everyday DREAMS

This body of work came about when I picked up a roll of film at the lab and several of the images came out cloudy pink and grey with fossil like elements. A few months later I decided to experiment.
 

I created these images in my bathroom. I went in stocked with rusted metal, wood, multiple lights of different colors and wattages, my body, salt and 10 rolls of FUJI film 400 ISO, along with a contraption I built to expose each frame individually.

 
The process began by exposing each frame individually with meticulous attention and notations.  After a roll or two, my excitement began to build and I started pulling out the entire roll of film from the canister and exposing 36 frames at one time.
 

I used two techniques:

•  Reticulation: exposing the film emulsion to very hot and cold water quickly to crack the surface.
•  Frottage: placing the film on top of metal, salt, my body, and wood and burnishing it to make a rubbing, an impression of the object’s surface and chemical base onto the film.

In addition, I exposed the film to multiple colors of light sources with different colors and strengths.
 

The film was processed at Walgreen’s 1-hour photo.
 

When I picked up the prints the lab technician gave me a funny look before I even looked at the prints. While I was reviewing my handy work, the lab tech started to ask what I had done wrong to get blank-fuzzy-worthless images.  I said, “I don’t know, maybe I should take a photography class.”
 

The images I picked up were not what I had expected. The everydaydreams DVD is a slideshow of these images.
 

I scanned the images that had strong ghost-impressions of geometric and graphical elements and opened them in Photoshop, adjusting the contrast of the images and removing the blown out pixels on the images, but being careful not to remove the somewhat intentional marks made by the reticulation and frottage work I had done.
 

My goal with this work is to create painting-like images, studies in color, form and texture. Their color is kinetic, shimmering and shifting, and my hope is that they reflect the grace and abrasions of everyday life.