Sunday, August 1, 2010

Photographing Your Work for Gallery Shows




Photographing my own work has been a daunting task. I started out with bad advice to use white photo paper as a backdrop for my art, but encountered all kinds of problems with ambient light and reflected colors ranging from warm to cool tones of yellows and blues whether I took the pictures indoors or outdoors. It was very frustrating for me. I learned how to use Photoshoppe and was able to clean up the photos, but not to the liking of a friend/professional photographer. Shadows were a big problem, too. Then, my friend Ventana, came across some excellent advice for amateur photographers and shared it with me via email. I ended up using a piece of black velvet as a backdrop, attached to the wall, similar to when Juline used it to photograph the hats for Plexus cancer project, and the results were fantastic with no shadows or reflections on the velvet. Tomorrow, I'll post the pics I submitted to the MOCA show.

Additionally, I finished backing my piece, "Inner Reflections", made with Shisha embroidery, with a bright green piece of Lame. It turned out beautifully. I repaired my eggshell dress and photographed it as well. I retitled my piece, "Free Reelin'", submitted to the OHCA Portraiture Show, and submitted it to MOCA as "Sound Off", after Georg suggested the title, "Sounding Off". Sound Off is used when someone expresses their opinion about something. I'm expressing my opinion about the oil spills throughout the planet.

I delivered three pieces to OHCA yesterday, including my Shisha embroidery piece called "Inner Reflections", my first wire sculpture called "Wired to Go", and my painting called "Neptune's Horses".

I didn't get my act together to make the piece for the LAB Gallery, Art:Tech featuring biotech art. I guess two out of three isn't bad. Next time.

Now, I'm working on pieces for the next two shows, WEAD for the Bioneers Conference and the Wild Animal Art Show Benefit in New York.

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