Materials
I have a long history of extending the boundaries of the photographic print. I like to find new materials to mirror the content of the work. In 1980, I learned this from the Lowriders who choose contrary materials to reference the many layers of mythic identity.
I began to use soft and hard materials: the velvety 19th century hand-coated palladium printing process juxtaposed with steel. Palladium and steel, imagery sandblasted on glass surfaces, and in proximity to broken glass and steel, have all been potent signifiers . Moving imagery in relationship to still imagery can signal change and sometimes transformation.
Palladium

In 1993 the collaborative photo/video/text exhibition, Critical Mass, traveled by the NM Museum of Art (1993-97), brought the Pueblo World into Atomic history. I used the palladium process to make large scale prints framed by steel, referencing the two cultures I was juxtaposing: Puebloans and Nuclear Scientists. In some cases, video monitors are juxtaposed with the palladium prints. For Oppenheimer’s Chair, I learned to sandblast imagery onto glass through a silk screen process, in keeping with the piece’s Civil War origin story. I continued this process in the Joan’s Arc #1 and #2 work, placing a Cibachrome transparency between two different sandblasted pieces of glass to have a triple transparent montaged effect.


Transparencies with sandblast


Pre-ambertype


Most recently I have printed on aluminum and linen, and woven imagery into tapestries by a digitized jacquard loom. This has required working with two great print studios: Magnolia Editions for the linen works and tapestries, and Blazing Editions for dye-sublimation prints on aluminum.
aluminum with dye sublimation / linen
I want to print on mirror surfaces. I’m working again with sandblast on mirror surfaces to make a ‘Hall of Mirrors” about surviving extinction.
Left image: Volcanic Leaf Suspended (2015). The white gold leaf of the frame and aluminum highlights in the print are the same tone and hue.
Both images are dye sublimation prints on aluminum.