S+ART

Taking notes

 

Picture is Unrelated:  Kayakers on the Potomac River on a hot day.  Photo by Angela Kleis, 2009

 

I cleaned over the weekend and put away a few notebooks and pads of paper that were taking up space on my desk.  Last night, I spent over an hour looking for the one that contained data I needed to develop film.  I finally found it on a bookshelf, of all places (why didn't I look there first?).  But, I couldn't get started without it.

 

Maybe it's my ingrained thanks to my science background, but I tend to take notes and keep a pretty meticulous notebook on all the types of film and developer combinations I've processed.  It helps me understand which types of films can be combined in one tank with the same developer, which ones should never, ever be put together, and if a particular developer is not a good match for a specific film.  Sometimes there are temperature issues and those are logged, too, as well small details I may notice and think will be helpful in the future (some if it is also online). 

 

I have a second notebook for printing that catalogs the negative number, type of paper, which filters I tried (and, which one worked best), time, aperture, and any dodging and burning that was performed.  Though printing is not an automatic process and may vary based on paper and chemical lots and other things I can't necessarily control, it provides a starting point that saves time and materials (and, frustration).  I like consistency and standardizing my methods helps me make sure that the results will be as close as possible to those I have obtained in the past, even with all of the inherent variables throughout the processes.  

 

There are notebooks or pads of paper in each of my camera bags that are useful for logging the film number (there is also a Sharpie in every bag) so when I am looking at an overwhelming pile of film canisters that need processing and want to develop a specific one, I can easily find it.  I have found this process very useful when travelling to note the date, city, places visited, if pushed or pulled the ISO.  These details not only help me locate a roll of undeveloped film, but also to remind me of the places I went.  After all, how many piazzas and fountains are there in Rome?  It's impossible to know.

 

It may seem like information overload or tedious details that most people are able to remember, but I feel it's better to be prepared and save time later by taking a few minutes to write it down, now.  What kinds of methods do you use to document photographic information?  Please let us know in the comments!!

                                                         -Angela

When is art, “Art”

How can art work become “Art” if it is concealed? Please take a moment to fill out this brief survey.

This question never presented itself clearly until I was given the opportunity to write blog posts and have them cast in a public forum. Like all forms of art, images and messages are visually displayed and viewed then are launched in a public venue for communication and interaction. Art and people are one in the same and are symbiotically attached- people as art and art made physical created from within people. Like art work, whether it is the image you portray, your work, the people you associate with, the clothes you wear, things brought into physical society are to be seen in perspectives and opinions.

In both cases, it is the viewer’s right to observe then it’s the viewer’s choice whether to read, think and react in moral and intellectual manner. From this point on, this viewer is the piece of art’s companion, nemesis or ally. A companion (viewer) is most necessary to complete the piece of work and to fully develop the message it represents through perspective and opinion.

It works as a two-way communication system where one is never complete without the other. A piece of work is confined to its own prison until it is set free and open to viewing by others. Art can be defined in many ways; for me, “Art” represents a personal reflection detached from an internal compartment within that is caught hesitating and waiting…

… waiting for its chance to communicate its theme, message, objective by being approached, viewed, read, touched, and analyzed.  Art work becomes a metaphor for each person and life defined. Taking risks lead to vulnerability which leads to growth and change. Paths in new directions are opened because we ourselves open up mentally, and physically take new action!

Take the risk today and make your art, “Art”!

For those who are inspired… for those who wish to inspire… for those who would like fresh eyes upon their art work- stop concealing and find a companion to communicate with.

Facebook us @Smithsonian StudioArts

Join us on Twitter @SmithsonianSA

 ~Matt Weiler

 

 

 

Local Opportunities for Photographers

You wear your sleeve on your heart, Photograph by Jim Darling

 

Photographers have two really cool opportunities to submit work to shows happening right in our backyard.  The first, with a looming deadline of September 12, is the FotoWeek DC fourth Annual International Awards Competition open to all photographers, amateur or professional.  Submit work in eleven categories, including portait, photojournalism/social documentary, fine art, and travel topics for single-image submissions, multimedia, mobile phone, and student sections, and even a portfolio option for those who don't want to limit themselves to 1,000 words.  Get all the details, rules, and entry fees right here and start selecting your winning photographs before time runs out. 

 

Next, the Smithonian's National Portrait Gallery has an open call for the third Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition open to artists working in all media, including photography.  Figurative artists exploring portraiture to convey personal identity can submit one image to the free competition.  Keep in mind that each portrait must be the result of the your direct encounter with the person, so no random street shots are allowed - you'll actually need to talk to them, first (it's really not that hard - just ask Jim Darling - he does it all the time).  For those of you who may not have this type of work already completed, relax - the competition is open for entries through October 31, so there's plenty of time for several photoshoots.  Learn about the competition, find answers to your questions, read through the rules, see who the jurors are, and enter online. 

 

I hope these opportunities inspire the courage to submit your work and even expand your comfort zone.  Good luck!  BRB while I pick out my own submissions.

 

-Angela

Thanks to everyone who helped us learn more about mobile phone cameras and how you use them, the best apps and why, and how you share them with the world.

  Move (NYC), photograph by Jim Darling using Instagram

 

Turns out, Hipstamatic is the go-to photo app for iPhone users while Vignette is flying off the virtual shelves in the Android Market.  iPhone also beats out Android by nearly 2:1 and an overwhelming majority of poll-takers use the camera straight-up without any downloaded photo-editing application.  Nearly 80% of poll-takers have integrated their cell phone cameras into their daily lives, using it mostly to capture everyday things around them and share their lives with others, be creative, take pictures of friends, and some even use it as a note pad, snapping quick pics of things to remember (in that order).  And, of course, the free mobile phone camera apps are the crowd favorite, but some of you do actually drop some cash.  Finally, Flickr is the number one way to share photos snapped on the mobile phone, followed by Facebook and then Twitter.

 

Now, a closer look at the apps!

 

Coopers Rock, photograph by Kim Baker using Hipstamatic

 

Hipstamatic provides Polaroid and plastic toy camera (Holga, Diana)-like unpredictability via combinations of assorted lenses, films, and flashes in a square-format picture.  (iPhone, $1.99)

Like Hipstamatic, RetroCamera is, well, retro thanks to its five cameras and assorted ways to scratch, weather, and add vintage vignetting plus black and white and cross-processing options. But, unlike Hipstamatic, this one’s free. (Android, free)

 

Vignette offers all the features of Hipstamatic and RetroCamera, thanks to 84 available effects and 59 frame options, to make your digital cell phone photos look like they were taken with film 100 years ago and mishandled, but the price is a little higher.  (Android, $4.09)

 

You’re really not supposed to shake them, but for many of those who grew up with Polaroids, that was part of the fun. ShakeItPhoto lets you relive that tradition - snap a picture and watch it “develop” before your eyes.  The impatient ones can shake it to hurry the process up. (iPhone, $1.99)

Move (NYC), photograph by Jim Darling using Instagram

 

With nods to the Kodak Instamatic and Polaroid cameras, Instagram’s popularity rose quickly, with its filters, square pictures, and easy-to-share features fast favorites.  Being free also helps. (iPhone, free)

 

Rounding out with CameraBag (iPhone, $1.99), 100 Cameras in 1 (iPhone, $1.99), Camera Genius (iPhone, $0.99), GorillaCam (iPhone, free), Tiltshift (iPhone, $1.99), and an app called LIttle Camera that I was unable to find.  Photoshop Express was the only one available in both the iPhone and Android platforms, plus it's available for no charge.

 

So, there you have it - a snapshot of our readers' favorite ways to use their mobile phone cameras.  Thanks to everyone for taking our survey!

-angela

Public Art: Sculpture Garden Style!

 

What If all building types were the same design, all sidewalks were identical and all transitional spaces barren with simple landscape? If there was life “without art, the crudeness of reality would make the world unbearable;” (George Bernard Shaw) daily interaction with the surrounding world would be repetitive and dull. 

Sculpture is one form of art that dispels repetitiveness and adds shapes to open space. Furthermore, it is created by direct hands-on interaction in a perspective seen in the space it will consume. Sculpture can be categorized as any three-dimensional object with a message in real space. Sculpture is processed in real time and real spaces through multiple views and perspectives; all of these views are in-sync with each other to create a unified composition.

Public art, specifically public sculpture is art uniquely set in a commissioned public outdoor space. Its shape and direct accessibility to its audience in an open forum enable the art forms to come to life while its dimensionality makes it a medium of functionality. A piece of sculpture’s function is unfolded once placed in agreement to the surrounding site, space and place while a symbiotic relationship is formed with the surrounding space (accentuating the piece) while the piece highlights the space of a site. Sculpture is brought to life when unified with its design while being integrated with the surrounding architecture and landscape. In addition, the interaction with the viewer enhances the piece and is incorporated in its conceptual design. Check out some public sculpture near you!

Wish Tree, Photo by Brandon Springer
 

Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden

The Smithsonian’s own sculpture garden is situated in between the Washington Monument and the Capital Building on the National Mall. This urban park is a bi-level recessed garden including more than 60 sculptured works including Yoko Ono’s Wish Tree. The emphasis is centered on the pieces of art. The aggregate walls and floor converge into divisions of minimal natural landscape creating separate focal points that accentuate each piece as a spectator moves in and out of spaces.

Other Sculpture Gardens in Washington, D.C.:

National Gallery of Art Sculpture Garden

Kreeger Museum Sculpture Garden

 

~Matt Weiler

Double Exposure: Collaboration Project

My intention was to continue last week's discussion in this week's post, but I got stuck and couldn't get my words to make sense.  Sometimes this happens.  I'll continue to work on it and post in the near future.

In the meantime, I wanted to give you film-shooters a cool idea to try out.  You may be familiar with multiple-exposure shots using some of the manual, low-tech cameras that are pretty popular right now.  A  friend took this step a little further a few years ago and see what happens when two different people combine their own images.  His idea was to shoot a roll of film, rewind it leaving the leader outside the canister, and trade off with another photographer who would expose that same same film with their own photos.  The results are very random and very cool multiple exposures.  It started with a small group of local photo-friends and expanded world-wide.

 
Some of my own favorite collaborative photos include this one traded locally with Jennifer Wade, this one mailed from Eric Petersen in Minnesota, and this one sent all the way from Spain by Jessica L.  As you can see, the photos are multiple-exposed and completely random combinations of shots taken by two different people.  For more examples of this process, check out the Flickr group that Scott started: Collaborative Film Society of DC.

  Attached Photo:  Photo by Jennifer Wade and Angela Kleis, Verizon Center and Thomas Jefferson/Library of Congress

  If this is something you'd like to try, find a photographer-friend and each shoot a roll of film.  Rewind the film so the leader edge remains outside of the canister so it can be reloaded into a camera.  You may need to use a manual camera to control the rewind process unless you can figure out how to rewind your film by hand in an automatic camera (I wasn't able to do that).  Alternatively, if you roll your own film and have reusable canisters, just transfer the exposed film to the new canister inside of a changing bag.  If you run into issues with this, post in the pool's discussion board and someone will be able to provide some helpful suggestions.  Once you've both shot your film, TRADE!  Shoot it up and see what you get. 

 

-Angela

Turn On the Action: How to Create Part II

 

Sometimes the hardest obstacle to overcome is our own mind and thoughts. Disbelief before action is way too common. Stop thinking, be proactive and “just create.”

"The important thing is to keep producing. All artists have that quality. You have to be tenacious."- Mary Frank

After my last post, “You Mean They Forget?” How to Create Again, I wanted to prove that a creative image or concept could be formed based on the system I described using simple one-word descriptions. I ended the piece with the words “just create.” The line was more inspirational to me than I could have anticipated; I felt compelled to expand on the words from the list. The descriptive words rattled around a bit before I put pen to paper. Words flowed and an idea and image emerged- some poetic verses were written first and a digital collage was its product! Typically I would transform the collage into a painting or drawing to further enhance its authenticity, but this step helps in the conceptual stage of creation.  

Digital Collage by Matt Weiler

Week of Beach

Shades of yellow merge to gray, then to blue.

In the reflection of multicolored eyes,

shapes wash off grains of names and meaning

while moisture disappears leaving a briny taste,

mostly dreaming in the sky, alive.

 

Repeating cycles hold smiles in accelerated motion.

Perpetual white dew drops screen the skin

and melt together under rays of positivity.

Timeless laughs and happiness roll like liquid waves upon all hearts

under dusk’s falling gaze,

Today is the day, I live to create.

 

~Matt Weiler

Survey Results: So Far

Photograph by Pat Padua using Instagram on his iPhone

 

We're going to keep the Mobile Phone Camera Survey open for a few more days.  So far, iPhone users prefer Hipstamatic while Android owners turn to Vignette as their camera apps.  iPhone also beats out Android by nearly 2:1 and an overwhelming majority of poll-takers share scenes of their lives with others using the camera straight-up without any downloaded photo-editing application.

If you haven't already taken the survey, please take a little break and answer a few questions - it won't take more than a couple of minutes, promise!  Feel free to go into more detail using the comments box in the last question. 

We'll crunch the data and have some graphs and a more in-depth look at the top camera apps for you next week.

 

-Angela

“You Mean They Forget?” How to Create Again

 

“When my daughter was about seven years old, she asked me one day what I did at work.  I told her I worked at the college - that my job was to teach people how to draw.  She stared at me, incredulous, and said, "You mean they forget?"  ~Howard Ikemoto

 

Are we quick to forget our first pieces of art? In sudden outbursts of crayon, marker and pencil, art flew to paper. Children’s emotional abstract pieces of multicolored lines in combination with the occasional finger-painted piece are hung up on refrigerators and walls in households worldwide.

Everyone was once a child- free and wild with feelings and emotions. Words were almost meaningless and hardly existed in terms of communication.  Everyone conveyed their individual expression by drawing in images of thoughts and feelings; whatever came to mind was put on paper.

As we age, emotion, inspiration and feelings become harder to transmit. Physically transmitting an inspirational thought into a physical representation is the most difficult aspect for those who continue pursuing art in any form of media.  

 

In this segment, practice creating a composition through a list of compiled descriptive words. These words can be any combination of emotion, feeling, thought, or image in relation to the topic(s). No matter which media is used, the process can be the same.

For example: I wish to write and draw about the “ocean.”

Words that come to mind immediately when the topic “ocean” is to be described or illustrated:

“Shades of blue”;“shades of yellow”;’“shades of orange”; persistence; timeless; motion; love; desire; happiness; heat; grains; skin; scratches; oily; “white lotion”; smiles; reflections; tan; rays; shade; liquid; waves; current; energy; sleep; eyes; “dew drops”; moisture; salt; sweat; aluminum; “red and blue plastic coolers”;  “bathing suit shapes”; curls; boards; moonlight; wind; grass blades; “ocean smell”; vibrant; alcohol; relaxation; breeze; touch; fear; rush; acceleration.

Take one word that explodes off the page and elaborate on the inspirational thought. If writing, drawing or painting-make a rough draft or sketch as quickly as possible (no thoughts included just action) Once the idea crystallizes in your mind and pushes you in a direction, slowly elaborate by adding other words, one at a time, until a message, feeling or thought is conveyed. Finally, formulate a finished piece by putting the components together like a puzzle until it makes sense. Be a child and don’t forget how to draw- Just create!

 

~Matt Weiler

Garden Art Continued: The Smithsonian Gardens

 

Tropical Rose, The Kathrine Dulin Folger Rose Garden

Photo By Matt Weiler

Earlier this week, home DIY garden art was discussed in association with the color wheel and color mixing combinations. In addition to design through color, plant varieties can also be used to complement architectural design, building concepts as well as building’s contents.  At the Smithsonian Institute, horticultural displays accentuate the art inside by displaying the natural art of outdoor plant arrangements. These spaces or outdoor museums shift between museum borders and “enhance your museum experience of learning, appreciation and enjoyment” by showing different compositions of varieties including size, shape, form, and color.

Smithsonian Gardens:

The Mary Livingston Ripley Garden

“Mrs. Ripley conceived the idea for a "fragrant garden" on the eastern border of the Arts and Industries Building.”

The Enid A. Haupt Garden is a public garden in the Smithsonian complex situated between the Castle and Independence Avenue. This garden is highlighted by 4 gardens: Haupt Parterre, Moongate Garden, Fountain Garden, and Renwick Gates.

Butterfly Habitat Garden at the National Museum of Natural History

“The Butterfly Habitat Garden features different habitats frequented by butterflies (wetlands, meadow, woodland edge, urban garden) and informational signage about their life cycles and behaviors.”

The Kathrine Dulin Folger Rose Garden

“This garden space adorns the east side of the Smithsonian Castle and the main façade of the Arts and Industries Building.”

Victory Garden at the National Museum of American History, Behring Center

Located on the terrace outside the National Museum of American History's cafeteria

The Heirloom Garden at the National Museum of American History

The Heirloom Garden at the Behring Center “is a treasury of favorites from what may be considered the classic American flower garden.”

Native Landscape at the National Museum of American Indian

”By recalling the natural landscape environment that existed prior to European contact, the museums landscape design embodies a theme that runs central to the museum returning to a Native place.”

Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden

“Transformed by season, time of day, and even weather, the garden provides an ever-changing backdrop and contemplative haven for viewing over 60 large-scale works of art.”

For Inspiration, please visit the Garden Tour Site for details and times!

Happy Planting!

 

~Matt Weiler