after the quake

uncertain futures,
muddy waters to swim..
and deadlines with their own darkness..







..last one to leave the factory,
turn off the bright lights..

factory will fall.

having read (and in most cases re-read) various
books, poems, song lyrics etc.. i have drawn a
blank for a suitable title.. it was only when
trawling through my own blog here (wondering what
i had written over the past few months) that i
came across an early photograph of the painting
as a 'work in progress' - the title of that
particular post was "another enriching layer of
disquiet" obviously how i felt at the time..
so, stick to what you know and how you feel..
i'm gonna go with that.

what i find strange is when a friend passes comment
to you about a post on "your blog" - christ, i didn't
think anybody read this twaddle (apart from two maybe
three people & my cat who occasionaly sits on the
computer whilst i'm typing this)..

you mostly forget that anybody can find themselves here
why they would want to is another matter..
__________________________________________________

i spent most of this morning (nursing a bad zinfandel
and bitter head) applying acid to copper in a small(er)
attempt to recreate the imagery in my (broken) head
and produce smaller versions & variations on a theme;

here; (work very much in progress...)
__________________________________________________

paint..


__________________________________________________

and copper and this corrosion..


__________________________________________________


__________________________________________________

a habbit of mine is to wipe brushes down my shirt and
also to put them in my mouth, usually i have paint all
around my mouth from this rather unhealthy habit of
brush cleaning.. of course, sometimes it's not just
paint i use my brushes for..



i may go and have a little lie down now..

like the light in Italy (well, sort of)

i have been working at the paperclip factory
till midnight, long & boring hours wasted...

i still manage to get up in the morning to do
as much as i can & have several various idea's
in progress; the 'incubator' series, which so
far consists of two small canvases is catching
the sun's warm rays in the garden, hopefully i
will expand on these.

the light this morning was beautiful, i took
the below picture of my favourite painting shirt
as the light caught all the specks & drips of
paint, the light has an almost Rembrandt quality.



_________________________________________________

i'm still struggling to find a suitable title that
encapsulates the painting in the previous post for
submission.... they (the panel of judges) only get
to see the painting & title, so i figure the title
has to be of interest also.. it may even be a kind
of deciding factor??

image redux; take 3, version (iv) - part b...

image cropped; colour corrected;
and rotated slightley to make it level.

(click on pic for larger image)



_________________________________________

additional added to this post (wednesday 6th feb)

the entry form states that an optional image
may be submitted if collage/relief used;

so i have re-shot some photographs of the bottom
part of this work.
i like the idea of being able to see that the
metal continues around the edges of the box canvas
but, i like the other shot also..

_________________________________________

(click on pic for larger image)



_________________________________________

(click on pic for larger image)

version (ii)

ok, so this is a second attempt, albeit a rather
rushed one; i managed to escape the factory a couple
of hours earlier by nipping out the fire escape..

the light was fading fast so i had to work quickly
it was raining outside, so no chance of outside..
but, my studio has skylights, the painting was
placed beneath the skylight; and to focus this time
i used a piece of paper with type on stuck to the
painting, set the focus, aimed between f8-f11 and
set it on timer; whilst it counted down i removed
the typed paper; and below is the uncropped and
unedited in photoshop;

just for comparison; to see if the direction i am
heading towards is the right one...



there is much more work to be done still...

point & click (743 clicks that is)

this was a long long day of clicking about,
working on expert advice from Megan, who obviously
has a far superiour knowledge of photography than
me, this involves tape measures, photographing white
sheets, recording the image of the white sheets,
importing them into the camera's memory to set the
'average white balance' choosing speeds, f'stops,
getting the lighting right, avoiding reflections,
fitting the whole painting into the frame..
and other numerous things...

so, the results of 743 imported pictures..
well, after a while they all start to look the
same.. the one that you spent two hours adjusting
f8 to f9, droping the shutter speed a little..
which one was that again? 648, no it was 650..
damn it..

these are the ones i have chosen so far;
i've uploaded them to see how they fair on
different monitors & computers..

whole image shot (1)



detail shot (ver1)



detail shot (ver2)

mum, mars is at the window..

i have a deadline looming like the dirty end of winter.

i keep staring at the form which i have had to pay to
register for..

this is so way above my station it may as well be held
on mars.

i have several problems to tackle here, firstly i can only
submit one piece.. by one single photograph.

how the hell do i choose which piece?? out of all your work
how do you ascertain which is representational of your most
significant style?

and, even when you have acomplished this.. photographing it..
oh, this issues i am having with photographing work..
people will be submitting 35mm slides, professionaly taken,
studio lit with those silver space umbrella thingies.. you
know, the ones they have on mars.. (possibly)

what have i got? a mobile phone camera..

(it's like turning up to your home economics lesson at school
with 'ready brek' when told to bring oats..)

i have till the end of the month to decide if i should bother
submitting something.. or maybe just draw a big smiley face
on the registration form and send it to NASA.. please forward
to mars, ta.

these are some attempts of photographing what i'm
struggling with (and have been struggling with for
some time)
i have been coming back to this painting on and off
for months..





i'm going to go and weep quietly in the corner now..