Ag2 at Leighton Art Centre

On Saturday January 30th I made the drive back down to Calgary.  This time it was a solo trip... Margarit just arrived home from California the afternoon before and the girls all wanted to spend some time with her.  I was returning to the Leighton Art Centre south of Calgary for the opening of my Ag2 show.  This show is a duo project, again with my friend Rob Michiel.  Our Procession West exhibition has become so large, now with over 40 prints, that most venues don't have the space to show them all.  We used some of the prints from that project, and added a selection of new work.  We call this second exhibition Ag2, so that it is not in direct competition with our other show.  I won't quote the entire artist statement here, but the following excerpt outlines the meaning of the title...

Ag²

Our title is symbolic in two ways... 

Ag for silver; by definition,  a chemical element with the symbol Ag.  From the Latin Argentum.  Atomic number 47, a white lustrous transition metal it possesses the highest electrical conductivity, thermal conductivity and reflectivity of any metal.  Silver has long been valued as a precious metal.  Of course it is the industrial application of its compounds in photographic film and paper that is of value to us as artists.

Two for squared; as this exhibition is the collaborative effort of two artists and friends, Robert Michiel and Robert Pohl.  Preferring to differentiate ourselves from the direction that technology has taken modern photography, both artists choose to work by traditional methods.  The hands on process of working with film and in the darkroom provides us with a greater degree of personal satisfaction.  

I left Edmonton around 9:00AM and arrived at the Leighton Art Center just before noon.  It was a mild day, but with heavily overcast skies.  This gallery is the former home of landscape painter A.C. Leighton, and after his passing became a historical site, art centre and gallery.  It is in a spectacular location, perched high atop a hilltop, overlooking the front ranges of the Rockies, to the west.

Upon entering the building, the foyer was set up as seen below.  The Ag2 exhibition was in the main gallery.  We had more than enough prints to fill this space and a few overflowed into other areas.  A selection of "Badlands" images by Saskatchewan artist Ken Dalgarno were showing in the smaller gallery space upstairs.  A local photographer and board member also had a few images displayed in the foyer.  These are the ones with the dark overmats.

One of Rob's prints and one of mine were included on the left side of the foyer.  From here guests walked down the hallway to the left.  One one side of the hallway there were two prints of mine, and on the other side, three of Rob's...

At the end of the hallway, if you turned left again, there were two or three of Ken Dalgarno's color digital prints on display in a second hallway, and there were stairs leading up to the second gallery where several more of Ken's prints were on display.  Turning right would lead to the main gallery where the remainder of the Ag2 show was on display.  It was a nice space with a good amount of natural light from the windows and a skylight, and also some supplementary artificial track lights.  A couple of the corners were a little dark, but overall it was pretty good.  Fortunately Rob and I chose to frame our prints with some rather expensive anti-reflective, high light transmitting glass.  It did a pretty good job of eliminating reflections from the windows at virtually all viewing angles.

According to the gallery staff there were a total of 56 guests that attended during the two hour opening that afternoon.  There were lots of positive comments about the photographs in general, but in particular about our black and white film based work.  I was quite pleased with everything and reported to Rob the events of the afternoon.  He was not able to make it, as he now resides in the interior of British Columbia, which makes for a pretty long drive.  As this exhibit is part of the province wide Exposure Festival, on through the month of February, hopefully there will be a continuous stream of visitors over the coming weeks.
Once the opening wrapped up I hit the road for home, arriving back in Edmonton about 8:30PM.  I will pick up our prints from this exhibition in early March, when the show ends, and then deliver them on to their next venue, down in southern Alberta.

Weekend in Calgary

On Saturday morning I got the girls up bright and early.  We were on the road to Calgary by about 8:30AM, after picking up one of my trucks, loaded with the crates full of prints, from my shop.  We made it through Calgary before lunch, but then I had trouble finding my way over to the Leighton Art Centre.  The roads had all been changed in the south part of Calgary with the recent opening of the south leg of their Ring Road.  I missed my turnoff and we ended up looping way around to the south before eventually circling through Black Diamond and Turner Valley and making my way back up to Leighton.  It is a beautiful mansion, built I believe in the 1950's, and originally belonging to landscape painter A.C. Leighton.  It is perched high up on a hill and overlooks the Rockies to the west.  Today it is a historic site, an art center, and a gallery.  After unloading and dropping off the prints, we did a quick tour of the gallery.  I had all three of my daughters with me on this trip as Margarit is down in California visiting her older sister.  After leaving Leighton we headed into Calgary and made our way over to my brother Wes's place.  The girls were anxious to visit with their cousin Simone, so we planned on staying the night at their place, and heading back to Edmonton on Sunday.  We had a late lunch together and visited through the evening.

On Sunday morning Wes and I packed up our camera gear and headed out south of Calgary for a drive.  The girls stayed behind with their cousins Sam and Simone and their Aunt Barb.  The weather was not great.  The temperature was fairly mild at -2C but it was snowing, heavily at times, there was a heavy cover of cloud, and the wind was rather brisk.  We made our way down to some old grain elevators that Wes had explored in the past.  Conditions weren't very good for any exterior images so we spent most of our time exploring the interior of these abandoned structures.  I set up the view camera a couple of times and did some detail shots on the interior.  I've attached a few snapshots taken during our outing.  After finishing up here we headed back into Calgary.  By mid afternoon I packed up the girls and all our stuff and we made the long boring drive back to Edmonton.  We settled down in the evening, with everyone needing a good night's rest to be ready for school and work tomorrow.

Distribution

Exhibition season is officially underway....!   I delivered my two prints to DC3 Gallery here in Edmonton this afternoon.  These are being exhibited at In Focus as part of the province wide Exposure Festival.  The show will be installed next week, and officially opens on Thursday February 4th.  Everyone is encouraged to view a selection of images on line, and vote on the peoples choice.  Here is a link to that website...

http://www.alexismarieart.com/index.php/infocus-2016-peoples-choice/

And here is a copy of the invitation...

I also have the 26 framed prints belonging to my friend Rob Michiel and I, packed up and ready to go.  These are being delivered to the Leighton Art Centre in Calgary for our exhibition called Ag2.  This is also part of the Exposure Festival.  On Saturday morning I will drive down to Calgary and drop off my three crates full of prints.  This exhibition will also be installed next week with the opening scheduled for January 30th.  Here is the official invitation for that one...

I expect to be in attendance for both openings.  Anyone that has time to make it is encouraged to attend.  If you can't make either opening, please feel welcome to check out either or both shows through the month of February.  There are numerous other shows taking place during the month as part of this festival so please check those out and support local photographers if you can....

Fuji Neopan Acros 100

Nearly a month ago, on Christmas Day, I processed a batch of Fuji Neopan Acros 100 sheet film in Rodinal developer.  Mostly this batch included images from my recent trip down to Utah.

In recent weeks my time has been consumed trying to get everything ready for some of my upcoming gallery exhibitions.  I did manage to scan a few sheets taken at the White Pocket, down in the Vermilion Cliffs National Monument.  These were all taken on October 20th, Day Five of the trip down to southern Utah.  Detailed information about the trip my be found in a blog posting of mine that dates back to early November.  There are other sheet film negatives in this batch that I have not yet found time to scan, edit and post.  Look for further blog postings in the coming days and weeks.

This batch of 4" x 5" sheet film was processed in Rodinal developer, diluted 1:50, for 11:00 minutes.  I consider this the equivalent of approx. 1/2 zone expansion.  I have had some issues with this developer in recent months.  I'm not sure if it is related to the chemistry getting old, or the film itself being outdated.  I have noticed pin holes and blotchiness in some of my negatives.  The developer that I have been using is actually Blazinal... a knock off on the Rodinal formula.  Since the bankrupcy of Agfa, the true Rodinal formula is no longer available.  The closest replacement is made by Adox, but it is not readily available in Canada.  I have been using Blazinal, but am wondering about the quality of this formulation, particularly as it ages.  I was recently able to obtain some of the Adox version of this formula and will be working with that in future, and hope that these issues disappear.  

For now, here are some scans of a selection of images taken on October 20th at the White Pocket.  This was my third visit to this spectacular location and the first time I have been witness to the presence of freshwater pools resulting from recent abundant rains.  I will try and work with these negatives to create some respectable prints, particularly in consideration of the fact that these conditions are somewhat rare...

Girl Herding...

This is a lot less glamorous than it sounds..... but for the next two weeks I am living with three girls...!  In my younger days this would have been amazing, but now in my old age it is a challenge.  I am home alone with my three young daughters for the next two weeks.

It has been seasonably cold here in Edmonton the last few days, after a very mild fall and early winter.  On Saturday I spent the day working on putting prints together for a couple of my upcoming photo shows.   In the evening I watched the "batttle of Alberta" on television.  This was another instalment of the hockey match up between my Edmonton Oilers, and the hated Calgary Flames.  For a change the Oilers came out on top, though it took a shootout to settle things.  While I was watching the game the girls cleaned up some of the clutter they had created in the living room.  All the while Margarit was nervously pacing... about to set off on her trip.

After the hockey game I settled down for a nap, setting my alarm to wake me up at 2:30AM.  I needed to drive Margarit to the airport to catch a 6:00AM flight to San Jose.  She was heading down to California to visit her older sister.  Seems like this is payback for the couple of times that I left her home with the girls and headed off down to Utah with my cameras....

We said our goodbyes in the wee hours and I dropped her off at the departures door.  I headed back home and tried to get to sleep.  It took me a couple of hours before I was finally able to drift off.  I was sharing my bed with a restless seven-year-old that seemed determined to not allow me to relax.  I finally fell asleep at some point after six, and didn't wake up until nearly noon.

In the afternoon, after I finally got the three girls mobile, I headed down to the basement and worked on putting together some more prints.  I now have all the prints assembled and ready to go for next weekend.  This includes a selection of 26 framed prints that need to be delivered down to the Leighton Art Center in Calgary next Saturday.  The three girls and I will make a trip down there on Saturday for the delivery, and stop in briefly to visit my brother and his family.  In advance of that I also need to drop off two prints for the In Focus show here in Edmonton.  Everything is ready on my part and it is just a matter of making time for the deliveries.  I have most of the stuff ready for my next show, coming up in March but still have about five more prints to put into frames.  I will focus on this over the next few days, so that nothing is left to the last minute.

In the late afternoon the girls and I headed over to the grocery store to pick up a few supplies and snacks.  We made a supper of tacos, mexican rice and refried beans.  We also have some stuff ready for lunches over the next few days... in addition to the groceries that Margarit left behind for us.  The girls wanted to have fresh bread for lunches so we dug out the bread maker and got a batch going this evening.  

Margarit phoned in the afternoon and confirmed that she had arrived safe and sound at her sister's place.  She talked of green grass and blooming flowers, while back here it is a seasonable -25C, though it did "warm" up to -18C this afternoon.

It will be a busy couple of weeks as I try to get the girls to school on time, make sure they have lunches, cook evening meals, and get them shuffled around to their dance classes and riding lessons.  In between I have a few things of my own that I need to look after.  I will be working through the week, though I will be in a little late every day, and leaving a little early, every day  With the recent downturn in the world economy it has been REALLY slow at work, so it is doubtful I will miss anything.  In fact if things don't turn around at least a little in the coming weeks, I may have to consider some reduced hours, reduced wages, or layoffs.....

January Day Trip

Back on January 10th I went out for a short afternoon drive with my cameras.  It had been cold in previous days, but on this afternoon, the temperature popped up to near freezing, and it was mostly sunny.  The thermometer was deceptive, as there was a cold breeze blowing out of the west, and the humidity must have been high.  It was painfully cold to be outside with bare hands, trying to operate a metal camera.  I drove around a lot, and managed to take a few snapshots.  I only took the big camera out once but the cold was so bitter, that my fingers quickly became frozen.  The worst is when they finally start to warm up afterwards as then the pain really becomes unbearable.  I guess I just have really poor circulation in my fingers... probably from doing this too many times.  The rest of me wasn't all that cold but my fingers sure can't take it any more.

Here are a couple of digital snapshots from that afternoon...

Rexall Place - Winter Hockey - Game 13

Rexall Place is the NHL Arena here in Edmonton.  It is home to the Edmonton Oilers of the NHL and the Edmonton Oil Kings of the WHL.  This is currently the farewell season as a new arena, Rogers Place is currently under construction downtown.  Oilers and Oil Kings owner Darryl Katz got a sweetheart deal courtesy of the taxpayers of Edmonton.  The new arena is being largely funded by the public purse, with only minimal input from Mr. Katz.  Most if not all of the revenue generated at the new arena will be turned over to him.  He has made it known that he is not in favor of allowing the old arena to continue to operate once the new one is open.  I am of the opinion that the taxpayers have contributed enough to his bottom line and the old arena should continue to operate and compete with him for concerts, and other non-hockey entertainment events.  The old arena opened as Northlands Coliseum in 1974.  In 1995 the name changed to the Edmonton Coliseum.  In 1998 it was changed again to the Skyreach Center.  Finally in 2003 the current name, Rexall place, became official.  It is operated by Northlands, a city controlled organization that puts together the Canadian Finals Rodeo, the Klondike Days Exhibition, various trade shows and conventions, and operates the horse racing track nearby.

The Renegades Hockey Team was given the opportunity to play one of our Beer League hockey games at Rexall Place.  We had to pay a team surcharge of $700 for this opportunity. The guys were all over it.  The package included tickets to an Oil Kings game before ours, and then the full experience of playing in an NHL arena.  Our team names were on the score board, and all goals, assists and penalties were annoucned over the PA system.  We were allowed to bring some family and friends as spectators.  I have played at the coliseum a number of times in the past so it was not a new experience for me, but for most of the guys on the team it was the first time.  Margarit and the girls have never seen me play here before so they came along to watch.  Our game was a fairly late one, as it didn't start until a little after 10:00PM, once the Oil Kings and Prince Albert Raiders had finished up their WHL game.  We didn't get the girls home and into bed until about midnight, so no doubt they will be very tired for school this morning.

We had a lot of fun playing there, but unfortunately the game didn't go so well for the Renegades.  It was a clean, fun game and we were pretty evenly matched.  We played against the first place team in our division, The Moose.  These guys were decent players, but not exceptional and it was their goaltender that stole the game for them.  We just couldn't seem to get much past him.  We were down by a score of 4-2 and pulled our goaltender in the last minute to try and make it close.  They ended up getting an empty net goal in the dying seconds to make the final score 5-2.
We weren't allowed to bring a decent camera into Rexall Place due to our attendance at the Oil Kings WHL game in advance of the Renegades game.  The girls took these snapshots of the game, of me and of each other, but we were only allowed to bring in a small little digital point and shoot camera, hence the poor quality...

Long Weekend

Last weekend was a long weekend... for me...!  As I approach the 35th anniversary of my employment at Mac Plastics, I made a vow to slow down a little. As I am not able to take the holiday time that I am entitled to in larger blocks, I have started taking every other Friday off.  I began this routine last year, and it continues.  Last Friday was my first Friday off of 2016.  The three day weekend is a wonderful thing and I really enjoy the extra day to more fully unwind before returning to the job.  

On Friday I slept in.  Then Margarit and I went out for lunch to a new Mexican restaurant that we found.  It was really good... and we'll be heading back sometime soon to try some of the other interesting stuff on the menu.  On Friday evening we took the two older girls to their riding lesson.

On Saturday I spent the day working mostly on darkroom stuff.  I cut mounts and matts for all the prints that I am working on for upcoming gallery exhibitions, as well as finished up bleaching, toning and washing the last of the reprints that I've been working on.

On Sunday I slept in yet again.  In the afternoon I went out for a drive.  I explored a bit out to the east of the city and found a couple of places that are worth going back to with my camera in milder weather.  Then in the evening Anna and I went to the Oilers game.  The Oilers gave up two quick goals to start the game and then played a lot better, but couldn't overcome the early deficit and lost to the Florida Panthers by a score of 2-1.

It sure was difficult to get up early today and return to work!!

Here is a snapshot of my last print, in a red tray of rinse water... and Anna's selfie from the hockey game...

Next One...

I am taking part in the InFocus exhibition here in Edmonton.  This show is part of the province wide Exposure Festival 2016.  Two of my prints will be exhibited at this one.  These are two of the many that I have been working on printing and framing over recent weeks. Everyone is welcome to come out and see this exhibition.  The official invitation has now been released.  Those that are unable to make it to the opening reception on February 4th are reminded that the prints will be on display for almost the entire month of February. Everyone is also reminded to vote on line for the "Peoples Choice Award"...

http://www.alexismarieart.com/index.php/infocus-2016-peoples-choice/

Preparations

I've spent a lot of time in my darkroom lately, working on prints for my upcoming exhibitions.  I have a total of 13 new prints that are being included in these upcoming shows.  A few of these are upgrading images the the Procession West exhibition.  But, we also had to come up with a new show that was not in conflict with Procession West.  This is the one we are calling AG2.  It is essentially Procession West II.  It includes a few images from the Procession West package, that there was not room to include, plus a few new ones.  This selection will be shown at the Leighton Center in Calgary as part of the Exposure Festival, and then will travel further south to the Lebel Gallery in Pincher Creek.  Since September I have been down in the darkroom on a regular basis working on these new prints.  First I needed to make unsharp masks of the negatives, and then gradually work towards producing the final exhibition prints.  Checking my notes I see that I was printing on at least 12 different occasions, and produced a total of nearly 120 prints.  These are a mix of 11"x14" prints, and 16"x20" prints.  I struggled with a few of negatives, and returned to the darkroom on more than one occasion in an attempt to improve on my previous versions.  I thought I was finished a few days ago, but then realized that one of the negatives had been printed in reverse.  It was a natural scene, with nothing to suggest that the image was flipped, but I knew... and it bothered me.  The last of my prints are now in the washer and I think and hope that I am done with this part of the project.  As I write this I am flattening all of these prints in my dry mount press.  Tomorrow I will move on to cutting mats and mounts for the 13 that will become part of these exhibitions.

In all honesty I truly believe that I invest as much time in producing an exhibition quality print, as a painter might invest in creating an original painting.  Often to capture the original image I return to a location several times to photograph it in the right light and at the right time of year.  Then there is the processing of the original film.  This is followed by the selection process, to choose the best negative to print.  Then I usually create an unsharp mask to be used in the printing of the negative.  This involves exposure, processing, washing and drying of the piece of film that will become the mask.  This is followed by the print session, sometimes to be repeated, to achieve what I am trying to convey with the final print.  These finished prints are then cleared, toned and extensively washed, sometimes with an intermediate step of bleaching select highlights.  Then, once the finished prints are dried I have to flatten them, dry mount them, and cut overmats and mounts so that they can be assembled into frames.  A lot of hours and a lot of dollars are invested in what eventually ends up to be an exhibition quality print.  

I typically attempt to sell these for something in the range of $450 to $800.  Keep in mind that the gallery usually takes a commission of 25 to 40%.  The framing materials usually cost me $60 to $100, depending on the size.  People generally don't understand how much time is involved in creating a fine print.  I am always amused when I overhear people at shows talking amongst themselves and saying things like...  "I could have taken that shot", or... "I've got an image of that", or "this is nothing special"...  For me it is a labor of love...!!  I'm not complaining as I enjoy every minute of it, and the reward of hearing positive comments from viewers just reinforces it for me.  To sell anything is a bonus, and not the end goal of any of this.

Holiday Day Trips

While I was off from work over the Christmas break I was able to twice get out for a short afternoon drive.  At this time of the year, just a few days after the winter solstice, there is "evening" light all day long...  But, the day is pretty short...!  The sun really doesn't get up high enough to start lighting and warming things up until around 10:00 in the morning and by 3:30 in the afternoon it is beginning to fade.

On New Years Eve I took a drive out west of the city in the afternoon.  I wanted to check out an old church near Manly.  I had seen a photograph of this church before, taken in 1975, by local photographer Orest Semchishen.  Orest used to live a few blocks away from me, and if he's still alive, would be over 80 years old now.  About 10 years ago I bought a bunch of his darkroom equipment from him as, at the time, he was selling his house and moving into a senior's residence.  In 1976 he published a book called Byzantine Churches of Alberta, and it included an image of St. George's Church at Manly Corner.  I had little trouble finding the place and surprisingly it has not changed much in the 40 years since Orest photographed it.  Some new siding and a sign, but otherwise the building looks pretty much the same as it did four decades ago.

Then the next day, on January 1st, I headed out again.  This time I headed out to the east of the city.  I had no particular destination in mind.  I was just driving back roads, hoping to find something cool to photograph, in the limited time that I had.  I was fortunate to stumble upon this really fascinating stone house, and I spent an hour or more here taking some digital snapshots and photographing it with my view camera.  I had the luxury of beautiful clear winter light and fairly mild temperatures, with only a mild breeze.  After finishing up here I drove around for a little longer before eventually making my way back into the city.  I stopped and took snapshots in a couple other locations but nothing else was worthy of dragging out the big camera.  I made it back home by late afternoon, in time to get together with some friends that were coming over for a holiday visit that evening...