Our first Tri-Color Gum Bichromate workshop with Diana Bloomfield last September was such a hit, we decided to do it all again! This past Saturday and Sunday Diana led nine students through this labor-intensive and difficult process. The workshop included many first-time gum printers, and despite the tricky nature of the process, all produced fantastic prints! As we gathered around to look at everyone’s completed work at the end of the two days, one thing was apparent: there is nothing like the magic of gum printing, and no one better to teach it than Diana Bloomfield!
We are grateful for all of our students, but we especially would like to extend a big THANK YOU to our four class participants who travelled from far, far away to take this workshop with us – Cary from Alaska, Timothy from Michigan, and Scott and Kelly from Pennsylvania. We’re so glad you could join us!
Diana discusses digital negatives during her demonstration at the beginning of the workshop
Diana “develops” an exposed print in water
Diana discusses the cyan-layer exposure she demonstrated as it hangs to dry – Terry, the student who provided the negative for this print, will later add yellow and magenta layers
Janet washes out her print after exposing the yellow layer
Karen coats her paper with a mixture of watercolor pigment suspended in potassium dichromate and gum arabic. The potassium dichromate hardens the gum arabic upon exposure to UV light; the parts of the coating blocked by the negative remain soft and wash away in water.
Tim washes out his print
Kelly very carefully registers the negative for her next layer
Janet, Tom, and Matthew attend to their prints
Each layer of pigment make a big impact when gum printing. The print on the left includes cyan, yellow, and magenta layers; the print on the right includes cyan and yellow. Both prints by Karen Hymer
Diana discusses the finished prints one by one with the class
Karen, Diana, and Tom mask off the brush-marked border of Cary King’s image in order to look at the print without visual distractions
Scott Wrage shares his tri-color print, not yet dry enough to pin up, with the rest of the class
Prints clockwise from left by Matthew Covarrubius, Kelly Wrage, Karen Hymer, and Timothy Wells
This past Saturday, March 26 we had the pleasure of hosting a Photogravure workshop taught by Tucson artist Karen Hymer! The weekend began with a lecture by Karen on Friday night – she talked about the history of photogravure and the evolution of her artwork as she continues to use the process.
Seven students joined us for the workshop and got hands-on experience making photopolymer plates from their images, then pulling prints from the plates. Karen taught the process using Solarplates, which are steel plates coated with a light-sensitive polymer emulsion. When exposed, the polymer hardens; the unexposed polymer washes away in water, leaving an “etched” plate ready for inking after the plate has dried in the sun. Ink is then applied to the plate and wiped from the highlight areas. Finally, paper is laid on top of the plate and both are run through an etching press.
We are forever grateful to our friends at Cattletrack Arts Compound and Santo Press for lending us their etching press – we could not have done this workshop without their help!
Karen demonstrates the “development” of the Solarplate in water
Exposed and developed plates harden in the sun
Karen demonstrates inking the plate
Participant Shari Trennert prepares to run her plate through the press
Shari has made a print from a “test strip” plate to check her exposure before committing to a full plate
Jean-Charles Chapuis, Cyd Peroni, Tom Moore, and Gina DeGideo hard at work inking their plates
Chris Palmer and Karen compare a test print with another print of the same image to check for contrast and density
Gina uses a cotton swab to fine-tune her ink application
Cyd lays a sheet of fine-art water color paper over her inked plate before running it through the press
Participants enjoy letting their creativity run free and working in a community environment
Participants let their finished prints dry before taking them home
PhotoTapas day at Art Intersection is always packed with diverse activities, demos, and lectures about photography. This year it was another wonderful experience of Photography.
The day started with a lecture on Gathering the Remnants & 100 Years 100 Ranchers with Scott Baxter in Ryan Gallery.
Karen Hymer gave a lecture and demo about Photogravure, and after the lecture and demo, she made a small series of ten original photogravure prints just for this day.
There was a Lumen Print Talk and Demo with Ken Rosenthal on the sunny balcony. Participants made their own lumen prints through lunch.
Activities during the lunch break included Lumen Printing, Photogravures by Karen Hymer, 100 Years 100 Ranchers Book-signing, and The City Book-signing.
There was a panel discussion, Photobooks after Funding, with William W. Fuller, Brad Jones from P.S. Studios, and Ken Rosenthal. Bill Fuller signed The City book after the panel discussion.
Spanish Tapas was served on our patio along with lively conversation and networking.
The day ended with a Portfolio Walk in the Art Intersection Galleries which was free and open to the public for viewing.
Big thanks to everyone that joined us for the opening reception and InFocus pre-reception of William W. Fuller’s The City! The exhibition will be on view through February 27, and you can stop in to purchase your copy of The City any day Tuesday – Saturday, 10am-6pm.
This past Saturday, January 9, we hosted a Walk and Talk with Jonah Calinawan, Karen Hymer, Amy Rockett-Todd, and Rebecca Sexton Larson, all featured in (re)View: Explorations in Human Nature. We were so pleased that the artists could travel to Gilbert from around the country to celebrate the exhibition with us!
Amy Rockett-Todd gets personal while talking about her albumen plates
Rebecca Sexton-Larson discusses her work and the bromoil process she uses
Karen Hymer explains that her photogravures draw on the idea that beauty is not only for the young
Jonah Calinawan discusses his fantasy-inspired cyanotype self-portraits
A closing reception for both (re)View and Next Level followed the Walk and Talk. It was great to see the artists among their exhibited work and meet so many of their friends and family! Thank you to everyone that came out!
A couple of weeks ago, Art Intersection hosted a Wet Plate Collodion Tintype Workshop and Open Studio! Students were led by David Emitt Adams and assisted by Claire A. Warden, both experts in this captivating 19th century process. Wet plate collodion was among the first widely-used photographic processes, used predominantly during the Civil War era. The nature of the process requires that collodion be hand-poured on a blackened metal plate, sensitized with silver nitrate, and exposed, then back into developing and fixing baths before the coating dries – hence the process’s name. During the workshop, students got individualized help with their coating, exposure, and processing. The following day, artists attended the open studio for a chance to try the process on their own; David and Claire were on hand to help as needed.
For a proper exposure, wet plate collodion requires either very bright light or a long exposure. David has rigged a special chair designed to help portrait sitters keep very still during the exposure time of 6-8 seconds, much like the chairs and props 19th century photographers used.
The following weekend, David and Claire returned to take wet plate collodion studio portraits! Couples, families, and individuals made appointments to have their picture taken, 19th-century-style.
This past Saturday, October 31 we were honored to have California artist Ryuijie teach the art of platinum/palladium printing to 11 members of the Art Intersection community. This 19th century process has long been revered for its tonal depth and archival qualities. Ryuijie demonstrated two different printing styles – the ABC and Na2 methods, both of which he uses in his artistic practice. Participants mixed their chemistry, hand-coated fine art paper, let it dry, and exposed their paper using a digital negative and UV light. It was inspiring to see the workshop participants quickly pick up a new technique which might have a lasting place in their artistic skill set! With a little experimenting and practice, the students used this luminous process to make some beautiful work.
Mario Sanchez holds up his freshly hand-coated paper
Jeff Welker coats his paper
Participants process their prints in developing and clearing baths
BK Skaggs assesses the exposure of his print
Finished platinum/palladium prints drying
Participants discuss their results at the end of the day
Last night, three ImageWorks photographers and about thirty guests joined us in the Photo Arts Lab to hear about their prints and the experiences of making these prints. All of the presented prints were originally captured on film using large format cameras.
Juan, Chris, and Brian of ImageWorks answered questions and explained their process of seeing, capturing, and then printing their beautiful images.
This is the first of a series of print sharing evenings. Join us in November for the next installment of Print Sharing at Art Intersection.
