Mid-august

Millbrook Doorway

Time has been flying by. I received committee recommendations for next year's publication schedule and got the invitations out - so far, I've only had to reject one paper because of a procedural problem. The deadline for the first submission is Friday, and there are still nine authors who haven't responded. I've heard (indirectly) from a couple of them, but I'm concerned that the potential number of non-responders is significantly greater than the number of reserve papers that I have in the pile. Oh well, we'll address that problem when the time comes.

The workshop with Tillman was fabulous. First, he is such a delightful person to hang out with - I learn a lot about photography just by sitting around and chatting with him. He brought his wife Donna along this time - she's a perfect complement to him. Also, the subject of the workshop was very interesting. Platinum/palladium printing is the ultimate craft level of photography, and I really like the image quality that it produces. And the group this time was wonderful. The nature of the workshop meant that we spent a lot of time sitting around a table coating paper, waiting for it to dry, waiting for prints to "cook", etc. Normally, photography is a solitary activity, but this format made for a wonderful opportunity to get to know some nice people.

One of the encaustic artists asked to see my prints, and coincidentally, Ray Yaros and I had arranged to look through each other's portfolio that night. A third photographer joined the group, so we had a wonderful evening of sharing. That was a lot of fun.

The day after I returned, Linda and I went to New York with the librarians. There were only three men (including the driver) on the bus - entirely too much estrogen and the noise level was horrendous. I walked around while Linda and the librarians went to the Morgan Library - saw a neat Atget/Rauschenberg show at ICP-Midtown. Then we saw "The Drowsey Chaperone", and had dinner at the Oyster Bar. This was the first time I've been to the Oyster Bar in at least 30 years and was it ever fabulous - very fresh striped bass, grilled; boiled potato, steamed veggies, and a glass of pinot grigio. What more could one ask for?

I have a piece in the Saratoga Inside/Out show at SCAC again this year. It's a much smaller show, so it was nice to be selected. And the juror mentioned my piece in her discussion of the show - something about the formal structure of my image of the Tang contrasting with some of the abstract interpretations that others had of Saratoga.

Last week we went to Cooperstown for a day. Jeff had the day off and wanted to get away, and I wanted to photograph at the Farmers' Museum, so we made a family trip of the excursion. Then, on Sunday, Linda and I drove over to Manchester for the day. Visited the new Frog Hollow and the Southern Vermont Arts Center (wish we lived closer to that place), and then drove up to Dorset to photograph at the swimming quarry and to shop at JK Adams. Lunch at Dorey Grill (the restaurant at the Equinox golf course).

Nice time at Bunz yesterday, and then had an appointment with Dr. Morere to plan for 'adventures in fiber optics' - the three year cycle is up, so I'm due again. Today, I printed - Pt/Pd prints. I think I got some good results, but came away with two conclusions. First, my UV box isn't as fast as Tillman's (not a problem - just a fact to work with). Second, I need to find a source of reasonably-priced paper. The Wausau 90# cover stock that I had lying around won't work - perhaps wrong pH. I like Crane's 90# cover (that's what we used in the workshop) as well as Crane's Kid Finish and platinotype, but I'm not sure where to find them. The Arches 140# HP that I've been buying at Michaels is OK, but it's a bit expensive (reaonable with the 40% off coupon), and the images don't seem to be quite as rich. It does work fine for van Dykes, however.

Tomorrow, Linda and I are planning to go to Springfield. I want to visit the old armory (an NPS site with a nice spiral staircase), and Linda wants to visit the Emily Dickinson Museum in Amherst. The weather is very nice, so it will be a good day-trip.

This image is one of the palladium prints that I made at Peters Valley. The negative was from the Chip Forelli workshop two years ago - so I had Chip looking over my shoulder when making the negative, and Tillman supervising the printmaking process. I'll leave it to you to decided if all that good influence helped.