June Update – Silver Lining

This has been a tough month and I’m posting this entry a little late. Part of my studio documentation has been slowed by a small family crisis and an infection I contracted via a tick bite. Thankfully for modern medicine and a round of antibiotics I’m on the path to recovery.

While recently cycling in local woods I stopped to document the fading light in the forest as it was angled into the trees from a clearing just beyond the trees. While sunset glow struck the newly budded leaves it contrasted the cool twilight on the path.

Often the smart phone in my pocket becomes a non-traditional sketchbook for me, I use the camera to document an idea while remembering a place or the light at a certain time of day. On my smart-phone there are a number of notes of half written artist statements, research, or project ideas.

To quickly document this time of day I jumped off my bike and wondered off the path, this is probably when I was exposed and picked up the little blood-sucker although I didn’t develop the tell tale rash until a week later.

As we dip into long golden hours of late light approaching the midsummer solstice. I sketched with the camera thinking about what I might find in the Midnight Sun in Sweden. I wonder what other animal encounters I might have later this summer?

Next month I’ll be leaving for my first artist residency this year. I’ll keep you posted of my adventure as I travel far north to the same parallel as Greenland. It’s the first time I am buying wool socks for a trip in July, in-fact I’ve had a few extra expenses and if you would like to support my project I created a small donation page on generosity.com:

Wilderness Guide in Arctic Circle for Artist

Crowd sourced funding is new to me and I was ineligible for grants this summer due to my immigration status. I feel it’s perhaps unethical to ask for support for travel and I’ve budgeted for ticket costs. However Sweden is an expensive country and I have a unique opportunity to hire a professional guide and rent a mountain bike while visiting as Artist in Residence at Ricklundgården.

Any support big or small to help buffer this cost is greatly appreciated. This extra help will support my project as I hike and photograph in the forest and mountains providing a safety net as I work in a very remote part of the world.

As I embark to the far and beyond region of Lapland, more photo updates taken from mountain bikes soon to come!

May Update – Testing Testing

This past month has been a blur as I’ve been testing equipment to take to the Boreal Forest this summer for my upcoming residency in Saxnäs, as well planning and searching for local guides who can assist while making work at the residency. I’ve been warned the weather can change suddenly in the mountains and I’ll be carrying gear and working at late hours during the midnight sun. I’m also researching where I’ll be photographing in the forest on the way in areas that have more chance to encounter bear and moose.

Above is a little test image and some of the work I’m planning to build upon the light installations and projections in the forest. Earlier this month I had a brief break to photograph in the Schwarzwald (Black Forest) to test projectors, batteries, and equipment. Although the work I’ll be doing is very different it gives a little peek into the project.

Just south of the Arctic Circle, I'll be working surrounded by Nature reserves and mountains.

While dodging the rain in the forest with cameras this month, I’ve been working and pushing the experimental studio based projects. In addition to continuing the reverse camera drawings I’ve been working with a series of drone gesture drawings. I arrived at making this work while thinking about other ways we remotely view or interact with a modern lens. I thought at first I would experiment with a mini toy before adding a larger more expensive drone with a camera. Like my Selfie Obscura drawings this is really work in progress and I suspect one piece to the puzzle for a larger project down the road.

Working out details with medium after crashing the drone a ridiculous amount of times into the studio walls and ceiling. This has been a challenging learning curve to master before the next step of working remotely with video or a camera. I’m searching for a larger space with controlled airflow due to currents as I learned the drafts from the windows in the studio made it hard to work.

Here is a little video of the work in progress I’ve been pitching to a few programs in hopes of finding a space to continue on a larger scale. It seems a little early to write artist statements as I feel like I’m still grasping at the next step, but below is a little documentation along the way.

Loosely inspired by my son who builds make-believe “drones” with his Legos, if there is anything I’ve learned from watching him it is that play is the heart of problem solving. I feel like I’m making a departing leap making this work compared to other projects. They seem to tickle this left-brain intuition and right brain tech-heavy-tool-using skill in a different but similar way compared to working with a camera.

Although several of my experimental projects incorporate drawing techniques mediated by a camera, I really see this as another way to record beyond a traditional photograph. Plus I confess, making dorky drone doodles is a lot of fun!  

I want to make more!

April Update - Rejections and Reflections

Last month was difficult, my dog died which plunged me into a deep depression for a few weeks. Then it seemed to rain rejection letters, naturally this didn’t help my positive or creative outlook. Regardless, I’m making productive steps on a couple of things I’ve had on the studio back burner having several breaks with troubling projects.

This previous summer I worked on adapting a document scanner toward a homemade digital scanner back for a Horseman 4x5. Normally used to scan passports or credit cards, this document scanner is ideal because of the smaller size and portability. A unique and fun feature is a sheet of glass on the back housing of the scanner allowing for one to see the in-progress scan. The extra glass however creates a number of problems with refracted light, or light bouncing around in the scanner when modified for the camera.

After a number of frustrating attempts to even out the light on the glass with adaptive magnifiers ranging from thin plastic to a custom piece of Fresnel glass. Nothing seemed to solve the problem of the image remaining bright in the center of the image with strange circular reflections. I knew the next step would be to take apart the scanner and adapt the metal housing that moves the scanner sensor, but before I did this I tried one last measure by adding a simple piece of tissue paper to the scanner glass.

Erin Harper Vernon, Scanera studio test - Self image

Erin Harper Vernon, Scanera studio test - Self image

Erin Harper Vernon, Scanera studio test - Self image 

To my surprise the paper created a similar effect to that of the ground glass on the focusing screen of the removed camera back. Having not a clear but cloudy film on the scanner glass dispersed the light, as well aiding the focus plane to become easily viewable on the scanner glass. Of course the scanner recorded the fibers of the paper within the image creating an interesting effect that I ultimately decided was distracting for my uses.

After longer research I found a UK glass source that could cut a piece of plain ground glass the same size as the original scanner. After some simple tweaks installing the glass, the scanner now records an even image. Sadly, it does need some post process adjustment in the levels and contrast, but I’m working on modifying the scanner further to hopefully solve this in camera. Regardless of my efforts I’m probably going to take it apart to amplify the sensor housing or continue to experiment. This will give me time to polish a design to 3D print a stronger back holding the scanner to the camera replacing the current hand-cut foam core.

The quality of the scan is similar to other document scanners I’ve past modified creating a low quality resolution image. Really it’s kind of ridiculous because the fidelity of the camera and lens is lost in the degraded scanner image. Compared to more expensive high quality large format scan backs it’s a laughable toy but an affordable option compared to professional backs costing 10k or more.

Erin Harper Vernon, Scanera studio test - Self image

Until my continued applications or the studio gods grant me funds to change my current lucky wind. I’m going to continue to push and play with my Franken-camera scanner, which lovingly creates this manipulated indecisive moment in the images. I even like the word “scan,” as it insinuates a more intimate experience then making a photograph. There seems to be lots of different possibilities to make and my next phase will be to take it out of the studio and onto the streets.

March Update - Experiments

Making is thinking! This month, as an experiment to have a more traditional studio centered project contrasting the work I do out in the field or on the computer. Helping to give some distance from a digital based project, I started a little (actually life size in scale) side project this month. While working with a more direct medium and drawing from direct observation with a smart phone camera, I’ve been dabbling in an exercise or short series of single-line-contour “Selfie” drawings.

To describe the process, I’ve been working in large scale on a studio wall using the reverse mirrored camera to observe. To me the making become less about a drawing and more of an act to slow down, concentrate, and look with the cell camera. A more meditative approach counterintuitive to the typical way I use this lens to quickly sketch or take photographic notes. Often I never really re-look at the thousands of images in my pocket.

The smart-camera becomes a drawing tool, a way of perceiving a space behind my back and a simultaneous mirror to my face. An extension or way to navigate the room, translated by my hand recorded onto the paper. In an odd way while making the work I’ve been thinking of this more akin to making a photograph then drawing. It has been years since I have made self-referential work and I’m finding the project to be less about me then the room I’m drawing in. These drawings become more of an environmental portrait as I record my studio walls.

When considering the bridge between drawing and photography with the Camera Obscura, artists have used the lens as a tool to frame for centuries. I’m curious how this modern frame that being the screen of a Smartphone, has changed as we “see” in an omnipresent increasingly connected digital world. In this work I’m interested how the cell camera physically records while culturally framing a photographic phenomenon that is connected to a real space and time as well interconnected to another shared digital space.

Artist and photographer Fran Simó on Passengers iphonography writes clearly comparing the iphone to the Kodak Brownie as part to a continuation of snap shot aesthetic. http://passengers-streetphotography.com/en/de-la-kodak-brownie-al-iphone/. I’ve always thought of snapshot or street photography to be a way of re-looking at what we don’t see. Although these drawings are a distant from snap shot photography, I’m really interested in the tool of using the camera as a way to re-see. These drawings become a way to re-evaluate or perceive my world mediated by the frame of this screen.

While simultaneously researching Face Recognition Software for a different project, this studio exercise and drawing distraction is a nice break from the more computer or direct camera generated images I make. Allowing creative breath to rethink other projects cooking up in my studio. More on future work soon!

#Selfieobscura is a working title as I’ve been documenting progress; look on Instragram for more studio experiments.

February Update - Research

Winter is such a great studio-time to reflect, research, and read! One interesting book I’ve been diving into this month is: Where the Wild Things Are Now: Domestication Reconsidered, by Rebecca Cassidy, Molly Mullin. In summary this book is a collection of essays delving into human-animal relationships from the perspective of anthropologists, biologists, and archeologists. Exploring the historical and evolutionary concepts surrounding domestication of animals and our continual kinship with them. This book offers an interesting perspective about the difference between animal selection vs. a co-evolutionary relationship between humans and wild or domesticated animals. 

I turned to this book while looking for answers to questions I have about sparrows, reindeer, or other animals sharing the boundaries between human-made and natural habitat. Having made a number of past projects touching on the hand-of-man-upon-the-land themes. When thinking about issues surrounding the environment or natural spaces, I haven’t spent as much time considering the creatures we share our environment with. Although this book was published in 2007, I feel it might be a good gateway into the next contemporary books I have on my plate delving into Anthropocene Ecological Theory. 

Why would an artist who is not a biologist or ecologist be interested in reindeer, you might wonder? ‘Tis the season to apply for artist residencies for the new year, and it is my pleasure to announce I’ve been invited to several cultural centers this year to continue a project in the Swedish skog (forest).

Close to the edge of the Arctic Circle, the first program I will visit this year is Ricklundgården in Sweden. I’m really excited to travel here because the terrain and mountain tree line will be very different than other natural spaces I’ve been working in. The second residency I will visit this year is RUD AIR, another rural artist retreat and work-space. The location of this residency is ideal as the surrounding forest will be an alternative studio, providing a wild space important to my continuing project to build and photograph light installations in the Boreal forest.

In support of this project, this week I finished one application and the next few months I’m currently working to secure a travel grant or Künstlerstipendium financial support. A future creative supported crowd-sourced campaign might follow to raise funds for travel and equipment. Stay tuned and cross your fingers for me!

January Update - Resolutions

Happy New Year!

In preparing to add this Blog, I spent some time to reflecting if I want this platform to be a diary about my creative process or purely a promotional tool. Selfishly I’ve decided it should be equal parts studio announcements and creative musing while enjoying writing about my work. For structure I’ve decided to commit monthly to writing about my studio as an experiment to test the waters to discover how this activity might shape my art practice while publicly highlighting work in progress.

Writing is an essential tool for any visual artist. For me, this sometime comes naturally with the creative flow of making as I leave notes in my studio or on my phone-sketchbook replacing a traditional bored-bond book. Being an artist who works away from the vein poetry or literature, writing for me has often been a challenge while grasping for words to define the message of my work into a cohesive meaning. When I finish putting my artwork into words I feel like it shook me. Similar to working out, the act of writing makes me leaner, meaner, and more focused as an artist.

On this note here is my current studio situation. After taking 4 years of Elternzeit (extended parent leave, not uncommon in Europe) to raise a young child while adjusting to having moved to the other side of the world. I finally settled into another new studio space last July. My current atelier is a shared creative space with three other artists located at Bettackerstraße 10C, 79115 Freiburg im Breisgau.

Shortly after unpacking I started an Artist in Residency in Motherhood. ARIM is a low attendance residency for artists who are mothers. For any artist who has taken the time away from work or shifted gears to be a stay-at-home parent, diving back into studio full or part time can seem daunting. I find the residency outline is a great way to shift my focus back to art making while defining short-term accountable goals for my studio practice. While jump starting a number aof projects I felt creatively starved to return to, I’m currently working on several new bodies of work toward exhibition this year.

Here is a small preview of recent work, including a project in rural forests in northern Europe where I am experimenting with building ephemeral light installations into the landscape as a way of photographically connecting man-made and natural occurring phenomena. After editing and printing the first round of this work for the Atelier open house last November, I’m currently researching and planning a connected sister series in the future months to come. More news and details to be announced shortly!

Erin Harper Vernon, Mythos I - Wandering Star, Ursa Minor (working title)

New Blog in the New Year

2016 has been a busy year full of exciting change and new work, so busy that I've had little time to share my studio adventures, but this will change soon! Coming January 2017 check this blog for artist updates, news, and activities!