Cyanotype Research Statement 2023

Time folded into velvet indigo

Blue tints the past in waves of nostalgia, beckoning one to look deeper.  This ongoing series is a study of artificial nostalgia.  The relationship between resonance of time, and the viewer.  The pieces are collaged from personal travel photos used to create surreal spaces that exist only in the unconscious mind, intended to enlist a feeling of nostalgia.  Can one feel nostalgia for a place they have never been?  Can an artificial sense of nostalgia be created through process and medium?  

In these works, serious intention has been given to the geometry of the visual elements based on historical research of time manipulation theory and design.  The choice to work in cyanotype print medium was deliberate to study the emotional response of indigo.  As one pushes the light spectrum, time in relation unfolds slower.  There is something about this range of hues, artists have been studying the impact of indigo for centuries only to reveal there is more mystery than can ever be uncovered.   That blue digs deeper into your eyes pulling your gaze further. 

All works were developed in plein air allowing the sensitivity of the sun’s quality of rays through the atmosphere to expose prints.  By giving up control over the UV source, the resulting images have chaotic variances.  Favored prints are found to fall in the midafternoon hours, with zero cloud coverage when the light feels pure and unending.  Cloudy, duller prints seem to result from evening sun.  Unusual coloration is found from peek a boo clouds flying by, that dim and brighten the sky.  Uniform prints may be achieved by employing a UV lamp, yet it negates the elegance of the medium, its connection to the sun in relation to time.  Elegance in simplicity, two chemicals in equal parts coating a substrate, time and the sun.  

Artificial nostalgia, digging up the mysteries of collective emotional triggers in order to elicit a personal response.  Employing the spectrum of indigo to imbibe the viewer to slow down the response and fall into the resonance of mystery.  Future research will investigate longitudinal relationships with the earth and sun on development formulas.  Seasonal and climate variations on image quality of the prints.  Most importantly, collecting visual elements and analyzing work to hone geometric patterns in future prints.