Shocking turnout. Not that I had much to do with that but that’s one of the perks about working with Habib and PØST. The venue draws a crowd no matter what. Well over 100 people came and many of the students from LBCC showed up. I was most happy about that and I love that crew.
About the work: Printing the large cyanotype was incredibly difficult. I got such a beautiful color on my first pass but when I tried to rinse it with water (which is what sets the image) I got this:
Brutal. Just basically rinsed off the wall.
The next attempt stayed on the wall but there was basically no image:
Attempt # 3: Closer but still having adhesion troubles, running out of money for chemicals and just about out of time:
So at this point I’m basically just scared. It’s Thursday, I have one day left to print (it takes a full day to paint out the reject and expose another print)
I actually wanted to get on the 10 East and drive away forever but I made it as far as the liquor store, bought a six pack of Red Bull, turned around and went back to PØST.
I was careful about everything, the mixture, the application, and the exposure. The good thing about the previous screw ups is that I was able to tweak the lighting and I found that if I rinsed from the bottom up it would erase as it poured down the wall.
I came in Friday morning so uptight I couldn’t even turn the lights on to see what happened. Went back outside, had a cigarette, came inside, went back outside for another cigarette – grabbed the sprayer and out came the image. I was so relieved I had an image I was going to love it no matter what. Friday night, I went back and forth about whether I really thought it was a good image or not and decided that it wasn’t what I had in mind but I did kinda dig it.
I’d give it a B
That night I finally slept a little but I still had some strange anxiety about the show in general.
During the opening my machine (Analogue) stopped working properly. This kinda ruined the opening for me because I had to stand near it and prod it every few minutes. That was a bummer because I couldn’t really enjoy myself and I’ve been beating myself up about it because the adjustment would’ve been so simple. About 3 pennies at one end of the rail actually fixed it the next day. Anyway, I’ll beat myself up over that one for a while.
I called Carl Cheng today and he made me feel much better without even trying. He didn’t exactly say it but what I got from his stories was that these kind of snafus are sort of a right of passage. And even if he didn’t mean it that’s what I’m going with.
Damn thing:
