Almost square.

Random thoughts while waiting for for the quick size to set on the "holidays" of the frame I'm regilding. "Holidays", house painter speak for missed spots.

The above photo is in the 3:4 aspect; almost square, which is the normal aspect for small digicams. I've become used to it; enough so that when I started using my iPhone camera, the 3:2 aspect was ... disconcerting. See previous post. This may explain my current comfort with square.

That my most recent paintings are 1:2, might be a reaction to the photos, which I still, consider sketches. The 16:9 aspect, or "wide" in cameras is not wide, but actually a crop of the image.

Maybe I should give it another try.


Sometimes what is not included, can be as important as the included, in both paintings and photos.

I doubt this would work as square, as it needs the strong vertical as foil to the flower and leaves, though it is 4:3 as the 1st. photo is 3:4. (Height precedes width) Also, it wouldn't work as square because I said so, as the artist.

This is a square crop of the 1st. image, and one that I find unsuccessful; in fact it seems vertical, rather than the subdued horizontal, which renders it with an Asian quality. Had it been composed as a square, rather than cropped to square, I'm sure it would be more successful. That was one of the points in the article on TOP.

This is not to say that one should not crop, but composing in the camera is the first step. 

Square, and not.

Over on TOP, an essay by Kirk Tuck on square format. In previous posts I've mentioned "playing" with square in photography, and in the comments he mentions "seeing" in square; it's important to have what you want in the viewfinder. This forces me to use my phone camera, as it's the only machine I have that has a 1:1 aspect ratio. Cropping afterward doesn't work, though if an image works that way, I have no anti-crop qualms. Just that the square seems to work better if it's from the beginning.

For my paintings, I prefer a 1:2 ratio, but with a camera I have seldom used the wide ratios available, 16:9 is very close. The above painting is 12  x  24, though I think the asymmetry of the frame softens that feel.

I even use it in vertical compositions.  Now, though I'm enjoying square in photos, I have no urge to paint in a square format, much as I don't have a feel for using the wide aspect ratio in the camera. I even have a bristol board pad that I've trimmed to 4.5  x  9 inches, that I use for ink sketches. Not sure of the significance of this; it might have to do with the square encouraging a certain abstraction, as I seem to be more attracted when using square to abstraction, see top photo.

The Bears work in square and rectangular, but, then, they're good Bears.

Meanwhile, of vastly more importance, to those of us who follow USA football, will Peyton Manning retire, or go free agent and end up in Kansas City? Soap opera of the month. At this point, Peyton and his boss, Jim Irsay, are going to act like adults, and stop nattering at each other at least until the Superbowl, in Indy, and featuring brother Eli, is done. I, personally think he will retire, as the neck surgery was successful, but the nerves that were pinched that led to weakness in the throwing arm have not come back as quickly as hoped. Nobody thinks he will return to Indy, regardless, as too expensive, and risky.

In 1521, The Diet of Worms begins. I'll leave you to Google that one.

On This Day

January 22, 1879 in the Anglo-Zulu War; Battle of Rorke's Drift. when a small group of British soldiers, 139-141, defend their garrison against an unremitting assault by 4-5 thousand Zulu warriors. Immortalized in the 1964 movie, "Zulu".

Family Icon II

Bronislaus Janulis

South Bend Museum of Art

In 1890, the United Mine Workers of America is founded in Columbus Ohio. In my family, John L. Lewis is highly regarded for what he did for miners. Many in my family worked in coal mines, and some died there. The painting references my great Grandfather, who was killed in a coal mining accident.

This is also the anniversary of the commercial introducing the Macintosh computer, the famous "1984" , which aired during Superbowl XVIII.

Curmudging from the Hinterlands

On the other hand, it is a valid supposition that photography is an art, or capable of being art, based on the eye only. I don't think any kind of argument can be made for "hand", especially in digital photography, but the eye and mind must be there.

As an artist, I'm free to make what I want, sans category or definition, and sometimes it touches the infinite, and transcends material and technique. Art. Not the ART of the cult of genius, but the art of an artisan, craftsman, laborer in the fields of obscurity ... be it painting, photograph, frame, or sculpture.   

Random Thoughts

 Photography and Art at The Art Institute of Chicago

I've always, in spite of having studied it, been a little ambivalent about photography. I'm not sure it is an art, though the museum and art world in general treat it as such, or at least, some portions of it. Though I've embraced digital, I think computer control of images makes it even less of an art, speaking only of the minor manipulation inherent in photography from its beginnings. There was and is  more "hand" in the wet, optical process, as in the darkroom performances of Saint Ansel.

Maybe, for me, hand, is important, and a lack of hand, negates the art. A hand made pot, by a child, might have more "art" than a beautiful image from a digital camera, computer enhanced, and mechanically printed, but never touched by hand, until pulled from the printer.

The idea of hand made versus mechanically reproduced is a notion I've been pondering of late, and I am not without contradictions on this subject. The so called giclée print, an ink jet print, is not a hand made object. If I make a frame using molded ornaments, the molds were hand made, the ornaments are cast and pulled by hand, and they are definitely fit and applied by hand, but alas, it is a mere bagatelle in the world of ART; it is only a picture frame.

Though “hand made”, it is possible to reproduce those ornaments ad infinitum, but there is still a lot of “hand” involved.

I am ambivalent, and as far as art goes, I’m probably far more inclusive than most, but photography is documentary, sometimes enchanting, and a huge part of the world of the new Millennium, but for the most part, not art. Hand is important!

And, for the sake of this post, I’m not going to touch on craft, but leave you with the work of a great artist, one that some would call a mere illustrator:

Earnest H. Shepherd, Eeyore

James Montgomery Flagg's definition of an illustrator, I paraphrase, was an artist who ate three meals a day, and could afford to pay for them. I think there was some ambivalence about art, craft, etc. 

Bron

Phoneography

Another shot, from yesterday, of the fearless Snow Dog of the Frozen North. I like this one as she looks resolute in her forging a path.

Tuesday morning, and the snow has mostly stopped.

 Bears in the Snow

  The Morning Clearing

And some thoughts on phonography:

I've been a photographer since my teens. Studied at one school, worked in the Audio-Visual Dept. at another, where I was the staff photographer and darkroom tech. I was conversant with a wide variety of equipment, in an industrial way; in focus, properly exposed, horizons level, and none of the team had their finger in their nose. Since then, I still do some pro work, documenting fine art, though my equipment choices have gone from SLR-DSLR to a high end compact. I still use lights, battered, and stands, held together with wire, and polarizers.  The little camera, at base ISO, on a tripod, and good technique, is image quality wise, going to be comparable to almost anything else out there, and for 99.9 % of the uses, perfect. Plus, when I started using it, none of the DSLRs had live view on the LCD; you need to stoop and look through the viewfinder, while I could look at a 3" LCD.

In my own work, sketches for paintings, my amusement, family, I had discovered early on that a good image could be technically flawed; and in fact, those flaws might enhance the image. Technical perfection is not something I seek, nor am I probably very good at it; adequate when required. ( Certain aspects of painting require a "base" level of technical competence, something akin to grammer for a writer, but more ...?) Which raises another question; what is image quality? Technical perfection, or an image worth looking at? The point here is that technical quality should be subservient to the image itself.

Lately I've been using my phone camera, see previous post, as my casual, walking around tool, and that same tool has been recently featured in some of the photo-centric  sites I keep up with. It has not been considered a ... serious tool. In fact, it seems possible that western civilization is in decline due mainly to phone cameras. OK, but it is discreet and quiet. There is only one "setting", focus and exposure, a tap on the screen, then the shutter release, which makes for very quick shooting. It also allows one to concentrate on composition, rather than settings. This basic simplicity, though often asked for as an essential aspect of serious "street shooter" cameras, is ignored on a phone camera, because it's a ... phone? Well, when I need to, I still have the "big" camera, but if you start seeing a lot of noisy, blurred, poorly focused shots here, it's just me practicing phonography, rather than being serious.

This square aspect ratio is quite a departure for me, as my paintings are often 1:2, or close to that, but since it's not serious, I'll continue to fool around. 8-)

Bron

A note: On this day in 1861, Delaware votes not to secede from the Union. I had no idea they were even contemplating it. Delaware was the first state to ratify the United States Constitution.

Snow

Ginger, Snow Dog of the Frozen North, forges a path through the vast, white wasteland, of swirling frozen precipitation. Yesterday, the 1st., it started snowing, and it is still snowing, and blowing, and ... cold. Photo from this morning, the 2nd.

Taken with an iPhone, for which I have a new app, called 6x6, which does one thing; it shoots and saves in square format. I've fooled with square, but for some reason, I'm finding it quite interesting this time. It may have to do with the simplicity of this app. Previously I've found square to be inhibiting, but I'm seeing in the format now, so, some other squares from the last few days:

Holiday table. The Start of Snow. Giant Mulberry.

None of these is of any great importance, but the change from 3:2, 4:3, to 1:1 aspect is  ... interesting.

The Monitor Wreck, on this day.

Line engraving published in "Harper's Weekly", 1863, depicting USS Monitor sinking in a storm off Cape Hatteras on the night of 30-31 December 1862. A boat is taking off crewmen, and USS Rhode Island is in the background.

United States Naval History and Heritage Command, #: NH 58758

The Wikipedia article.

And .... again.

And ... better .....

A little more of the aluminum leaf is showing, and the color is closer. I may be done?

Once again ...

Well, that was quick ...

I like this version a lot; it's "dry", it has the colors of the painting, but isn't the color of the painting ... it's on the wall, maybe I'll let it sit for a few days.

Wiped all the previous toning, and scumbled an acrylic wash, with some rottenstone and cerulean blue pigment, dusted on after the wash was dry.

The photo is more 'intense" than it is in person, though the painting is pretty accurate ....

Changes in frames

Both of these paintings have had the finishes on the frames modified. I'm pretty happy with the top one; a stippled on wash of raw umber, then some rottenstone with yellow ochre added. I'm a little more ambivalent about the bottom one; I like the "dryer", duller feel, but the scumbled on color ... I may need to soften it, though I will hang them back up and see how I feel in a day or two. Both of these finishes have antecedents in the modernist frames of the 1940s and 50s, such as this one: Peter Blume at The Art Institute.

Repairing a broken ornament.

This ornament is the only one of the four corners still there, though it is broken and loose, held on by the nails that the composition was anchored too. Sometimes I can get the ornament back in position but this one was stubborn.  In the next photo, below, I've removed the broken part so I can clean the fracture and remove the nails.

These last three photos show the back. For reinforcement, and to replace the now missing nails, I cut some slots using a saw blade in a Foredom tool, (a fancier Dremel tool) Thin welding rod will be cut, and glued into the slots, cyanacrylate, both to glue the ornament and the rods. The next photos show masking tape in the perforations of the ornament, and the the slots and lacunae being filled. I'm using catalyzed polyester resin, more commonly called Bondo as the fill material.


Once that is cleaned up I'll do what repairs are needed to the face so I have a corner to make a mold from. The next photo shows the top of the ornament with its undercut. This would have been cast separately, as will the replacement ornaments.

The last photo shows the top of the ornament ready to be molded, with a plastilina dam surrounding it.

Mold material will be alginate; ornaments will be cast from Bondo, thinned with liquid resin.

Float frames

Some samples of "float" frames.