In Her Presence

School starts up again tuesday and while I haven't done much new work recently, I thought i'd post a project or two that I hope to finish up during this coming semester. If all works according to plan, this should be my last semester of my undergraduate career (WHAT?!? WOOP!!!), and after many long, painstaking, difficult (read, easy and willy nilly) years, I will be really glad to finally have my BFA.

Anyways, here's a project I started at least 2 years ago. A long time ago, I was hanging out on the internet and stumbled across this picture.


It's a photo of Bill Callahan and Joanna Newsom, taken while they were dating. This photo struck me for a bunch of reasons, but the two most prominent being: why would someone take a photo of these two? and, the chemistry between them is melting me. Yeah, to someone like me, seeing Bill Callahan and Joanna Newsom would be pretty wild and exciting, and I guess someone with a pap-sort of mind would snap this photo - but the fact that someone like that would stumble upon this couple and have the chance to take the photo just seems so unlikely. But more than anything, this picture made my heart beat fast and made me think of another photo I had seen of Bill Callahan, that was taken by Joanna Newsom. It's this one:


The first time I saw this picture, it also killed me. The look on his face is stunning; he's looking directly at her, enveloped in her shadow, the two of them trying to get some album photo out of the way, most likely not realizing how much emotion is conveyed through the snapshot they made.

So, I started searching for more photos of the two of them together, or that one took of the other. I understand that not everyone will see and feel what I do in these photos, and I know that my love for both of these musicians (especially Bill), and my heart-filled-dream-head that loves intense firey love is what draws me to these images and shows me what I want to see. But I saw it and I wanted more.

So, I started searching and found a bunch of photos - some more that Joanna had taken of Bill, but more than that, photos of the two of them playing together or photos of him playing while she was in the audience on backstage. I was interested in images of him primarily, for a thousand reasons (he's a hunk, i'm in musiclove with him, his music has governed/guided/soundtracked dozens of the most important interactions and experiences of my life, etc etc etc) Each photo I found made me feel the same way, and I realized I wanted to make a book based on them.

I started doing tracings of the photos. So far, I've only done three. These are them:






I want to print the photos full bleed, double sided. Not sure how I want to bind it yet. SMFA has an incredible printer that can do exactly what I want it to do, and will allow me to print on all different types of papers. It'd be fun to print on tracing paper, to almost exactly recreate the originals, but tracing paper is so hard to work with when binding. I don't know how it'll all pan out, but I really want to get this project done before I leave school, so I can take advantage of the facilities there. The title of the book will be In Her Presence.

Icon Progress

So, here are some progress shots of the icon I'm painting in my Contemporary Icon class I'm taking this semester. Sadly there is only one class left and I've only begun - I still have to gild and paint the piece. I missed class last week due to a family death and so I missed some crucial work time - I hope to gild the piece this wednesday and gather all the materials I need so I can spend the next few weeks before my review board painting it. The painting shouldn't take too long, as long as I can figure it out without the impeccable guidance of Bob Baart. Not too much detail about the imagery here, more just about the process.

MDF board coated with gesso made in the class. All grounds are made from scratch, except for the bole.

the fresh icon, after 7 coats of gesso but before 5+ hours of sanding

after 5+ hours of sanding, holes drilled, image xerox transferred and gesso relief painted

testing out imagery for the side panels

because so much of the icon is going to be gilded, i had to incise my drawing so
i'd be able to see it while i'm painting - traditional technique

this is a closeup of the gesso relief - these are the spots where
the gold will be burnished (shiny)

the bole (red clay base) that is painted over the ground wherever
gold leaf will be applied. traditional water gilding technique - my
teacher suggests applying 5 or so coats, to enhance the gold's finish.
when you burnish applied gold leaf, you're really burnishing the red clay
below the leaf - that's what shines, and it shows through the incredibly thin leaf.

one coat of bole ontop of gesso relief - you can see the incising

one coat of bole (on top of the bunnies I decided to use)

full view of 1 coat of bole

awesome side view

4 coats of bole

full look at 4 coats of bole - i wish i had realized how much i would have to
gild before i spent so much time preparing and sanding my surface. oh well, next time.