Small and Intimate

I prepared negatives for a long narrow scroll-- 8' x 4".  I did all the collaging in Photoshop so the print will be direct from one negative.

Some asides...

First, a few of my latest inspirations:

Nancy Spero:

http://aestheticamagazine.blogspot.com/2011_02_06_archive.html

http://shiftingconnections.com/2013/02/08/tell-it-slant/

Robert Rauschenberg:

www.moma.org

http://www.wisconsinhistory.org/whi/fullRecord.asp?id=66573&qstring=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wisconsinhistory.org%2Fwhi%2Fresults.asp%3Fsubject_narrow%3DNudes

Nature, full circle:

I put some old prints outside before the big blizzard to see what would happen--

A few months ago I sealed an aloe plant in a plexi box.  I am still documenting it through photogarphs and writing on the box....  I displayed it on top of photographs of the dried aloe and the "boxed" aloe:

"Final" Project

Prepared paper with collage for two 30' long (approximately) scrolls; one is 19" wide and the other 9".  For the wider scroll I used more of the photographic imagery, and the narrow scroll I only used text.

I did a few layers of cyanotype printing.  A lot of the imagery became obscured and I then collaged clearer cut prints into it.  On the wider scroll I collaged actual plant materials and overlaid it in parts with thin paper. My work now incorporates many layers of collaged plant imagery-- digital, "photographic", and physical.

Below are image of the in-progress scrolls as I prepared them for a crit.  I experimented with ways of displaying scrolls:

Closer shots of the in-progress project:

Working out composition/different lengths before I did more collage (super long scroll not working):

Many Negatives, Simple Prints

Layering the negatives creates difficult to read prints.  The response from viewers are mixed; some get drawn in and some "pushed out".  As my response, I decided to step back and create direct clear prints of the imagery.  These prints, which I connected into scrolls, became a record of the imagery and a code for others to read my more obscure work.  By manipulating the photographs in Photoshop, they became letters of a personal language. Trying to squeeze the images into the shape of the transparencies, they also began to reference botanical illustrations.  I made about 30-40 new negatives which were variations on each other.  Below are the almost-finished scrolls:

Negatives

I digitally manipulated the images and printed them onto transparencies to make negatives.  Below are a few (I made about 10):

And doves (mentioned often in Song of Songs):

Photographs

In my search for improved imagery, I photographed nature (both inside and outside) and rephotographed my dead aloe plant.  There is a strange beauty to the aloe forms, and I printed them as 4X6 photographs.  I intend to display them.  Here are a few of the 100+ images I took:

Thought Experiments

Working out installation ideas:

 Inspired by papyrus, to highlight the fragile content of my work:

 A "wunderkamer" of sorts:

Floating "table" scroll: