CYANOTYPES | 2017-2020 (click to expand project)
This ongoing series of cyanotypes are made from personal collections: I gather flora and fauna by intuition (usually on long walks in different environments). The collections are made on a single day, and the objects are pressed or dried, and then laid out on light-sensitive paper (coated in cyanotype solution). I arrange them in a non-hierarchical format, creating a personal taxonomy. Selected prints have been made based on collections from Paris, France, Hudson, NY, Brooklyn, NY, Bristol, RI, Power Island in Lake Michigan, and Mildred’s Lane, PA.
Each cyanotype is printed on watercolor rag paper, and is inherently unique. To introduce some tension, the colors are organized in reference to Sonia Delaunay‘s color theory of Simultanisme, which speaks to the rhythm and poetry inherent to color theory. Sonia and her husband Robert Delaunay developed this practice of overlapping planes of color at the turn of the 20th century, in response to Michel Eugène Chevreul’s 1839 book De la Loi du Contraste Simultanée des Couleurs (On the Law of the Simultaneous Contrast of Colours).
I find these ongoing prints to be a great way to synthesize themes in my wide-ranging practice, encapsulating found-object collection and display, composition, and a love of color.