that such an important lesson for life situations?! True creative mastery and flow evolve from focusing on what is right in front of you, giving attention to what is working and allow THAT to drive you forward into the next stage of success.

Tarot Through The Seasons

Greetings and Salutations!

Have you ever stepped into something that you didn’t quite feel ready for, only to find yourself thriving in unexpected ways?

That’s exactly how my Tarot Through the Seasons classes at the Center has been for me.

We started in January with the Death Archetype discussing functions of endings, transitions, and beginnings. Being steeped as a community in the dead of winter, attendants were ripe for a conversation regarding what was dying and shedding in their own lives. During the discussion, I emphasized the importance of building a relationship with death and endings as well as the time of grief and uncertainty that follows. We are a culture deprived of a healthy relationship to death and grief. People are always apologizing for tears or a show of emotion not realizing that both are essential and healthy components of psycho-spiritual healing and integration.

Artist, Megan Charland, mixed media on card stock, 8 in x 8in

The High Priestess Archetype followed closely after Death and here was gathered a very powerful group of women. When asked why they were drawn to the class, each attendant responded in their own way by expressing awareness and a desire for something more than their current spiritual model. They were aware of a latent interest or power within which was connected to an external power that they wanted to get closer to. Lucky for them the High Priestess, who holds domain over the realms of intuition, mystery, dreams, and vision, is a good ally to build a relationship with when starting to reconnected to traditionally feminine and earth-based ways of knowing and being in the world. I spent all of 2018 in deep connection with her and she continues to inform the direction of my life in terms of Archetypal influence.

Artist, Class Participant, mixed media on card stock, 8 in x 8in

In February, the month of Love, we delved into The Lovers card. We discussed the importance of the sacred marriage within; the balancing of the masculine and feminine principles within each of us. It was important to me to create a non-traditional, community, and self-focused class. One which provided a sense of empowerment to love oneself rather than look for fulfillment in the other. Indeed, we need one another and as a culture, we are touch deprived and sexually disconnected. However, it is also necessary to learn how to give to ourselves, how to receive, and most importantly, what we want and need and how to communicate those things in competent ways in our relationships.

Each class begins with a tea meditation and a brief correlation between the mind and the body through the elements and the practice of tea sharing. We quickly move into lecture and discussion, concluding this initial portion of the class with a deep, custom made visualization exercise to calm the mind and stir up the subconscious before exploring our collage making. While each participant delves into their collage making to some sweet tunes, I pull one person aside at a time and do a mini (4 card) reading with them. These readings have been so juicy and rich-the place I feel I am growing the most and offering the best of myself. With the cards at our aid, participants have been opening up to deeper queries of purpose, direction, and growth while receiving valuable insight and structuring tools from me and the cards. It’s really very profound.

If you’re interested in experiencing the class for yourself, you’ll have one more chance on March 17th to join us for The Star. This is an archetype whose focus is renewal, regeneration, balance and new beginnings, just in time for Spring!

I’m also delighted to announce I’ll be teaching a similar set of classes in the Spring focused on the elements earth, air, fire, and water. We’ll go deep with the intelligence and alchemical properties of each element and create collages to honor them. Check out the new Spring Schedule for dates and times!

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

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

Kallitype Trial and Error

Greetings and Happy Monday to everyone!

I have been managing to get into the Darkroom to work on my kallitypes about once a week (I work a full time job out in Victor and am away on weekends a lot sailing during the summer months), and slowly I am troubleshooting my errors and building up my skills. For this post, I thought I would share a glimpse behind-the-scenes into my efforts and progress.

Over the past few Tuesday nights I have made a total of 18 prints; most of them are new images, though one or two are images I have printed before but am now printing with new negatives, thanks to the help of Jon Merritt.

One of the things this process requires, if you intend to use digital images to make large plastic negatives for printing (which I am), is skill with Photoshop so you can create enough contrast and tonal range to make an interesting image with the kallitype process. I would say I am between a beginner and an intermediate Photoshop user, so I have been consulting with Jon, who teaches the Kallitype class at the Photo Dept, for assistance with some of my trickier images.

Here is an example of an image I printed earlier this year:

Kallitype where snow detail is good but bark and debris detail are too dark

In order to get the snow-drift detail, I had to make a longer exposure, but that resulted in the details of the bark and debris becoming too dark. So, we had to isolate areas of the image and adjust the curves for each separately. The new negative results in a better, more balanced image:

Kallitype of the same image after more editing in Photoshop to produce a better negative

Another challenge I am having is that the humidity in the room and the paper I am using are resulting in lots of streaky-ness in my prints. I am using watercolor paper I have used before with a beautiful result, and ‘think’ my coating technique is the same as before….but obviously there is some room for improvement here! Here are a couple prints that really show the challenges I am having with coating smoothly:

This one shows areas where I completely missed coating

And another:

And this one shows more brush strokes / streaks

I am looking forward to getting back in the Darkroom again soon and to hopefully resolving some of my issues, and I will share more of my progress as I go!

I have also set up a new instagram account for my residency. Check it out: kallitypegirl