Vintage Prints and Patterns

 from: Trouvais.com

Whenever time permits I scout for new looks, patterns, motifs.

For a while I felt a bit worried about my propensity for collecting old, rustic objects, sometime with no serious economic value.

I have accused myself of planning to build a museum of myself or something...

Here is what people collect these days:

Old jute or linen sacs, making upholstery of cushions out of it.

Seems past holds promises for many of us, irresistible....

 

The name of the rustic item shown on Ebay.

Vintage French Jute / Hessian burlap grain sack Printed small bag rustic textile

As for my printing practice - I cannot print on jute or even untreated linen or artist canvas. My machine's printheads are set at a close distance from the surface they print on for a precision and high resolution.
Rough stretchy fabric would definitely damage my printer.
I must use textiles specially enginered for my technology. Essentially I would need to capture the background as the part of the graphic (by scanning or photographic) and print the whole graphic on a white even textile.
Which - under the inspiration - I may actually do! 

Werner Herzog as essentially Baroque artist

It is still winter, no work around the house and no gardening, walks tend to be short and brisk...
There is a good thing about this time of year - there is more time to contemplate.
There are certain things I love to contemplate, to think of, to savour, to tease out of...

In both films Herzog uses music as a divine instrument to gear our attention, to set us into the scenery of magical possibility and impossibility, scenery filled with symbols which mark the theatre he builds. Like a Baroque funerary theatre - Theatrum Funebris with objects that call for pensive pose, for a melancholic stance, for a moment of silence in the face of human solitude.
My thesis is that W. Herzog is an artist of baroque sensibility, baroque in its purest and most elevated form and that Bavarian Film Noir is a direct descendant of that historic period.

In Fitzcarraldo, Kaus Kinski's - protagonist presses into the unknown of the jungle, Enrico Caruso's voice carries him like a spell among the savages and away from civilisation.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X6m1QDBx5ec

It gets even better than this. In my opinion, the opening sequence of The Enigma of Caspar Hauser is simply unmatched, it is sublime!

I hope nobody minds the rest of the sequences are in Spanish, we have no problem about that, right?

Mea Cuba - Vernissage

The event turned out to be very successful and really good fun.
In spite of almost a blizzard, the opening evening brought a good number of people.
Among guest we have met SPAO's (School of Photographic Arts Ottawa) instructors.
I was surprised to see that fellow students of Alexei did not show, except one.
Could this suggest that the students do not bond easily, something way back when I was still taking my photography classes - we have discussed once, the photographer's ego...

The Opening Night and the reception were great, the coming weekend wish featured Meet the Artist on Saturday and Sunday afternoon.
Once again, the turnout was surprisingly good on the weekend - largely following a brief morning CBC Radio interview with Alexei, broadcasted at 8:30 in the morning.
We were please to see so many people who came after listening to this interview at In Town and Out.

You may listen to the interview via Alexei's website:
http://www.alexeikintero.ca/apps/blog/show/11969522-cbc-radio-interview-with-michael-bhardwaj

Exhibition continued for the next almost 3 weeks, after which the buyers were called to pickup thei new acquisitions. I was glad to have met interesting people.
I am pleased to say that Alexei is a talented photographer but also an enthusiastic organizer and animator.
I am even more pleased once I  have received a signed copy of one of the works exhibited - Running in Circles.
 

Alexei Kintero - Mea Cuba Photo Exhibition

Finally, it's Show Time!

Almost on the fly a Cuban-Canadian photographer Alexei Kintero, a finishing student at SPAO and I decided to make an exhibition of his work at my Studio.

We set a very close date, and we move it. Literally, we moved the shelving from the Studio front room to the back, my workshop room and we decide on the number of works, make the selection of paper for printing, he pickups the frames, we install some track lighting, pointed the lights, washed the floor and it was almost ready.
The Artist brings a bouquet of fresh tropical flowers, a CD with Cuban music, orders a small catering service from Havana - a local Cuban restaurant and we invite guests.

I cut the wall titling lettering, make a window signage and print his work.
I have output most of his work on the Epson Premium Luster, a reliable, locally available paper for digital photography.

More on the choices of paper for the exhibition:

My Father's birthday

This month was my father's birthday.
Both of my parents contributed to my fondness of history and objects from the past.
He contributed greatly to the Baobab - the family history.

The project, since we are not aristocrats, is not trailing the path of written historic records.
However, I managed to trace my family history only as far as the photographic proof has it.
So essentially, owe my life as a family member to the technology of photography.
So yes, I have tried to repay my debt to photography. In early 1980ies I have enrolled in the photography courses at the Visual Arts department of the local university.
I have spent everything I owned on a Pentax K1000 ($95.-) and a lens ($50.00).

The camera served me well, I've taken many photographs.I was receptive -I admit - to the magic of chemistry-based B&W development, but only as long as I could use technician-maintained lab in the department's lab. The moment I had set up by basement-darkroom it became a utopia.
Between work and a small kid - mixing chemicals....

Aha, and if you think that I would subscribe to the non-clutter concept of organization and get rid of that camera for which I spent everything I owned - no way ma'am. I am going to the grave with it.
I did let my son to cut his photographic teeth on it...

Here, you can see my proud baby, in the background you may see the proof that indeed I keep Susan Sontag and Camille Paglia at a safe distance...
Look - they are separated by Art in the Public Spaces and The Poetics of Space, let me see... Even Semiotics and some book on Linguistics, must be Botha..
They are flanked by - wow - Love in he Western World, Derrida and old edition of C.Jung chewed by my friend's dog
(not the Master, the book dummy!)