Progress!
Some tidbits and tidbats, laid out in front of your very eyes like twitter tweets poured from a teacup:
* The Evergreen State College photo center interns had their show last weekend, and I went, and there were lots of people. I didn’t get a chance to mention this project to barely anybody, but I did talk to a few people, all of whom are on board, at least provisionally. Those people are:
Beck Nelson — currently working in analog color photography, his recent work comprises images of buildings, landscapes, birds, etc. printed with brightly colored yet ghostly shapes emerging from the subjects. Everything seems held together with scotch tape. Definite design sensibility yet unafraid to show the imperfection of the underlying materials.
Rachel Lang — recently completed a series of transparent color portraits, which she embedded in thick chunks of glycerin and lit from behind, evoking at once both the feeling of a glowing jesus votive and a body frozen in ice.
Julia DeConcini — a playful explosion of southwest american motifs in large prints with a strong, almost leatherlike presence. She explores the underlying nature of black-and-white photographic materials by subjecting the prints to certain chemical processes and adds color to the work with paint and varnish.
* Additionally, I had a good, long talk with former TESC photo services intern Vanessa LaValle who is now on board as well. Vanessa’s moved off to Cleveland, where she reports that there are no darkrooms nor any meaningful photographic community, so she’s resorted to low-tech photoshop drawings that I find simultaneously hilarious and evocative. Since none of them actually exist on paper, so far as I know, she’ll probably be sending me some files to print. Bro grabs 40 inches high, anyone?
* The deadline for the Arts Alliance of Yamhill County is fast approaching; the amount is very small indeed at only $100, but securing even a small amount of funding would help give me the encouragement I need to get these folks’ work out into the world AND it would cover the cost of printing flyers — so, nothing to sneeze at! Stay tuned, as I plan to post the grant application soon.
