Yippeelala's Inside with Eternal Sunshine

New work

yippeelala — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 21:36:19 +0000

Color photo copy on gesso transfer on canvas 22x30in

Color Photo copy gesso transfer on canvas 8x8ins

Color photo copy gesso transfer on canvas 8x8ins

Color Photo copy gesso transfer

Color Photo Copy Gesso Transfer

Not really sure what I am doing right now. I think that is normal though. I am struggling, in general, with why am I putting myself through this again- the torture that artists must go through in order to find meaning and purpose in their work. I am trying not to rely on gesso transfers just because I love them. There should be a logical reason perhaps. I am thinking of going back to a previous idea of exploring an image to the edge – to an almost recognizable state, similar to when we read words. The first and the last letters of a word determine for us what the word is… everything in the middle is just filler information. Example:
“I cnduo’t bvleiee taht I culod aulaclty uesdtannrd waht I was rdnaieg. Unisg the icndeblire pweor of the hmuan mnid, aocdcrnig to rseecrah at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it dseno’t mttaer in waht oderr the lterets in a wrod are, the olny irpoamtnt tihng is taht the frsit and lsat ltteer be in the rhgit pclae. “

So here are some examples of just recent work. Nothing too exciting.

I have been looking at Gerhard Richter’s Atlas, and Sally Mann’s “What Remains.”
Here is a really good video: only part 1 of 3 but you can look up the rest

The end is always just the beginning

yippeelala — Sat, 01 Oct 2011 21:16:30 +0000

I have started my first year of grad school in the photography program at MICA. I have two teaching internships for alternative process and palladium printing this semester. As far as work goes, i am a bit all over the place. I am not really sure what I want to make, or what my point or concept is. However, I don’t care so much about that, it becomes simply about the making. Unconsciously and consciously making decisions and creating as much artwork as I can and than later I think the purpose and concept will reveal itself to me. Least, one can hope.

I started off with palladium printing, here are some prints:

I also have some new gesso transfers, and some of those images:

The end is only the sign of the beginning

yippeelala — Thu, 13 Jan 2011 05:49:14 +0000

Finished school. Done so much since my last entry. Succeeded and failed. Not sure where my direction is going to end up being now. There is such uncertainty right now. No new artwork yet, well there is, just haven’t photographed it yet. Started my shadow box collection for my small images, i have 4 shadow boxes almost enough for a show. hah. Hoping for a job right now, and grad school.

My awakening

yippeelala — Wed, 26 May 2010 03:16:27 +0000

A bit of me feels really disappointed in myself. I keep thinking, did I work hard enough, what more should I have done? I know that this past year was the hardest year, between coming back from Scotland and readjusting to culture and the people, to wanting something so much nothing mattered but the work. I dropped everything except my art. When I look on what I have created, I can’t express the amount of passion and love I have for it. Unfortunately, I was expecting so much of the finishing of this year that I ultimately have led myself into a black hole. There are so many opportunities out there, but as my sister said, you just have to find the one that is for you. Opportunities never come free and from being shut off from the world. I just have to keep going.

Right now, I have set aside my work, and buried my thoughts and wretched feelings into gardening and running. The simple things I had forgotten about. My dad took a weedwacker to my mom’s old gardening spots, so I could properly finish weeding. Today I planted Calendula flowers and poppies. Last week was sunflowers. Tomorrow, I am going to run three miles, seems the only way I can stop thinking for a bit.

All I can say is thank goodness I have a job, and it pays more than I could ever hope for, and that my parents let me come home to regroup. I went into an overdraft today just pumping gas. Slim money pickings right now. I only got gas cause it had gone down 3 cents and my tank was nearly empty. It will be alright though, someday. My mom tells me when things are at their worst, don’t worry, nothing will turn out alright. It usually helps for some reason.

Here’s one of my favorite parts from one of my favorite movies:

yippeelala — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 01:07:46 +0000

Gesso Transfer Print of glass plate negatives

Gesso transfer then boiled/fried in tea image from antique photograph from Glasgow

Gesso Transfer print from glass plate negative

Citrus Transfer and used concentrated tea as paint

Gesso Transfer Print boiled in tea

Gesso Transfer Print

Gesso Transfer Print of glass negative

Citrus Transfer and concentrated tea stained

Gesso Transfer and tea friedish, glass plate negative

This is what I have been working on, but might be stepping away from printing on solid paper and perhaps printing on paper that can be layered. My overall concept has been memory and time, and how those two fit inside one another. I think if I tried printing on paper that can be layered I can get even closer images that have been “faded from memory” or affected from time. I am not really sure exactly how I am going about into this direction but its all experimental right now. Either way, I love this work. Roger (one of my professors) said it seemed to be a compulsive sort of art making, which I actually agree with. The images are small and can be easily held.

Below are some of the images I got to come out of my Anscoflex II camera, shooting with expired medium format color film. I learned color film! Woo! So now working on printing and transferring with color… so far… interesting results which I will post later when I have more.

Anscoflex II Camera, expired medium format color film

Work,……. wooooorrrrrkkk…… working

yippeelala — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 22:09:27 +0000

A glass negative, collodion process, a very sort of kodak moment, which is something you dont see much with old photographs because of the exposure times. But with glass negatives they were more sensitve to light, less dense etc, easier to capture an image like this (at least thats what i gathered from my research).

glass plate negative, collodion process

: glass negative, collodion process, same woman and maybe child as the photograph with the naked babe

glass plate negative, collodion process, Beautiful portrait.

glass plate negative, collodion process

My own work, gesso image transfer, tea stained

Gesso Image transfer

Gesso image transfer, image from the glass plate

Gesso image transfer, tea stained, glass plate negative image used

Gesso Image Transfer, tea stained

Gesso Image transfer, tea stained

Where do I begin with this update? Not sure so just going to dive in. Over Christmas break I managed to get my hands on 5 glass plate negatives which are above, in the black and white. I have been researching the Victorian period in photography and also the collodion process. Very interesting stuff, will update again later with my research. I took the glass plate images and tried out the gesso image transfer work that I was working on. I used various shades of paint mixed in with the gesso, and pressed the printed image into it, then waited for it to dry and slowly peeled/rubbed away the paper layer by layer until left with the just the image. Then I boiled the image in a frying pan with tea-works really nicely. Also, last thing two of the images are from images I took when I was in Glasgow that I am still working on.

Then one of my close friends in Glasgow sent me antique photographs that are just brilliant that I will be working with soon. I also took photographs with color film on my Anscoflex II camera, and will be learning how to develop that this week (thanks Meghan Cornelius!!! So thats it for my update. Have a lot of work to do!!!!!!!

Glasgow image 2

Glasgow image

:) i think this is beautiful as well

Back to the Research

yippeelala — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 04:56:33 +0000

A wave of lazyness has taken over me at this current time but an enlightening lazyness so guess its not too unproductive. Over break I collected images, a close friend from Glasgow sent me more antique photographs that he thought I would like, one of the pictures was originally from Texas and somehow ended up in Scotland… go figure. Then I did some of my own pickings, my mom helped out with this one, it was one of her old friends and she sells antiques. She has tons of old glass plate negatives with some amazing photographs. I am just in awe by them. Then I did some film work shooting and taking some random pictures with no real purpose with them in mind other than documenting the time. But I will post new images of those things this weekend when I get into the studio. For right now I am working on research, looking at Victorian mourning photographs.

Now I am looking into getting more solid information about this time period, checking out some library sources etc. I hate finding everything on the internet. Here are some few beginning pictures I was looking at:

This photograph reminds me of a dream I once had about death and a cat. It was strange.

check out more at http://acidcow.com/pics/1453-the-migration-of-pictures-after-death-26-pics.html

Thats all for now. Just a small update. Off to go find some library books!!

Almost

yippeelala — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 08:50:00 +0000

Since studying abroad in Scotland my art has consisted of ruining images-weathering them to the point of being unrecognizable. However, I did not want that to be solely what I worked on, so I developed very old negatives that I had bought off of someone and I am still experimenting with the Anscoflex II camera, whilst keeping everything together.

In Scotland, for my final I started a polariod project that was based on memory and the loss of it. I wanted to take a series of polariod images and have them gradually become nothing-much like our memory over time. I never had the chance to complete or really begin the project, and it wasn’t until a few weeks ago that I realized that this is what I have been doing all along.

I am terrified of forgetting. I cannot forget the experiences I had over there or any other time in my life, the people I meet, the city where I lived, and various places I have stayed. When I am here though, I feel as though I never left this place and each moment passes and I loose another piece from my history. So that is where this begins- a timeline of memory. If there was a person that you once met, but you do not remember them, and without remembering them have a picture taken of your memory of them, what would it look like? What would a person look like who is no longer remembered by anyone? What would we see? I start with those confusing questions. The older the image I have, the harder it is to see. However, all the images are timeless. When looking at some of them I can’t make a distinction of time between my friends and regular life, and those images from the 60s.

This process has lead me to this point, and is still leading me. It has become an obsession to try to understand and uncover all that I can. I have merely touched this iceberg, there is so much more to see and explore.

xerox work

yippeelala — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 08:07:08 +0000

I have been checking artists that have sort of been working in the same lines as me. Ari Marcopoulos is a photographer from Amsterdam who decided to work for a bit with printing images on a xerox machine. Marcopoulos is a self taught photographer, he worked for Andy Warhol for a brief time and then Irving Penn. While at first thinking he wanted to be a fashion photographer, he was drawn to New York City life. His work relates to memory as well and the idea of ephemeral. He works with pictures of his family and skateboarders, and explores unconventional beauty.

I love this work. It is very closely connected with what I am doing.

Updating!!!!!

yippeelala — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 20:03:04 +0000

So majorally have fallen behind with my blog BUT I have made some incrediable progress as a result. I know for the most part, what my work is all about and how it relates to me.

Anyway I wanted to catch up on artist that I have looked/ been recommended to look at. So I was flipping through my sketchbook and have a list of names that I never got a chance to look up. First Richard Billingham, a photographer who I have a lot of respect for. He photographs his family, with an honest eye. He doesnt try to hide the undertones or struggles families can have. Billingham originally started out taking photographs as references for paintings but eventually just started using the photographs for how honest they were. I like this quote that I found he said:

‘it’s not my intention to shock, to offend, sensationalise,
be political or whatever, only to make work that is as spiritually
meaningful as I can make it -
in all these photographs I never bothered with things like
the negatives. some of them got marked and scratched.
I just used the cheapest film and took them to be processed
at the cheapest place. I was just trying to make order out of chaos.’

I like that a lot, making order out of chaos. I think every artist has that sort of feeling in them. Whether they are sorting whats in their mind, with emotions or pain, or their everyday lives.

Billingham’s father was an avid alcoholic, and even though the images are of cheap quality the humanistic qualities out shines that. Like I said, the images are pure honesty and I love that.