HONOR THY MOTHERS
Inside the world of process, where design and implementation occur, is the place that keeps me joyfully, but sometimes painfully, awake at night; it is the courtship between idea and completion.
The photograms in this series allow me a relationship with an old and now uncommon photographic process, the Cyanotype, made notable by the first woman of photography, Anna Atkins, in her publication, British Algae, in 1843. The opportunity to be in the darkroom with this process gives me the freedom to get my ‘hands dirty’ and brings me back to the days of my youth where imagination and creativity seemed automatic; it was born out of play.
It is there that I combine the rhythmic energy of the circle with the warmth of both earthy browns and ethereal blues that create a sense of calm. The circular shapes, from pressed flowers or, especially, hand knitted doilies, also highlight items no longer fashionable. The doilies, particularly important to me, were the hand work of my own mother, now gone. She would sit, ever so quietly, with a skein of yarn creating each doily; a tranquil moment at the end of her busy day.
Both Atkins’ and my mother’s materials and processes have long since been the rage; machinery and continued invention have reduced their popularity and usefulness. It is with great admiration that I use these to honor the women who have helped me on my own personal journey back into the darkroom.
