More Backyard Flowers

Sunflower

I dropped off the framed flower prints at the gallery a week ago. The work went up that day and the opening reception was last Friday night. I was really pleased with the turnout. Not only did I see loyal clients and friends, but the reception was coupled with an annual event at the FRANK gallery called Rubbish 2 Runway.

R2R is a fashion (actually the word used is Trashion) show displaying designer clothing made entirely from recycled material. That event draws a more diverse group of people to the gallery than a typical art opening – younger and hipper, for one. The response so far has been really positive.

Tulip-a

Tulip-b

Physically, the prints are small-ish. 9 x 12 inches is as big as they get, I think. They frame out to around 20 x 24 inches. I like the look and feel (not in-hand but in sentiment) of a small print. There’s an intimacy it engenders that a larger sized print could never accomplish.

But I don’t make many of them. They take as much time and nearly as much effort and expense to produce as large prints but the law of the jungle says pricing is generally proportional to size. So from my perspective, as someone who does this with the intention of offering work for sale, the ROI isn’t worth it most of the time.

But in the case of flowers, I make an exception. First of all, the subject matter is quite content to remain small where a grand vista might demand a larger print. But thinking about it now as I write, perhaps the intentionality of this particular series of prints as I alluded in the last post, had more to do with small and intimate.

There are 14 prints in all.

Among them are 5 “pairs” of prints. By a pair, I mean two prints made from the same negative that are at the same time unique in look and character. It’s virtually impossible to make two gum prints look the same, at least the way I make them. I guess that makes the pairs more like fraternal twins. The product of the same parent but quite unique in character.

Amaryllis

The show runs through October 5. I hope those of you close enough to stop by will get a chance to see the work.

Backyard Flowers

The backyard flowers exhibit I mentioned the other day gets hung on Monday, Oct. 8 but the seed of the show was planted more than 15 years ago while working on a project with a dear friend, now deceased. Frank was an ethno-botanist by training and a enlightened teacher by inclination. Always on the move, a nomad in search of the ineffable while on a physical quest to meet a member of every plant family on the face of the earth. For 15 years, he called our home his "East Coast home." Sometimes he stayed for months at a time, other times for a weekend drive-by on his way to some plant gathering.

Echinacea 3-a

For a couple of years starting in the mid- to late 90s, we walked our 2½ acres of land we call Woods Edge. We were looking for and  identifying the plants living on the land. In all, we came up with a list of over 100 species!

In fairness, I should have written "Frank identified the plants." I’ve always had trouble discerning the minute differences in plants that’s necessary to accurately name them. And even if I had such a penchant, I doubt I could have ever remembered them.

The possibility of absorbing and retaining thousands of common and Latin names was never in the cards. So on our walks I recorded each plant in a notebook and then back at the house researched as many taxonomical details as Frank was confident in certifying.

All of which is to say, I’m not the botanist type. But I do have a life-long affinity for plants.

Magnolia

My particular interest in that earlier project was not photographic but revolved instead around the role of the plants in relation to the land they live on as well as their usefulness to me. I was experimenting with making oils, tinctures, spagyrics, meads, and more – attempting to take in the whole panoply of plant uses.

The last time I was with Frank was five years ago this past August. During that visit I wanted to tell him about a photo project I had just begun, photographing the plants on the list that we’d created years earlier. But at that point I only had a few images to show him so instead, I decided to wait for some future visit when the project was farther along.

Regrettably, I never had the opportunity to do that. He died unexpectedly two weeks later in August of 2009. In an effort to honor and advance his work, family members, both by birth and by choice, formed a non-profit organization. If you’re interested, check out the Plants and Healers website.

The shock of his death set the project back for a few years. The bulk of the photographs in the exhibit were made in the past two years and all but two of the gum prints in the show have been printed in the past 6 months.

Amanita