Faraway Hills 7 (22 x 30 inch original abstract cyanotype on paper)

(22 x 30 inch original abstract cyanotype on paper) Unframed.

Neither painting nor printmaking, these are hand-printed experimental photographs. They were made using the chemicals of the19th century cyanotype photographic process. Instead of creating a white silhouette of a plant against dark blue by blocking light with a solid object on light-sensitive paper, I used the surface of water to block the sun’s light again and again in precisely timed exposures. These exact wavy lines, shapes and shades of blue cannot be recreated since the turbulence of the water, direction of the paper and timing was heavily manipulated by me each time. The darkest blue areas were the last to go under the water’s surface and spent more time exposed to light. Each blueprint is a unique monotype, a multiple-exposure lensless photograph.

Though abstract, these patterns were deliberate, and for the most part, controlled. I have named this series “Faraway Hills” for how the mountain patterns resemble the hills of Angel Island, Marin and San Francisco as I see them from across the bay in Oakland. I was born and raised in San Francisco and the thought of living any place without hills would be unimaginable to me. They have etched their shapes into my memory for life.