photopolymer gravure (to replace traditional acid or salt aquatints)
this image is from an annual party at my friends' barn, with the climbing wall in a silo (pingpong table and air hockey on the third floor, and lots of beer and food, fire pit outside...)
but is the image that convinced me that an idea I had just might work:
I want to refer to Moby Dick (in text) as a, sometimes, metaphor, to the adventures of my friends, and the spirit of leaving ordinary, boring life in favor of taking a real bite out of the time we have here.
the image below shows the color I prefer on the right. It's a big green in the photo, but in reality is a very dark brown; which relates to the old barn better and gives me feelings of an old wooden ship that has a deep hold.
content wise: i want to be specific enough to tell the story of my friends adventures, and want the Herman Melville masterpiece references to be obvious enough to get, but I want to leave this project open enough for interpretation so not to be a completely self indulgent thing.
As it stands now, I've had both positive and negative feedback about this image containing two women (when on an old whaling ship there were none). But, that's the fun. I'm not making any strong statement about gender, while not caring to be historically accurate (since this IS a project about my friends and not just a regurgitation of Moby Dick).
Also, someone had issue with another image being winter hiking with a snowboard. (another unimaginative literary bore accepting metaphor in the old text but not allowing it to extend to interpretation later...) A historical piece of trivia about the snowy summit in the image is that it is the very mountain towards which Herman Melville faced the porch of his new home when he was writing Moby Dick. Locals call it the "real Moby Dick" because of it's shape and the fact that it often has snow on top of it when town has none (thus making it's white color stand out).
I don't know how this project will progress. I suppose it will take several months to really know if the vague thesis can be fleshed out into a full body of work. But, if I keep the constraints loose enough, it ought to take me in some interesting directions.
One MAJOR note:
The plan is to have text from the book, as well as hand written journal-style notes in each image.
Right not I"m only developing the images in small format, and running small editions without text. I want the images to have the ability to stand alone. After enough are collected, then I'll match the correct quotes and add journal notes to larger versions, creating a completely different suite.
this image is from an annual party at my friends' barn, with the climbing wall in a silo (pingpong table and air hockey on the third floor, and lots of beer and food, fire pit outside...)
but is the image that convinced me that an idea I had just might work:
I want to refer to Moby Dick (in text) as a, sometimes, metaphor, to the adventures of my friends, and the spirit of leaving ordinary, boring life in favor of taking a real bite out of the time we have here.
the image below shows the color I prefer on the right. It's a big green in the photo, but in reality is a very dark brown; which relates to the old barn better and gives me feelings of an old wooden ship that has a deep hold.
content wise: i want to be specific enough to tell the story of my friends adventures, and want the Herman Melville masterpiece references to be obvious enough to get, but I want to leave this project open enough for interpretation so not to be a completely self indulgent thing.
As it stands now, I've had both positive and negative feedback about this image containing two women (when on an old whaling ship there were none). But, that's the fun. I'm not making any strong statement about gender, while not caring to be historically accurate (since this IS a project about my friends and not just a regurgitation of Moby Dick).
Also, someone had issue with another image being winter hiking with a snowboard. (another unimaginative literary bore accepting metaphor in the old text but not allowing it to extend to interpretation later...) A historical piece of trivia about the snowy summit in the image is that it is the very mountain towards which Herman Melville faced the porch of his new home when he was writing Moby Dick. Locals call it the "real Moby Dick" because of it's shape and the fact that it often has snow on top of it when town has none (thus making it's white color stand out).
I don't know how this project will progress. I suppose it will take several months to really know if the vague thesis can be fleshed out into a full body of work. But, if I keep the constraints loose enough, it ought to take me in some interesting directions.
One MAJOR note:
The plan is to have text from the book, as well as hand written journal-style notes in each image.
Right not I"m only developing the images in small format, and running small editions without text. I want the images to have the ability to stand alone. After enough are collected, then I'll match the correct quotes and add journal notes to larger versions, creating a completely different suite.