From: Sarah Van Keuren (svk@steuber.com)
Date: 02/07/01-10:20:51 AM Z
> Pete, when you're as old as I am you'll realize there rarely is ONE answer
> to anything (tho thanks for the kind words). Among answers I hope to firm
> up: Try to want what you get. That is, my work has changed with the jump
> to larger, the paper is coarser, and viewed from a larger distance, I
> don't feel need for it to be any sharper than it is -- when the print
> *succeeds* it feels about right.
>
> I have, by the way, a number of 11 by 14 negatives printed in cyanotype
> and VDB that I also printed in gum. It's not a good idea to look at those
> prints side by side -- because the gum, although it has every bit of
> *detail,* just has not got that *sharp.* I find it far more *interesting*
> and, should I say "juicy" ? than the others, more -- Sarah, give me an
> adjective -- subtle? luminous? -- but clearly softer, even in one coat. I
> suppose a literal minded person would call that the TRADEOFF. Whatever, I
> just don't let them occur together.
>
> Judy
'Try to want what you get' ranks with the Crosby Stills & Nash line 'Love
the one you're with'. We humans are not masters of the universe. Anyone
working with physical materials has to learn how to get along with them ‹
while remaining alert to improvements.
Sometimes a medium's characteristics can lead us into a mindset that we
might not have come to using other materials. Mosaics seem to prefigure the
pixilated image. Watercolor on paper precedes inkjet. Printing in layers of
gum that accrete to form an image flows into the Photoshop Layers. Since I
have committed to the gum process, I am being lead by the materials to see
gum printing metaphorically. It has something to do with transparent
memories stacked in our brains, of insects trapped and preserved in amber.
Sarah
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