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.
This past weekend of September 12 and 13 Art Intersection was bursting with color! Tri-color gum bichromate, that is. We had the great pleasure of hosting a two-day, immersive workshop in the process taught by Diana Bloomfield, a master gum printer especially known for her tri-color technique. Ten participants learned about this fascinating 19th-century process that includes mixing together gum arabic, potassium dichromate, and watercolor pigments, then hand-coating that mixture on paper, exposing their paper under a digital negative in UV light, and washing out the print in water to “develop” it.
Diana Bloomfield explains her technique for mixing the gum emulsion on Day 1.
Workshop participants look on as Diana coats a sheet of paper with the light-sensitive gum mixture she’s made.
Any color watercolor pigment can be used, but this tri-color process involves making three separate coating and exposure runs with cyan, magenta, and yellow pigments individually to get a full-color final print.
Armed with coffee, the participants listen as Diana explains the basics of color balancing for a natural-looking print at the start of Day 2. If a print does not initially look correct, more passes with various colors can be made to balance it.
In order for the image to remain sharp, the negative being used must be placed in exactly the same spot for every layer. Michael Puff carefully registers his negative to exactly match the previous layers he’s created.
Chris Palmer rinses out his print after exposing it to UV light. During the exposure, the areas of the gum emulsion blocked by the dark areas of the negative wash away in the water, creating highlights. Those underneath the light areas of the negative solidify and adhere to the paper, creating shadows.
BK Skaggs, Shari Trennert, and Maylee Noah rinse their prints while others hang to dry. These prints show the first pass with the cyan layer.
At the end of the workshop, all the participants show the results of their hard work by putting their favorite prints up on the critique board. Diana gives the class constructive feedback on their printing.
Finished prints by Maylee Noah showing one-color, two-color, and tri-color prints.
