Cyanotype Photograms (Look what I can do!)

Stagnancy, boredom, restlessness. I think every artist I know, while whiling away hours in the studio, has gone through those awful feelings every now and then. For me, it's been happening during the last week or two. At the same time I have been thinking of all of the printmaking I used to do in college and missing it, wondering how I can integrate it into my current work. I haven't come up with all of the answers yet, but I am definitely on my way.

I find that when I am feeling artistically stagnant, the best thing to do is try a new technique, preferably in the company of friends and fellow artists. Luckily, my friend and simply amazing photographer John is just the man. Not only do we work well together and we are nearly guaranteed to have an evening of hilarity whenever we hang out, but John has a great studio space and is always experimenting with new photographic techniques. The latest one, which he was generous enough to share with me last week and with a group of us last night, is cyanotype.

Creating cyanotype prints involves coating paper with a chemical solution (click the link above for a more detailed description), covering the paper with objects, negatives, or transparencies, and exposing it to UV light. The resulting print, as you can see from the cyanotype photograms that I made above, is a gorgeous deep blue.

I am definitely having fun experimenting with this new technique! I have a little series in mind, and I think I managed to rope John in to at least one more Wednesday. It is helping me look at my work in a new way, and filling that printmaking bug that I've been trying to pin down. I'll keep you updated with new work!