NOTES

Text in Our Dearest: "Our Dearest Linda,

Your call this morning was God sent. Meaning I have been anxious. 4 days is pretty long. We rece'd another card today.
Were you the only one that went? You didn't say and doubted it, but wondered — I am glad you have come to the end for you need to get rested. Needless to say, us too."

Text in Postcard: "... with your music. It sounds as if you are working on an important subject, the piano. It is so admirable for a girl. Let Tommie claim the dog. Boys always like dogs."

Text in My Darling: "... my reading for surely I won't forget all that I discover.
Honey, if I thought exposing you to good food would insure you to cultivate a part of my appetite, I would spend a good amount of my time getting you "plump." I can still remember several occasions where I failed to accomplish very much in that respect tho. Not that your husband isn't perfectly satisfied with you just as you are, but it would be such pleasant work helping you to add a few pounds.

FAMILY HISTORIES & THE DOROTHY SERIES

This process of dialectica continued with the Dorothy series, 1991-94, that included oil paintings and manipulated gum bichromate prints derived from photographic paper positives and negatives of family members. In some, I experimented with combining original or appropriated text with painted images. Appropriated text came from old family letters or from the dialogue of the movie classic, The Wizard of Oz. Of particular importance were decisions about editing, the visual relationship of written content to painted subject matter, the narrative relationship of written content to painted subject matter, the blatant use of a "photographic look" versus more expressive treatment of the human figure, symbolic use of image, color and light, and, of particular interest, the transcendence of the personal into a broader, cultural context. I found meaningful analogies and connections from both private and public sources; i.e. private family records and modern mythology (the movies), striving to tell a story both personal and universal.

I used gum bichromate versions of old photographs to portray Dorothy from the movie, The Wizard of Oz, disguised as my mother or myself. Through Dorothy’s adventures during her journey to Oz, she and I would both find out what it meant to "Return Home," to heal, and realize our true (spiritual) identity. Dorothy Begins to Wonder (1994) represents a step early in the journey, in which the past is questioned, with anxiety experienced by taking a new look at one's past. Dorothy Sings the Blues (1994) marks the inevitable moment of doubt or non-clarity that accompanies most spiritual “journeys.”

TECHNICAL NOTES:

Gum prints are made by coating paper with a solution of gum arabic, a dicromate salt (I use ammonium dichromate), and watercolor pigment. When the paper is exposed to light in contact with a negative, the parts of the coating that the light reaches become insoluble. The image is developed by washing the unexposed, still-soluble gum away with water, leaving the insoluble gum and the pigment behind. I print 5-15 layers of gum/pigment in registration to achieve tonal contrast and density of shadows. I often print multiple layers in several colors and manipulate exposure time and emulsion strength to create different visual effects. I sometimes work selected areas of a print with a brush during development to remove pigment and/or create a brushstoke texture. Prints can also be manipulated with pencil, watercolor, acrylic, ink, and gold leaf after the gum print is dry and finished in terms of no more photographic printing. The gum bichromate process, combined with multiple printing, has been in practice since 1898.