BLINK Magazine

Grateful to be featured in BLINK Magazine in conjunction with Klompching Gallery exhibition FRESH 2012.  Thanks to Kim Aram!

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FlakPhoto Stories

In collaboration with Klompching Gallery's FRESH exhibition.  FlakPhoto feature with Martin Bogren, Tabitha Soren, Monica Merva and Shawn Rocco. Thanks Andy!

Our profile on FlakPhoto below.

unless you will

A beautiful on-line magazine by Heidi Romano. 
Thanks, for the mention on uyw - facebook 9 September.

Sweet Woodruff

Sweet Woodruff (galium odoratum) impression with MaryAnn, 2012

Sweet woodruff owes its sweet smell to the odiferous agent, coumarin which is enhanced as it dries.  It is traditionally used in pot pourri and stuffing of the medieval winter mattress. 

Sweet woodruff prefers shade and it's name, “Ruff,” comes from French, meaning rouelle, relating to the arrangement of the leaves around the stem.

The plant has a long herbal history for use in a variety of ailments, including liver problems, stomach aches, and to promote healing of wounds.  Used in jellies and drinks, most popular is it's flavoring of May Wine or “Maibowle.”

Couldn't resist:  May Day 1994

Klompching Gallery - FRESH 2012

Grateful to jurors Darren Ching and Fred Bidwell.
Thank you, Debra Klomp Ching for the beautiful reception and dinner.

from left:  Lindsay Lochman, Monica Merva, Fred Bidwell, Darren Ching, Shawn Rocco (Tabitha Sorenson)
 

http://www.klompching.com

FRESH 2012 ON LINE EXHIBITION

The Mercurial Herbs - Dill and Fennel

The action of Mercurial herbs were seen to "have principle relation to the tongue or brain, lungs and memory; they dispell winde and comfort the animal spirits, and open obstructions."

Consider Dill, a Mercurial herb with powers of Earth and Fire. Dill is a member of the carrot family (along with other familiar herbs and vegetables including celery, parsley and cilantro)  it is thought to have originated in southwest Asia and on the Indian subcontinent.

The name dill from "dillan", meaning to lull, may have prompted the practice of giving dill to restless babies to make them sleep and associates the plant with  love, protection, blessings,  dreams, harmony, keeping secrets.

"Vervaine and dill

Hinder evil witches of their will." 

Owing to the number of seed the plant produces, dill is is also used in money spells and fertility and stimulates lust if eaten or smelled. 

Fennel, another mercurial herb with Air and Fire powers.  It was used by the Saxons and Jewish mystics as a purifying herb. Pliny attributed it with many medicinal properties. Greek olympians,  Roman gladiators and Germans, believed it gave strength, courage and longevity to those who used it. Midsummer rituals associated it with consecration, divination, energy,  and meditation.
‘He who sees Fennel and gathers it not is not a man but a devil’. 

Fennel was hung in doorways and stuffed into keyholes on Midsummer’s eve during the Middle Ages to protect houses against fire and evil. As a medical tea, it kept insanity and temptation under control in much the same way as garlic was used to scare vampires away. Fennel followed colonists to the New World.

Anna Atkins - Exhibition Sheet

Barbara Ciurej & Lindsay Lochman | Collaborative Projects | www.ciurejlochmanphoto.com

About the process

The process of cyanotype involves exposing paper that has been coated with a light-sensitive iron salt solution to UV light (sunlight). Any barrier to exposure (in this instance, the flowers) will be recorded as negative images and render as white shadows on the Prussian blue surface. This is the same process employed in making blueprints.

The original portraits were shot on 4 x 5 negatives, scanned and printed using digital printing methods. The prints were then coated with cyanotype solution, botanicals were arranged on the surface and the coated portrait exposed to sunlight for 3-5 minutes. A water rinse clears the chemicals and the areas that were blocked by the botanicals reveal parts of the underlying portrait.

Honoring Anna Atkins

Anna Atkins (1799-1871) was trained as a botanist, botanical illustrator and naturalist. She is often considered the first person to publish a book illustrated with photographic images and the first woman to create a photograph. She learned the cyanotype process from Sir John Hershel, a family friend, who invented the process in 1842.

Atkins self published her photograms in the first installment of Photographs of British Algae: Cyanotype Impressions in October 1843. Eight months later, in June 1844, William Henry Fox Talbot’s The Pencil of Nature was commercially published and released. Her efforts established photography as a medium for scientific documentation — her compositions were beautiful as well as useful and accurate.

Atkins’ subsequent botanical albums include Cyanotypes of British and Foreign Ferns (1853) and Cyanotypes of British and Foreign Flowering Plants and Ferns (1854).