Anthotype on the way…

Posted on August 23, 2011 by Sara

My Winter Beet anthotype which was accepted to the “Food” exhibition at the Center For Fine Art Photography in Fort Collins, CO is on it’s way!  I know you already know this from a previous blog post of course, but the reason why I’m blogging about it now is because of the beautiful framing job I had done by Smith Anderson North in San Anselmo, CA.  Check it out:

 

The anthotype is floated in the middle of the mat and contained within a white shadow box frame with UV protectant plexi.  I am quite excited about this frame and will offer all of my anthotypes to be framed like this as well as still offering the opportunity to buy just the print.  I have to say, this finished look is quite complimentary to my vision of this work.  I love it!

And thank you to everyone for your sympathetic comments about my equipment being stolen.  I never got my original equipment back, no chance of that really, but my insurance company came through and I have purchased everything new.  I have been playing with my new camera and having fun with it so expect some work coming out of it soon!

Happy end of summer everyone!

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Almost there

Posted on July 26, 2011 by Sara

Insurance… sigh.

A quick update to let you know that this Friday I will be up and running with my new camera equipment! I finally received my insurance checks and have ordered my replacement goods. Hoooorray!

In the mean time, we wait for Tara, our UPS lady…

to bring us treats.

By the way, did anyone notice that it’s black raspberry season?

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Stolen

Posted on July 14, 2011 by Sara

I know I’ve been absent from blogging for a while (it’s summer, what do you expect?) so I have returned.  Unfortunately with some not so great news. Last Friday night my laptop and camera equipment (not all of it, thank goodness!) was stolen out of my car. My rear passenger window was smashed and only one bag was taken… the expensive one.  Sigh… I know better than to leave my #1 camera body and lens and flash AND computer in the car, but I got too relaxed about it.  Luckily everything is replaceable and my computer was backed up (thank you Time Machine!) but the logistics in dealing with the insurance company is just a hassle.  Please note: this is not a “poor me” post, I just wanted to update you all on life on the ground here.  A more positive post to come soon… as believe it or not, I’m a positive person.

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Great Anthotype News!

Posted on May 27, 2011 by Sara

I have great news!  I submitted my anthotypes to a call for artists through the Center For Fine Art Photography.  They are an organization based in Fort Collins, Colorado who’s mission is: “Promoting the art of photography by supporting the growth of creative artists through exhibitions and educational programs.”

They put out a call for artists once a month for various photographic themes such as “Art in Nature”, “Dreams”, and “Black and White Photography”, have different jurors who are influential in that theme and who choose the work which will be a part of an exhibit.  I have submitted my work a couple of times over the past few years and have not gotten anything accepted.

This time around, however, they are calling for “Food”.  And I thought… “Why not?  My anthotypes are all about food.”  And the juror is fine art photographer David Bram who is also the editor, founder, and curator of Fraction Magazine which features the portfolios of fine art photographers.  Wouldn’t it be great to show him my work?  So I entered three of my works.  And… Winter Beet was accepted!

Beet Anthotype in Winter

I am so thrilled to be a part of the exhibition that will be held at the Center in Fort Collins from September 2nd – October 15th.  Check out the Exhibitor’s Announcement who’s link I received in my “Congratulations” email this morning:  http://www.c4fap.org/exhibitors/2011Food/.  If you scroll down you can find my work amongst the other beautiful and fun images under my last name: Guren.  I am honored to be showing with these photographers this fall.

By the way, I definitely checked my email in bed this morning as I couldn’t wait to find out if my work had been chosen.  I definitely shrieked and about jumped out of bed with excitement when I read that I had!

I never heard back from the Mill Valley Arts Commission from my previous submission for a gallery show, but that’s ok.  I am excited to be a part of The Center For Fine Art Photography’s exhibition, get my work in front of other fine art photographers and start getting my anthotypes out in the world.

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Anthotype Sold!

Posted on May 16, 2011 by Sara

My goodness its been a while!

I’ve been traveling for weddings and for work and there’s hardly been time to think let alone blog.  But I’m back.  And with great news!

Congratulations to Jenny from Florida for her purchase of “Summer Beet”.  This is my first anthotype sale and it will have a wonderful home with Jenny.  Fortunately I was down there for a wedding and was able to hand deliver this fantastic print:

The donations to Curry Without Worry begin!

Speaking of, I will be unveiling “Nine Bean Soup” soon.  Its been quite a journey and I’m excited to share it with you.

Happy Monday!

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Purple Potato Anthotype is finished!

Posted on April 18, 2011 by Sara

To remind you, I had a previous post called Purple Potato Problem.  I explained how I had these guys out for weeks under the sun with very little/no result.  It was only when I photographed my “failed” attempt when I noticed that there was in fact some fading beginning to occur.  So I stayed with it.

What began in February, ended in April.  That’s quite a bit of a spell in the sun.  Granted we had a lot of precipitation in March which was not all that friendly to sun-loving anthotypes.

I am very excited to present to you (finally!)… Purple Potatoes

Not to be biased or anything, but I love it.  Hee hee.

I hope you enjoy seeing this one as much as I do.  It is for sale for $75 on my website: www.saraguren.com.  And as a reminder, 20% of all proceeds go towards Curry Without Worry. Get it while its hot!

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Rain and Snow and… Yellow Anthotype Surprise!

Posted on March 24, 2011 by Sara

So, its been raining here quite a bit.  Rain = no sun.  Which = no anthotypes.  I put them out whenever a bit of sun pokes through (which is now actually) but more on anthotypes later.

When it rains in the Bay Area that means it snows up in Tahoe!  For those of you who don’t know, my husband and I really like to ski and we spend a lot of time in Tahoe.  I usually transport my current anthotype in the car with us and place it out in the sun while we ski… that way I’m making art AND having fun!  But this time I didn’t even bother as there was just snow, snow, and more snow in the forecast.  Tahoe is having a truly epic season with this storm dumping 100″ in just 4 days.  What is really amazing about this – I know 100″ is amazing enough – is that this is the fourth time a storm has brought 100″ this season!  So what does that look like?  See exhibit “a” and “b” below.  I put myself in this photo (Bow is taking the picture from inside the car) to give you some perspective.  Oh yeah, I am 5’4″…

Please note where the snow bank is in relationship to the power lines (in both photos really).  In some places the power line is even buried by the snow!

 

So I’m a bit distracted by this crazy snow, and there is meant to be another 4-6 feet falling this week.  Wow!  But for now we are back in the Bay Area so back to the art…

The good news:  I was able to send in an artist statement explaining my process and photos of my anthotypes to the Mill Valley Art Commission’s call for artists.  I am very excited about this as now they are up for review!

So the 5 examples of my art that they received were:

Orchid on Tulip

Summer Beet

Winter Pomegranate

The purple potatoes were not completely done so I sent in these photos:

Progress!  They are coming through!

And…. also in progress… Nine Bean Soup!

 

Known to you as “Yellow Surprise.”

So why a surprise?  And why yellow you may ask?

As you know, I value the opportunity to interact with my community when choosing plants to make dyes with at the farmer’s market.  The most exciting connection I have made is with an organization called Curry Without Worry; in addition to selling foods at local markets, they feed the hungry a traditional Nepalese meal in the San Francisco Civic Center.  One of the foods they sell at the market is their nine bean soup.

They sell it in ready-to-eat form and in take-it-home-and-make-it-yourself form.

I used the curry spice and the dried beans from the take-it-home-and-make-it-yourself package as the subject of my yellow surprise anthotype.

In taking this one step further, I am excited to support Curry Without Worry and will donate 20% of my anthotype sales to them.


Thus beginning a new era for me where I am able to connect with my community through food, make art and support non-profit organizations.

You can help me support Curry Without Worry by buying an anthotype print from my website: www.saraguren.com

or you can contact me directly: sara@saraguren.com

They come matted and mounted to standard framing sizes and are priced at $75 each.

 

 

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Good News and Bread

Posted on March 2, 2011 by Sara

I’ve got some good news!  I just found out that the Mill Valley Art Commission has extended their deadline for entries until March 15th.  That means I can still get these anthotypes out there!  Hooray! Purple potatoes are still hanging out in the sun (as much sun as I can find right now) and I am currently working on the yellow surprise.  I swear its coming up soon.

So speaking of sun, right now there isn’t much.  Lots of rain and wind.

This is what I can see outside of my studio window -- its SUPER foggy/windy/rainy. I'll make a photograph when its nice sometime and you'll be able to see the difference.

So as I’m working I’ve found that I am brewing a lot of tea and am becoming obsessed with making Irish Soda Bread.  Its fun to hunker down in a cold rain storm and be cozy with fresh bread and tea.  Since I’ve been eating and drinking these things while making my art, and they’ve become an integral part of my day, I thought I’d share this SUPER easy bread recipe with you (especially so close to St. Patrick’s Day).

So first off, lets give credit where credit is due… My friend Aislinn gave me some of her mom’s homemade Irish Soda bread a while ago and it sparked my interest — so good and crumbly!  She mentioned how it was easy to make with very few ingredients.  I’m all about that, so I researched a recipe online and found a Traditional Irish Soda bread website: http://www.sodabread.info/

It is from them that I have found my go-to recipe for Brown Bread.  (Keep in mind I have made some minor modifications which fit my cooking style best, but I have NOT changed the ingredients)

Irish Soda Bread — Brown Bread

3 cups wheat flour (100% pastry flour)

1 cup white flour (not self-rising)

14 oz buttermilk

1 tsp salt

1 1/2 tsp baking soda

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.  Lightly grease and flour cake pan (or bread pan or round cast iron pot… whatever you have).  In a large bowl combine all dry ingredients.  Add buttermilk a bit at a time to form a sticky dough.  Place on floured surface (or I just do this part within the bowl itself — less things to clean up in the end) and lightly knead (too much allows the gas to escape).  Shape into a round flat shape (here I have to make my shape rectangular) and cut a cross in the top of the dough (definitely do this as it gives the bread a fantastic crunchiness to the crust when baked!).  Cover the pan with another pan and bake for 30 minutes.  Remove cover and bake for an additional 15 minutes.  the bottom of the bread will sound hollow when tapped to show it is done.  Cover the bread in a tea towel and lightly sprinkle water on the cloth to keep the bread moist.

And that’s that!  I have to say that this bread barely lasts 5 days in my house as my husband and I chow it down.  I love to have it right out of the oven with some butter and a pot of Ceylon tea.  Yum!  The tea is the perfect counter to the crumbly bread.

So I’m off now to create some more art with my Irish Soda bread slice and Ceylon tea as its blowing and raining sideways out.  Good food and good art… what could be better?  Happy Wednesday!

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Purple Potato Problem

Posted on February 17, 2011 by Sara

So, purple potatoes are giving me some issues.  And that’s ok.  All art comes with its challenges and I have hit one just at the crux of my excitement about anthotypes.  Thus I am able to carry on and persevere!

Seriously though, the purple potato dye isn’t fading like the beet and pomegranate dye did.  Being a visual learner, let me show you what I mean.

As you might recall from my previous post, I started out with a lovely purple potato dye painted on paper that looks like this:

I added a few extra coats for good measure after I took this photograph because I was so excited about the depth of the dye.

Now, here is the photograph I picked out and printed on transparency paper to be contact printed:

Good contrast, good possibility for detail to show up on the paper… but when I checked the progress of the contact print there was no visible change in the dye from day 1 to day 3 (normally I see significant fading of the background).  So I kept at it and left it out in the sun for 8 days straight (We had an awesome stretch of days with nothing but sun!) and still no visible change.  So I decided to abort and take it out of the frame.

I went to take a picture of it to show you all the before and after, and I saw this:

There is a little bit of fading starting to happen to the background and the potato slices are beginning to show up!  So, back in the frame with you!  Which is not an easy task or an ideal situation as I need to line things up perfectly.  Normally I would never take a print completely out of the printing frame before I knew it was done as it can take away from the sharpness of the print.  But in this case, it looks like the purple potatoes have a chance!

So maybe this dark color takes a while longer, or maybe there is something chemically going on with the starch of the potato that causes it to not fade in the sun.  I don’t know the answer.

What I do know is that this is a great experiment that I am still loving even with the set-backs.

The only fallout, however, is that I could not get my entries in to the Mill Valley Call for Artists as I only had 3 pieces to show them instead of the required 5.  So as soon as I get my 5, I’ll start talking to galleries in the area as friends have already given me some leads.

Also, I will be selling these!  More information on that in a future post, but I would love to get these anthotypes out in the world.

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Pomegranate Anthotype Comparisons and more…

Posted on February 2, 2011 by Sara

I have some great comparison anthotypes for you all today.  Since my last post and pomegranate anthotype, I created two new pieces to compare.  They were both painted with pomegranate dye on the same Arches watercolor paper at the same time, but there is one main difference between the two pieces.

One of them I stopped painting before the paper got really dark and the other paper I painted until it was richly saturated.  Usually, I tend towards the latter as I know there is a lot of fading that needs to happen in order for the image to come through in detail.  But I figured I would try a lighter painted paper as well to see what would happen.

and this is the darker painted paper:

So which do you like better?

There is some great detail in the lighter painted paper but the colors are punchier in the darker painted paper.  When I look at them separately I like both of them on their own merrit — I like the ethereal quality of the lighter painted paper but I like the rich, dark pomegranate dye coming through on the darker paper.  Nice to know that both work differently in their own ways.

Here is another comparison based completely on the quality of light.  The first beet anthotype that I created (which will be sent to my cousin in Portland for her new yoga and wellness studio Sprout) was exposed to summer sunshine and the second one was exposed to winter sunshine.  Remember that the sun is higher in the sky in the summer and creates more intense rays than in the winter when the angle of the sun is significantly lower and less intense.  Keep in mind that both of these papers were painted with the same amount of coats of beet dye.

Winter beet anthotype:

Summer beet anthotype:

A little similar to the pomegranate comparison, but with one main difference from what I can see.  In the summer the color is richly saturated AND there is distinct detail.  In the winter the anthotype has to stay out in the sun longer in order for detail to start showing so the saturation fades more.  Again, a punchier beet image vs. an ethereal beet image.  It purely depends on my mood as to which I find more appealing.  You?

So now that the pomegranate experiment is done I have moved on to purple potatoes!!!!

Let me tell you how excited I am about this dye.  So much so that I have decided to show you the dyed sheet before I’ve decided which photograph to use.

Oooooooohhh…

Check out the starchy pieces that have dried on the paper leaving a delicious texture.  Also notice how the middle is a glowing purple which fades to dark as it radiates towards the edges.  Yay!  I currently have two sheets like this and I might do the same thing I did with the pomegranates… I’ll start an anthotype contact print on this sheet tomorrow and I’ll put another couple of coats on the other sheet and do a comparison.

All of this is very exciting for me and I have to say that I am ready to share these prints in person!  Currently I am working towards a “Call for Artists” deadline of February 15th which accepts entries from Bay Area artists to be considered for upcoming solo and group shows in Mill Valley.  I will keep you updated on my progress in that area and also know that I have a surprise coming soon for a yellow anthotype.  Hooray!

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