Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Pay It Forward


Here's some recent work, made as part of a Facebook game. One of my friends posted, offering to make something for the first five people who responded, as long as those five people in turn offered make something for five people. That sounded like fun, so I responded (and received a beautiful felted wool bowl from Sara).


I decided to make cyanotype prints for my five pieces. I was in the middle of printing work for my exhibit at McCord Gallery (currently in it's final week-the show ends on Saturday), so it was easy to run a few more prints. These are all approximately 8.5 X 11 inches, cyanotype on Arches cold press paper.


The first one, at the top of the post, was made for Dan Jarvis, who is exhibiting with me at McCord (I gave him his print the day we hung the show). His piece is based on a collage I made back in February. The second one, made for Heather in Belligham, WA, is based on a collage postcard I made about a year and a half ago. The one immediately above this text was made for Kat. The image is one I shot for my show at McCord but didn't use. I couldn't resist making it for Kat, as she's been making really great paintings based on used menstrual pads.


This one was made for my sister Kelly. Her reply to my post announcing this read 'my hovercraft is full of eels', a line from Monty Python that has been stuck in my head like an earworm since I was about fourteen. I just interpreted that phrase literally.


This one was made for Melissa, who teaches Art Appreciation at the same school I do. The original image was made by placing a piece cut from an old Artforum magazine into a slide mount and scanning it.


Are you an artist or creative type, and are you on Facebook? Do your own pay it forward challenge. Making work for specific people is fun and rewarding.
You can also visit my Facebook fan page.

Monday, June 14, 2010

McCord Collaborations


This is my final post of images from my exhibit with Dan Jarvis currently on display at McCord Gallery. The exhibit goes until June 26, so you still have time to see it.


These pieces are all collaborative pieces between Dan and myself.


The working method was pretty simple. I shot a roll of film, purposefully underexposing it by one full stop. I concentrated on shooting the same sorts of images as my work in the show, images from old magazines.


After shooting, I wound the roll slowly into my camera (to leave the leader exposed), and gave the film to Dan. He shot the same film, also underexposed, concentrating on signs and suburban scenes.


The film was developed, and scanned in long strips. Dan and I chose pieces from these strips of scanned negatives to print.


Keeping with the experimental nature of these pieces, we did minimal adjustments to the scans. Dust, color shifts (it was expired film), etc. were considered part of the images and largely left intact.


We made large (approx. 13 X 19 inch) archival inkjet prints of these images (and a couple more not seen here) and hung them unframed in one of the rooms at McCord Gallery.


These turned out better than Dan and I were expecting. We actually like them quite a bit, and are thinking of doing a similar collaboration in the future.

Tuesday, June 8, 2010

McCord Gallery II


Here are more of the pieces I'm currently exhibiting at McCord Gallery in Palos Park, IL. Click on any of these to see a larger version.


I have twelve pieces in the show, along with some collaborative pieces made with Dan Jarvis, which I'll post in a few days.


I didn't get a chance to shoot two of the pieces before hanging them, so obviously I can't post those here.


As I mentioned in the last post, these are all cyanotype prints, measuring 13 X 19 inches.


Tyler Hewitt and Dan Jarvis
McCord Gallery,
9602 West Creek Road (130th St. at La Grange Ave),
Palos Park, IL

May 25-June 26, 2010

Thursday, June 3, 2010

My Show At McCord Gallery


The opening reception for my two-person exhibit with Dan Jarvis was last Friday. Thanks to those who made it out there. For those who didn't, I'll share some of my pieces in the exhibit over the next few days.


These pieces are all cyanotype prints, and all measure 13 X 19 inches. They were all shot the same way, by placing pages from old 1950's and 1960's era homemaker's magazines on a light table and shooting throuhgh a macro lens.


The resulting photos show the interactions between the images and text on both sides of the magazine page. They were edited as little as possible, an element of chance being an important part of the process.


I'll post a few more n a couple of days. Click on any of the images to see a larger version.