robertmanz.net: December 2010

31.12.10

29.12.10

This blog has always been as much about the process as about the pictures .... my process anyway. How would I understand anything else, or anyone else's process? I just know and try to know a little about how I try to make pictures.

What do I know? I know I like to make mistakes, and I know I like to make them by myself. All the varnishing I do today came from an utterly absurd mistake I once made......the paper and the print looked just so stupid with the wet varnish all over and through .....you could almost see right through to the other side. Everyone knows that varnish is supposed to sit on the surface of the art....but to soak right through the paper ??? This was truly absurd, a definite failure of a try.

But, I was going away to Budapest, and instead of tossing the print in the dumpster, I left it home and I let it dry. When I came back from my trip a month later, it had dried out, and it was looking wonderful, so I decided to keep doing this crazy varnish "through the paper". Last summer the print that was that first mistake raised some money for the Falmouth Hospital and I was happy.

It is hard enough to make a mistake by myself. I barely have the courage to do that. I don't have the courage to make a mistake with someone else looking over my shoulder, or, fixing my mistakes for me. And if that someone is extraordinary, then I surely do not have the courage to make a mistake. This I know.

I also know that if I do not make mistakes I will not grow. If I do not grow, I do not think I will be any good to anyone. Not to myself, and not to anyone else.

If the only way to make mistakes is to be alone, then so be it.

Of course no one is truly alone; I know I am not alone, even if I seem to do my best to drive people away. There are a lot of people behind this image. You can't see them, but they are there....... some day I will write out a list.

25.12.10

MERRY CHRISTMAS

the work of Alfred Glover

christmas eve

at monk's cove

a walk on the bog

23.12.10

snowstorm ending

on the bog

looking for breakfast

in the snow

21.12.10

artist at work

Gary Smith

20.12.10

mounting and framing a large print

This is a picture of some work in my studio. The reason it is here is that I am in the process of making and framing the biggest print I have ever made, two feet by four feet (61 cm x 122 cm). It is the cranberry bog panorama shown in the middle, and I talked about this at the Cataumet Artists Circle last Saturday night. An image file of this is on the blog under the tab "harvest".

This print has been made on Hahnemuehle photo rag paper on an Epson 7600. It has been soaked in acrylic varnish and is now a composite of paper and acrylic. I am planning to put it in a cherry frame that will be of the same molding design as the light maple frame shown below it with the picture of the nun walking in Florence.

I have ordered the frame and an aluminum panel to mount it on. I am experimenting with archival mounting adhesives, and right now my two top candidates are Gudy O or V and Beva 371. If anyone has any good experience with these or has a good idea please email me at rmanzpho@cape.com.

I have lots of experience mounting acrylic-varnished prints on stretched canvas and canvas board, but I decided not to use this approach for this large print. I am worried about sag in a stretched canvas, but more fundamentally that the water-based acrylic "glue" I use on the canvas will warp the four-foot print.

The panel should arrive in January, and if I succeed :-)) I will put up a picture of the final result.

19.12.10

CATAUMET ARTISTS CIRCLE - WINTER SOLSTICE

Every turn of the season artists gather at the Cataumet Arts Center to enjoy friendship, share food and share their work. The community flows with each season. You never know who will show up or what you will eat, but you know that both will be good. And you know that you will find a sympathetic ear for what you want to say about your work and your hopes for it and your struggles with it.

These evenings would not happen without the vision and endurance of Andrea York, who has found an extraordinary way to combine her home with two community gathering places - the post office and an arts center.

Artists sharing their work last night included Jean Adelman, William Adelman, Alfred Glover, Francis Hersey, Georgianna Holmes, Torben Lorenzen, Robert Manz, Lola Mello, Shirley Mossman Nisbet, Bill Noble, Claudin Poyant, Russ Saunders and others. One artist's work is featured in most of these pictures; there are three beautiful water color and casein paintings on the wall behind most of the presenters -- these are the work of Priscilla Levesque. Many thanks to Toby and April for organizing communications to gather the solstice group last night.

Here are a few images of this community Saturday night as we come to the the Winter Solstice.

a painter and his work

painting by Bill Adelman, display by Alfred Glover

how to turn a burl - Torben Lorenzen

A collage of memories - Jean Adelman

"Cosmos and Pears" by Bill Noble

pass it around - canary by Alfred Glover

moderator at work - Gary Tabor

almost everybody - abstract

HAPPY SOLSTICE TO EVERYBODY, EVERYWHERE, FROM CATAUMET !!!!

18.12.10

winter porch

the moon from here

17.12.10

sand, ice and sea grass

in the sun

vote for Stu

"Prayer" by Stu Sporn

A wonderful photographer from Cape Cod, Stu Sporn, has entered a contest in support of a documentary that works to bridge the gap between the deaf and the hearing communities.

If you click on the link below, you will see a video that Stu has put together and that has become a finalist in this competition. If you like the video and you vote for Stu, you will be registering your support for his art, and also generating support for the documentary "See what I'm Saying" by Hilary Scarl. Hilary's documentary is about the challenges that deaf entertainers face.

To vote for Stu all you have to do is click on the five stars to the right of the video.

http://www.seewhatimsayingmovie.com/contest-entry/videos/viewvideo/27/otherexperimental/lets-connect.html

thanks,

Robert

16.12.10

winter storm coming

15.12.10

green boat in ice

14.12.10

hope in the halls

reception

hope in the halls

no news

a word

waiting for her hand

This is the Carl J and Ruth Shapiro surgical center at Children's Hospital in Boston. I visited it yesterday for the first time to see some of my pictures that were installed here a few years ago along with many others. During these years I have had the great reward of hearing from some of my relatives that my pictures gave them comfort as they waited to hear word about their child in surgery.

My visit gave me great comfort as I shared in a small way the anxiety and hope of dozens of families waiting in rooms off the halls shown here; and it gave me inspiration as I saw the care, concern and constant effort that staff of the center showed to bring every bit of information to loved ones as fast as they could. With thanks for letting me visit and thanks for the work done here for all of us.