Handcrafted — Visual Edge 3 Opens 2007 Exhibit Program at Viewpoint

Viewpoint’s third Visual Edge exhibit, Handcrafted, features work made using hand-applied photographic emulsions. Juried by Mary Swisher and Kerik Kouklis, Handcrafted includes prints by 51 artists working in a panoply of processes: platinum, cyanotype, Van Dyke brown, argyrotype, kallitype, salt printing, liquid silver, carbon transfer, Inko dye, gum bichromate, tintype, daguerreotype, wet plate collodion, gum over platinum, gum over cyanotype, and mixed media.

“The quality of the images submitted was outstanding,” reports Visual Edge coordinator Donna Allen. “Mary and Kerik selected compelling work that should be visually delightful as well as educational.”

Also included in Handcrafted are several prints by jurors Mary Swisher and Kerik Kouklis, Sacramento area photographers who are internationally known for their handcrafted works. Mary’s prints represent “a sampler of platinum-palladium, cyanotype, and argyrotype processes. Most of the cyanotypes stylistically harken back to my early days of painting. They deal with the emotional subjects of death and loss. My platinum-palladium prints are scenes of the ethereal world around me.”

Kerik is exhibiting gum-over-platinum and wet plate collodion prints. “These processes afford me a vast palette of color, mood, and tone from which to work,” he says. “The beauty and simplicity of these processes allow me to create my work without too many headaches. Surprisingly, this is true even with wet plate collodion positives. Despite the seemingly arduous nature of the process, it is really a very short path from the camera to the finished piece. In addition to producing beautiful results, the processes I use are just plain fun, and to me, creating art should be a joy, not a chore.”

Mary finds the same joy in handcrafted processes. “Why do I like alternative processes? I can work in the light. I don’t smell like hypo. I can experiment. Serendipity occurs not just in the camera but in the printing. This can be maddening and unrepeatable, but so much fun!”

Viewers who come to see Visual Edge 3, Handcrafted with a similar openness to the surprising and the beautiful will no doubt have fun themselves.

Handcrafted will be at Viewpoint between January 5 and February 3, with a Second Saturday reception on January 13.