Cumulus

Cumulus no. 1 • Iris print • 14" x 16.25"

Cumulus no. 2 • Iris print • 14" x 16.25"

Cumulus no. 3 • Iris print • 8.5"x 9.75"

Last week I had the opportunity to be an artist in residence at the Institute for Electronic Arts at Alfred University. The Experimental Projects Residency is a unique facet within the School of Art and Design, New York State College of Ceramics, where I received my BFA nine years ago. The residency invites artists from around the globe to reside in the tiny town of Alfred, NY for one week to make great work. I was honored to be part of the growing list of accomplished artists to pass through the IEA.

My project at the IEA centered on the distortions within expired Polaroid film. I began by scanning the cloud-like chemical stains that had formed on the Polaroid film with prolonged storage. I was printing these forms through several passes on the IEA’s drum-based IRIS printer, layering the composition in stages. I was interested in the idea of creating a digital print similar to a traditional printing process, building the print in layers. Each time I sent a file, I would anxiously wait for the drum to stop spinning so I could see what I had. It was a very tactile way of thinking about digital prints. From there I would decide where I needed to add more form, density or color. This process was all about letting go of some of the control and allowing the image to accumulate onto the paper.

To ground these airy, water-filled clouds, I paired them with some of my recent landscape photographs of open fields and distant trees. You can read more about the project here on the IEA’s blog.