Winter Journey

"Les Petites Morts d'Edgar Allan Poe"

Based on the colour scheme of the seven chambers described in "The Masque of the red Death," I sculpted the original figure, created a mold, and have cast these in plaster of Paris with pigment added to the plaster.

Before and twenty-four hours after: they are drying/curing and the colours are getting deeper.

25. July, 2024 - Six Views from Shattuck Hill

I've been learning about the history of pens and ink. Making my own ink - that was worth doing. Charcoal and carbon (soot) has been used for tens of thousands of years. It's in the cave paintings of Lascaux. Gutenberg used it in printing. It's been in use in Japan for thousands of years.

I contacted a local chimney sweep and received a large quantity of soot from him. Using various recipes, I created my own incredibly black ink. It works in a dip pen.

. . . and I can create Art with it. This was my test of my ink.

23. July 2024 - REALLY Black Ink

Ink made from charcoal dates back to prehistoric times. Charcoal was used 17,000 years ago in the caves at Lascaux. Ink made from soot or lamp black has been in use for at least 4,000 years. Gutenberg used it. It was easily made in Colonial America.

The basic recipe: soot from your local chimney sweep mixed with water and your choice of binding agents: egg white, honey, gum Arabic, et al. Mix well in a mortar and then pestel the daylights out of it.

The result is an incredibly black ink. It has the scent of a fireplace or a house after the fire department has left. (Clove or lavender oil can fix that.)

I'll be using this pigment in creating Art and illustrations.

Note: I received enough soot from a local handyman and chimney sweep to make a 55-gallon drum of ink.

That should last me for a while.

Have a safe and interesting week, everyone

16. July 2024 - Infrared in Coventry, Vermont.

6. May 2024 - Yesterday in Newport, Vermont.

Ten images - a blizzard of black and white! I walked here and there with my Leica camera - AND its infrared capabilities - which are fascinating.

Note: these images were run through Nightshade - a software program created at the University of Chicago. What's it do? It makes images invisible and/or toxic to mean ol' corporate juggernauts who harvest images for AI generating purposes.

22 April 2024 - Camera Obscura

I am building a mid-1800s camera. A camera obscura, to be accurate. I hope to recreate the methods by which the earliest known photographic images were created by Joseph Nicéphore Niépce in the late 1820s. We are approaching the 200th anniversary of his oldest known camera photograph.

The camera is built by hand - no power tools. As I figure out the structure, I temporarily tape the pieces in place. If they work, I'll glue them in place.

Today, I set my focusing window in place. It works! I took it onto my porch, pointed it across my yard, then took photos of what I saw on the focusing window. I flipped the images so you can see them right-side up.

2024. 7. April - An Interesting Experiment: Leica Infrared Photography

Danae - Mixed media on panel, ca. 1990 - 18 x 18 in/45x45 cm

5. January 2024 - Unfinished painting in oil with metal leaf on canvas

I began working on this large canvas a long time ago. It started off in Alaska, has been revised in multiple places in California, and is now with me in Vermont. It's a large work - 25x50 in/63.5x127 cm.

I haven't touched it in at least twenty years. I think I'll finish it this year.

Hey! Maybe it's my masterpiece! It has all my obsessions in it, after all: Gustav Klimt, redheads, and penguins.

2. January 2024 - I Own This Glass Negative

Every once in a while, I search for antique glass negatives on eBay. Typically, the seller shows bad images taken with a smartphone - and of negative images which are hard to base a decision on. In this case, I decided a collection of 4x5 inch glass plate negatives - taken by an unknown, amateur photographer - was worth buying.

10. January 2024 - A Fine Example of Victorian - What, Exactly?

I had to own this.

The seller of this ca. 1870s ferrotype (tintype) thought it was a feminine-looking man. I disagree. You don't need to watch many films from Germany's Weimar years to know this is a woman. The hair is pulled back and slicked down in a way men didn't do in the Victorian era.

An actress in a role? An amusing inside joke? A gift for a Special Person? A statement of some sort? Feel free to make up your own interpretation of this fascinating image.

2.February 2024 - Daguerreotype, ca. 1845-55.

According to the hallmark stamp in the upper left corner, this daguerreotype plate was produced in France by the Gaudin brothers in Paris. I spent time restoring this very weathered photograph. It needed and deserved it.

At a certain point, I decided to stop and let its 180 years of damage speak for itself.

You can make out the faint curved marks where a long-gone brass frame would've been. Also: the copper in the lower left corner where the silver coating has rubbed off.

This flawed but wonderful image was created during the first decade or so from the announcement of the daguerreotype process. A small plate of metal 3.25 x 2.75 inches with the image of an unknown woman, possibly taken when Poe and Chopin were still alive - these things get to me, you know?

Good luck to all of us this year.

2023. 20 November - Edgar Allan Poe: First Drawing

I've been thinking I really, REALLY need to do an oil painting of Poe in a landscape - with a ruined chateau behind him. Earlier this week, I sat down and made a sketch. This is how it starts. Stay tuned for sporadic updates.

15 November 2023 - Carte de Visite; Australia ca. 1865