Two Women Talk: No. 3 BONUS!

Hello kind readers! This is a bonus post from Two Women Talk as we have a fun announcement...

Ellen and I have decided to do a 7 Day Series project in July. Something to celebrate summer, something to do while the heat keeps us in, something for the sheer fun of it while we experiment and practice our mutual love for analogue photography.

During the week of July 5 - 12, we will each be making a handmade, camera-less photo, one every day, on 5x7ish natural fiber papers of our choice using sun sensitive chemistry - literally painting with light. Each photogram will be one of a kind, a unique creation difficult to reproduce due to the nature of the heat, light angle, exposure time, and amount of chemistry combinations. Unless they are measured and repeated exactly, the outcome will vary. I don't often exactly measure things - much like how I cook - I intuitively add ingredients as I go along..."that tastes about right, let's go with that" kind of approach. We are limiting the use of tools, substrates, and chemistry to challenge ourselves to make something every day with the same materials. Ellen will be using items to "photograph" natural to her PNW world, and I, from my California camp travels and desert world. If you'd like to see what we've created, we will be posting our daily pieces at the following IG profiles. We'd love it if you subscribed to follow our adventure:  

Diana (@mojavelight)  and  Diana again (@projectmojavelight)

Ellen Dooley

Two Women Talk - our new collaborative IG project page!  <--This is where we will post images of our work, one each, to share the visual aspect of our collaboration. 

Why do a daily practice? For just that reason - to practice, to play, to experiment, to learn... For us, it's a working meditation. It is so freeing to be making art for the sake of expression and exploration, not to just sell or show in a gallery or exhibition. Those avenues are great, too, don't get me wrong. But, art has more resonance and relevance if it's freely made from the heart and vibrations of the soul. Otherwise, it feels contrived and commercialized. In my opinion anyway....

This is pretty much what I'm limiting myself to for that entire week:

5x7 hot pressed Arches watercolor paper, archival tissue paper (to write on and then melt onto the print with wax), and a cold wax varnish finish...

My favorite part, items near and dear to my heart to make photograms of: owl feathers from a friend, raven feathers from my noisy raven family who reside on the property, leaves collected from a recent camping trip, sea glass from a favorite beach I took my children to every summer, and some spice to liven colors up...

The chemistry: cyanotype solutions...the process uses two chemicals: ferric ammonium citrate and potassium ferricyanide. They become sensitive to UV light once mixed together in equal parts. I also may use bleach, hydrogen peroxide, vinegar, toners and natural coffees/teas to play with different tones. I also like using various brushes. The brush strokes, when putting on the chemistry, gives the entire image a different kind of energy... my energy, where my head and heart are at that moment brush meets paper....

Additional tools and embellishments....I love using watercolors on photography, especially metallic tones - think Kintsugi. I use India and walnut inks and a dip pen or gel pens to add poetry, words, phrases, quotes, whatever I feel the image needs - or not. We'll see what transpires in the play and experiment process...

So, there you have it. The materials for a working-in-a-series project to make a print every day using sun sensitive chemistry and raw materials - no photoshopping allowed! I hope you'll follow along to see what emerges from our respective studios. I know I can't wait to get started!

This will be fun. And, Ellen and I have a few surprises at the end of this series. We look forward to sharing them with you.

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