With this post I'm getting back to what I originally wanted to do with this blog - to keep a personal journal about my work and my art-experience. I experimented for a while with trying to adhere to a more public mission, but my energy for that has waned. I discovered that I rarely have anything critical to say about art that I see - the blog became a mere catalogue of shows I was visiting. I will still be posting photos from some shows on my flickr page, and if I ever do have something to say about what I see, I will post it here, but the primary focus of this blog will be my own work.
Sam Sanford, Empty Space, 2008, oil on paper, 55" x 99"
Sam Sanford, Trouble, 2008, oil on paper, 55" x 99"
For Discrete Space (Sept. 27 - Nov. 2 2008 at Big Medium), I wanted to force myself to work more loosely. I did this by making two very large paintings in about eight days - much faster than my usual pace. I wouldn't have time to zoom way in on every detail with a tiny brush like I've done in the past.
I also wanted to make the paintings very affordable, so I decided to do them on paper primed with acrylic gesso. In order to prime paper with water-based primer without it buckling and wrinkling badly, I stretch the paper on canvas stretchers. To do this, you get the paper soaking wet, then fold it over the stretchers and staple it. There's no need to try and pull it tight - when it dries it gets incredibly tight. After this, you can apply layers of acrylic primer and each time it dries beautifully flat.
My biggest stretcher chassis was 40" x 60", so I made each painting out of three paper panels joined together. To get a seamless joint, I overlapped the edges to be joined and cut both pieces of paper with a single stoke to ensure a perfect match. Then I butted the cut edges and joined them with a third strip of paper on the back. The adhesive I used was Scotch ATG 924 acrylic transfer gum - a moisture-free adhesive to avoid wrinkling and buckling. I did go back over the joint with a few layers of primer applied with my finger, to prevent oil absorption by the unprimed cut edges of the paper - this unfortunately caused slight buckling, but it was unavoidable. The seams still looked pretty great - see the photo below. One big prblem with this method of joining was that as the paper expanded and contracted with fluctuations in temperature and humidity, the joints separated somewhat, especially near the edges. This is particularly noticeable in the photo of 'Empty Space' above.
the seam
joining the three pieces of paper - weighting the seams
I also used the ATG to install the paintings - I wanted them to be flush to the wall and I didn't want to use pins or any other visible hanging system. Sticking them straight to the wall with the ATG looked good. However, one of the paintings mysteriously fell to the ground after a couple of weeks - the other one was still stuck very securely to the wall. Also, the adhesive was an incedible pain to remove from the wall after the show, although it separated from the backs of the paintings easily.
The work of Leslie Mutchler and Jeannie McKetta was very good and I was thrilled to be included in this show with them. Photos of their works in the show and other photos from the opening are on my flickr page here.
