feather2pixels

I have been experimenting with a bastardized CMYK printing process. It interests my inner scientist: how do three essentially florescent colors manage to fool the eye into experiencing the entire spectrum, and how far can one take that illusion with screen printing?

I took three full days to conduct an initial study at the Cellspace silkscreen loft (It’s great: there are no workshops going on and so, with the exception of the vaguely territorial tabby cat, I have the whole place to myself). I took six different 669 peel-apart Polaroids from the first half of 2007 and reproduced them on a series of two hundred postcards.

The original photograph was scanned:

and digitally separated into it’s four base channels: cyan, magenta, yellow, and black. I forced each channel to exaggerated halftones and exposed each one on a separate screen.

I mixed my own batch of transparent cyan, magenta, yellow, and black and printed the four screens on the same postcard in that order. This example of Bartlett Street was probably the most successful of the six, though they all looked interesting. Here is the progression from one to four colors:

I can definitely move forward from here. I like the exaggerated halftones because the image and the colors only resolve themselves from a distance. On a more cerebral level, I like how it draws attention to the optical illusion of the printing process: at one glance its a cluster of dots and at another glance it is a photographic image. I want to experiment with making the halftone dots even bigger.

Since I can’t stand failure (beyond the point of fault and to much unnecessary personal distress), I reprinted my jellies postcards. The results, which were mixed, don’t quite stand on their own since I got rid of the labels. Either that, or this is the best one yet. If you look carefully, you will notice it’s actually a three layer print, the third layer being a light halftone pattern over the jellies. Maybe I will send them.

My silkscreening activities didn’t work out this week. The reason for this minor tragedy is that my screens fell apart. Oh it’s all my fault. Processing a screen involves coating it with a UV-sensitive emulsion and subsequently exposing it to light through an image. The exposed areas of emulsion harden and the unexposed areas are prevented from exposing by the image. These unexposed areas can be washed away, leaving holes through which ink can pass (A positive printing process).

Unfortunately, this week’s emulsion was laid on thick and I didn’t expose the screen long enough to evenly expose my light areas. The result was a blown out screen and seventy-two unintelligible “Jellies of the San Francisco Bay” postcards. Feather2pixels is certainly not known for backing down to a grungy aesthetic, but these suck. I didn’t even bother with the third layer of detail over the silhouettes.

Here is the best one:

Here is the worst one:

I experienced my first San Francisco earthquake last night (magnitude: 4.6. time: 20:40:00, location: 37.901°N, 122.098°W, depth 16.6 km). Of course there are hundreds of seismic events that take place every day as California continues its steady drift into the Pacific–I just happened to feel this one because I was in the silkscreening studio, gingerly painting at a rolling table. I looked up at Josh as it started to sway and we both laughed. Anyways, there are only a few Bay Area conversations more insufferable than earthquake pissing contests (passive whining about the cost of living and about national politics come to mind), but I was excited to finally feel one. Considered with the Telegraph Hill landslide and the stock market slide, it’s been a strange week around here.

The 2007 CMA Automation midterm is officially in the books.

The sudden (re)emergence in my life of the Ashby BART station in Berkeley has yielded interesting results. The area seems like ground zero for the classic back to the earth, crafts night, east bay living. Maybe that atmosphere is a result of proximity to the Berkeley Bowl (the most well-known of the Bay Area’s left-leaning groceries), the Thai Temple (where you can get a Sunday morning curry feast, mega-church picnic style), and/or the enigmatic semi-private hot springs someone set up in their backyard. Anyways, I’ve found myself with less patience than usual for San Francisco Cool culture in the last few weeks.

Like, I went to a public roller skating party on Friday night (coincidentally, at the place where I am silkscreening) and it was lots of fun, but part of me couldn’t help feeling a little disgusted at what an event it had to be. And, at the risk of sounding self-righteous, why do people wear hip clothes to make messy art? And why do the alternative weeklies seem to exist primarily for purpose of beating the city down with their perverted vision of the San Francisco dream? Why does everything seem so trifling?

So I convinced my screening instructor to let me print with him on Saturday. I should have a series of 6 new postcards by Thursday. I’ve enthusiastically got $40 worth of postage waiting in the wings.

Big postcard developments are happening. Get excited. I got a backing coat on a series of two hundred forty last night at silkscreening. I also got covered in blood red acrylic. My workshop-mate, Joanna who has a sloped pointy nose and a soft touch, was working on a valentine for her boyfriend. I really liked the way they came out and convinced her to donate one to feather2pixels. Apparently, her boy friend is really into pork. Do you see why I am so excited about silkscreening?
Anyways, it’s a symbol of the first of several predicted stupid, fucked-up situations that I will be torturing myself over in 2007: one valentine, two women. It’s not a simple situation and feather2pixels has been vague about details. In the hopes that I can finally shut the fuck up about it:

Morgan Jameson is bad bad bad news. It’s hard to imagine what good can come of my dealings with her.

“you want to be close to me and i have a problem with that. i
have a problem with anyone wanting to be close to me. i know
this. this doesn’t mean there’s anything i can do about it. you
seem to think this has something to do with you but it doesn’t.
at some later point i’ll feel better about life and i’ll feel better
about myself and i’ll feel more secure and optimistic, and then
i’ll be ready to open up to someone. but that’s just not right now.”

Hmm. You would think that would be the final word, but the fucked-up begets the fucked-up and she surely needs my attention (which, given the proper circumstances, is not effected by such secondary concerns as my job, life, and happiness) as much as I crave her breath on my shoulder. I am crazy about her.

Sarah is gentle, active, and stable. It’s hard to imagine someone with more positivity to offer.

The polarity of the situation was recently pointed out to me. I have all the power with one girl and none of it with the other. But relationships are not supposed to make you feel dreadful. It’s obvious that I am a classic control freak–it got me to California–but what precisely is the noxious relationship in the acids of my brain between power and love? Who will receive the pork valentine?

I am at work. It’s 5:44 and I get wistful here at night so sorry about this. I’m walking back to work after an on-campus dinner. Outside the mess deck, one of my favorite students, Baby Bluehawk, eying my load of manila folders offers to help me finish my grading while she is at work. She’s starting her shift at the library and will be there until ten. A group of five sweating students on an Indian run passes me on the left, chanting militant nonsense.  It’s getting dark and there is a light on in my office.  I hate to quote indie rock on my blog but this has stuck with me for weeks:

“we sailed away on a winter’s day
with fate as malleable as clay
but ships are fallible, i say,
and the nautical, like all things, fades.”

In the distance, a tugboat squeezes a barge out of the Carquinez Straight towards open water as the sunset casts the San Pablo Bay soft pink. I should know more about that–barges and things. But I am just floating through all of this. My energy is focused on things that will surely collapse. People who will surely fade. And I cannot stop myself.

I started a silk screening workshop last week. I don’t know where silkscreen has been all of my life, but I am glad its here now. Anyways the workshop runs for 8 weeks or so and I think I will take the opportunity to make as many postcards as possible. So this will be a temporary departure from translating my own images, but I’ve always said that what I need is more time in front of the computer, dicking around with my digital camera and Photoshop. Oh gosh, why can I not not stop thinking about Morgan Jameson?