I thought I’d hit you up with it right away because I am so excited about this print!  The blackberry dye turned the paper a beautiful rich purple at first

and it left some great blackberry residue on the paper which I think works well with the photograph.

Now, for the educational portion of this blog post.  No yawning!  Keep reading, I promise it will be good!

Presenting… The difference between blackberries and black raspberries.  As I grew up on a farm, and picked these lovely berries regularly throughout the summer and fall, I thought everyone knew the difference.   But that is not the case!  I had to brush up on my knowledge too before writing this to make sure I was giving you the right information and not just something from my childhood that I had decided was true.

So, I lived (before we moved in October) near a row of blackberry bushes.  Blackberry row was on the driveway to our home and I walked past it every day when I took my dogs to the dog park.  Can’t get a more local food than that!

I couldn’t wait until the blackberries became ripe so I could pick them and eat them on my way to the park.  Blackberry trait #1: Blackberries come in season later than black raspberries.

When I finally did get to pick them in August/September, I brought a bowl down with me and loaded up!

Blackberry trait #2:  When you pick blackberries, the berry is not hollow like a black raspberry, the berry itself has a soft core on the inside of it.

When I got these delicious berries home it was hard not to eat them all and sacrifice some of them in order to make my Anthotype.  So I spent some time photographing the blackberries in various configurations before I decided on using the branch for my final choice (which meant I got to eat all of the blackberries in that bowl!  Yes!).  The berries on their own are not as interesting to me as when the thorns and the texture of the stem and leaves come into play — photographically at least, eating them is a different story.

Blackberry trait #3: Blackberries tend to be shinier and smoother and black raspberries have more of a waxy look to them.

There!  Now you can be an expert too and impress all of your friends this summer with your fantastic berry knowledge.  To give you a bit of extra knowledge, you are most likely to encounter blackberries in the farmer’s markets and grocery stores.  For reasons I am not aware of they are more salable than black raspberries.

I will have the blackberry Anthotype on my website for purchase.  First come, first serve as there is only one.  I am still giving proceeds from the sale of my Anthotypes to Curry Without Worry — an update on that later.

Happy Spring everyone!  And please forgive me if you don’t hear from me in a while.  I am 39 weeks pregnant and ready to pop.

Me with my horse Strike

I hear that there isn’t much sleep or functioning in my future, so wish me luck!

Main Excuse:  I’m pregnant!

Not my most recent pregnancy picture, but the coolest looking one.

Currently I am on my 35th week and to be honest, I haven’t been feeling all that creative during my pregnancy.  I had a friend ask me if being pregnant made me more creative or if most of my creative energy was going towards the baby.  I hadn’t thought about it like that, but most of my creative energy has been going towards the baby.  Interesting.

Also interesting, is that now, entering the end of my 3rd trimester, I am feeling creative again!  Perhaps it’s nesting.  But look out!  Cause I’m ready.  Actually it comes in spurts and then I have to nap or take a couple of days off to obsess over my registry, but it feels good to feel a creative energy coming through again.

That being said, here’s my 6-month recap.

First off, Winter Beet came back from the Center for Fine Art Photography show.

Which means it didn’t sell which is fine, because it did get a lot of time up in the gallery.  Another bonus about this is that the Center for Fine Art Photography contacted me personally and wants to see more of my Anthotype work.  Exciting!  And more work is coming… see my next blog post.

Secondly, I sold a second Anthotype.  This time it was Purple Potatoes!

Purple Potatoes is one of my favorite prints goes to my great friend Tania in Seattle.  Thanks Tania!

Thirdly, I am really loving Instagram right now.  For those of you who don’t know, its a photo app on the iPhone where you can take pictures and upload them for your friends to see.  Kinda like a Twitter for photos (since I’m not a fan of Twitter, this is my outlet).  Its great because my phone is always with me and I can just snap away at whatever inspires me.  Then you can do all kinds of variations to the photo — like make it sepia toned, black and white, give it a boarder, or a warm tone (all things that used to take HOURS in a dark room I can do at a touch of a button) — and post it.

Yes I know, me with sunglasses and dog. It's how I roll.

If you’re on Instagram, follow me and I’ll follow you too!  My handle is “sbgphoto”.

That’s all for the recap.  I am working on posting about my new Anthotype.  So look for that soon.  Sooner than 6 months from now that’s for sure.  Happy Winter!

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!

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?

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!

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.

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!

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!

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.

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!