Author Archives: Eden

About Eden

Welcome to my site for sharing images, videos and ideas.

Cyanotypes

I first came across cyanotypes a couple of years ago when I was exploring various techniques for encaustic collage. In addition to embedding photographic images and natural materials, I discovered this photographic process that creates Prussian blue monochromatic prints, developed in the mid-19th century that harnesses the power of the sun to make detailed prints from virtually any object that casts a shadow. These images can be imprinted on fabric, water colour paper, wood and then enhanced with paints or left as is with the monochromatic blue /white impressions.

For those who have not heard of cyanotypes, here’s some background (excerpts from wiki) and a few of my samples follow:

  • An image can be produced by exposing sensitised paper to a source of ultraviolet light (such as sunlight) as a contact print. 
  • After exposure, the paper is developed by washing in cold running water: the water-soluble iron(III) salts are washed away. The parts that were exposed to ultraviolet turn blue as the non-water-soluble Prussian blue pigment remains in the paper. This is what gives the print its typical blue color. The blue color darkens upon drying.
  • The simplest kind of cyanotype print is a photogram, made by arranging objects on sensitised paper. Fresh or pressed plants are a typical subject but any opaque to translucent object will create an image. A sheet of glass will press flat objects into close contact with the paper, resulting in a sharp image. Otherwise, three-dimensional objects or less than perfectly flat ones will create a more or less blurred image depending on the incidence and breadth of the light source.
  • (from Greek, “Dark Blue”, + “Impression/Mark”)
  • Uses two chemicals: – Part A: Potassium Ferricyanide—A red iron salt and Part B: Ferric Ammonium Citrate—A light-sensitive iron salt 
  • Discovered by Sir John Herschel who in 1842 published his investigation of light on iron compounds
  • Anna Atkins, a friend of the Herschel family, over 1843–61 and with the assistance of Anne Dixon, hand-printed several albums of botanical and textile specimens, especially Photographs of British Algae: Cyanotype Impressions,[9] effectively the world’s first photographically-illustrated books

cyanotypes-9804

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cyanotypes

Products available online to produce cyanotypes:

Jacquard

https://www.jacquardproducts.com

https://www.jacquardproducts.com/cyanotype

Kit includes solution, paper, etc

Pre treated sheets

Fluid Art

Acrylic Paint Pouring or Fluid Art involves mixing acrylic paint with a pouring medium (to make the paint flow better) and applying them to canvas or wood using a variety of techniques.  This typically does not involve a paint brush, but rather combining colours and pouring them directly onto the canvas and then manipulating the flow, triggering some chemical reactions to stimulate cell creation and lacing, etc.  It doesn’t require drawing skills or extensive artistic experience but a natural aptitude with colour and composition will help.  It can also be fun and therapeutic.  Some artists will enhance/paint over the dried canvas however most of the results are beautiful, abstract pieces as is.  Also sometimes employed on smaller pieces is the application of resin to the finished piece. 

I started experimenting with this art form during the pandemic and have produced countless pieces. Some examples are shown below.

There are thousands of demonstrations on YouTube of ‘fluid art’ (more high brow term than ‘paint pouring’) and many techniques.  Just search for acrylic paint pour on YouTube or instagram and you will see many demonstrations by some great artists.

Notes below summarize some of the techniques used in a workshop we did with our creative club.

Terminology

  • Cells
  • Lacing
  • Cell Activator
  • Pouring Mediums, Floetrol, water, silicone oil, etc. will help to dilute the paint and also with some of the chemical reactions

Techniques

  • Stretching – when the painting is moved back and forth until the paint has spread over the canvas
  • Swiping – using a blade, spatula, wet napkin or plastic sheet to gently spread the paint, often creating cells and lacing and a beautiful flowing pattern

Clean Pour
·      Puddle Pour
·      Tree Ring / Swirl
·      Wing Pour     

Dirty Pour
·      when all the colours are poured into the cup first and then dumped on the canvas
·      Flip Cup
·      Bottom Puddle Pour / Flower Pour

Airswipe/Dutch Pour

  • Using air, typically a blow dryer (cold air best) or straws, produces interesting, wild and spectacular patterns, which are reminiscent of smoke in the transition to negative colour
  • Use one of other techniques (puddle pour or flip cup, etc.) to get paint on canvas, often circle it with the base/negative colour

After the pour and whatever technique is used to move the paint around the canvas:

  • Apply heat to break up air bubbles and help form cells

String or Chain pulling techniques to drag paint across the canvas to create some interesting results

Other aids, such as various types of strainers, colanders, steel wool, specialized shapes, balloons, etc. can produce additional effects

Costa Rica 2022

Longest visit yet, to our place in Costa Rica, near Tambor (Brisas del Mar in Los Delfines) from early Jan to mid Feb. This time, we made a trip to Arenal and La Fortuna.

Costa Rica 2021

First October trip to Costa Rica during the rainy season. It’s actually a beautiful time for a visit, still hot everyday but it also rains most days. Some of these rains are quite heavy. The skies can be quite beautiful and the it’s greener on the Pacific coast where it can get dry during their summer months (Dec-Apr).

Joseph Campbell

Joseph Campbell was a professor of mythology, speaker and prolific writer, whose influence was so far-reaching that Newsweek, upon his death in 1987, called him “one of the rarest of intellectuals in American life: a serious thinker who has been embraced by the popular culture.”

Campbell applied Jungian theory to his study of mythology and added his own perspective in the realm of spirituality and human potential.

He believed that all religions, at their core, sought the same elemental life force from which everything came, within which everything currently exists, and into which everything will return. Although this cannot be expressed in words, spiritual rituals and stories refer to the force through the use of “metaphors”—these metaphors being the various stories, deities, and objects of spirituality we see in the world. For example, the Genesis myth in the Bible ought not be taken as a literal description of actual events, but rather its poetic, metaphorical meaning should be examined for clues concerning the fundamental truths of the world and our existence.

Accordingly, Campbell believed the religions of the world to be the various, culturally influenced “masks” of the same fundamental, transcendent truths.

In his own words: “People feel panicky at the thought that we might all have something in common, that they are giving up some exclusive hold on the truth. It is something like discovering that you are a Frenchman and a human being at the same time. That is exactly the challenge that the great religions face in the Space Age.”

Campbell was fascinated with what he viewed as basic, universal truths, expressed in different manifestations across different cultures. For example, in the preface to his book: “The Hero with a Thousand Faces”, he said a goal of his was to demonstrate similarities between Eastern and Western religions. In his four-volume series of books “The Masks of God”, Campbell tried to summarize the main spiritual threads common throughout the world while examining their local manifestations.

Note – excerpts above taken from The Joseph Campbell Foundation site and Wikipedia

From “The Hero with a Thousand Faces” by Joseph Campbell:

“We have not even to risk the adventure alone, for the heroes of all time have gone before us — the labyrinth is thoroughly known. We have only to follow the thread of the hero path, and where we had thought to find an abomination, we shall find a god; where we had thought to slay another, we shall slay ourselves; where we had thought to travel outward, we shall come to the center of our own existence. And where we had thought to be alone, we shall be with all the world.”

Hosting a Wedding during the Pandemic

My son, Tyler, and his fiancé, Robyn, had planned to get married in our backyard this summer. Original invitations included over 100 people however, in April, when the coronavirus pandemic changed our lives, they cancelled their reception, still committed to a small ceremony in the back in August 2020.

They’ve been busy since early spring creating a beautiful ceremony space in the woods, by the creek, at the edge of our property. They have also been working with us on the backyard for the past couple of months. We’ve built a beautiful garden and they even planted sunflowers. They are so tall now but still not quite burst forth. We hope they will be in time for the wedding. We have also done some work to extend the deck and the some landscaping to create a new fire pit area.

As the rules have evolved, and most recently we are in Stage 3 in Ontario, there will be 25 people for the ceremony and dinner (including wedding party and dates). We are hosting a bonfire after the dinner and have invited people on the original guest list who live in the area. At this point, by 9pm, we expect there will be 40-45 people in our back and it’s large enough that we will be able to create 3-4 distant spaces to hang out. We will have hand sanitizers and masks but we hope with respectful social distancing, everyone will feel comfortable. It’s not practical to include people who would need to stay in a hotel for only a late evening event. We are praying it will not rain but of course, a week away, and there is rain in the forecast… we will see. If it rains, we will have to postpone the bonfire part of the evening but have some plans for managing the earlier festivities.

Enjoy these photos of the work that was done for the ceremony space as well as some drone shots as it has evolved.

Remembering Camille

It’s been a year since we lost Camille so we are gathering to share our memories. With the pandemic, most are remote via zoom and some will be together.

Camille’s sisters have shared some writings about her in the following paragraphs. Camille was the eldest of four, followed by Jane, Patti and Suzie.

Jane Eden:

Over this past year, I have thought a lot about Camille. So many memories go through my mind and I realize how much we shared over the years. When she developed Dementia, I felt like she slowly slipped away from me. It was hard to have any kind of relationship for the last few years.

She was the perfect big sister. She was smart and confident. I respected her opinion. Sometimes I felt that we were as different as night and day but I always felt that she was looking out for me the way that big sisters do.
In high school we were both athletic and on school teams in volleyball and basketball.  She was a sewer, knitter and an actor on stage. She played the cello and I played the clarinet in the school orchestra. I wrote for the school newspaper and sang in the choir. And over on Gair Drive in Alderwood, there was a lot of teenage social activity at the Perry house.
I remember the early years when Eden and Randy were born and Camille and Ola lived in an apartment in Etobicoke. I was a student nurse in Woodstock. Over those 3 years, I was back and forth to Toronto, to spend a 3 month stint studying and working at the Hospital for Sick Children, studying Pediatrics. Later, another 3 month stint at the Clarke Institute of Psychiatry to study Psychiatry. 

I would take the street car out to Etobicoke to visit and spend time with Eden and Randy and visit with Camille and Ola. I loved to spend time with the little ones and watch them grow and get to know them. I remember Camille the cookie maker – hermits, peanut butter, chocolate chip. She was always sweeping that kitchen floor. I sat in the kitchen and watched her spin the lettuce to dry it and make Caesar salad. 

Camille was a life long learner and I loved that about her. She had knowledge and I learned. Over the years when I needed a lift or some advice or a new book to read to give me some direction, I went to Camille. She discovered the EST training (later called the Forum) and completed the programme and was transformed. Just about everybody in the family followed her example and did the programme too. We all gained from that experience, thanks to Camille.

Camille and I confided in one another and it was invaluable to me to just have someone to talk to who cared and would listen. I went through a number of relationship breakups over the years and Camille was always there to listen.  Camille and I played a lot of Backgammon and Crib and just talked.

When I was going through the transitions of life and moving my home, Camille and Ola were kind enough to take me in and I lived with them for a period of time.  At this point I was a single parent and I appreciated the support immensely. 

Camille gave so much to her family – her time and attention, her love and she was also so generous with gifts and money to everyone. 
How fortunate I was to have Camille in my life for as many years as I did.I am so grateful. 

The love and support that you gave me will always be with me.

I will love you forever.
Jane

Susan James:

My thoughts have turned to Camille many many times over this past year since her death. It is hard to put into words the value of someone we have loved our whole lives – the influences on our character, the insights gained by sharing our own innermost struggles and truths with one another, the stability realized by feeling fully accepted by another. Knowing that even if you screw up, you’ll still be loved …

When I was young and restless with 2 little boys at home, Camille would always make me feel welcome to visit her. She knew I loved Toronto, loved the cultural offerings available and so when I’d go to Toronto for a few days, she would look after the kids while I went off to the theatre by myself, to take in the lively energy of the city, it’s hustle bustle, it’s beauty – these times were such a gift to me, and replenished my feeling of connection to city life. She once told me she loved seeing me in the city because it made her remember again the good things about Toronto.

Through the years Camille and I both found ourselves on a path of spiritual investigation – one which never stopped. We had great discussions and as she immersed herself in tapes and books in what was known as the New Age movement. She was endlessly generous to me, donating materials to read or listen to, exposing me to thinkers who were new to me. Neither of us felt called to follow a religious path – it was more of a quest through conscious psychology and spiritual discovery to feel the presence of the Divine in our lives. These were not mainstream ideas yet so it was very affirming to have another person with whom to share our newest thoughts and insights. She wasn’t one to preach to me, but rather taught by example, and always remaining curious, open to new ideas and possibilities. I think of her with deep gratitude as my spiritual mentor.

Certainly Camille influenced all the members of her family when she discovered The est Training, now called The Forum. It opened many to the possibilities available by shifting one’s way of looking at our lives and the lives of those around us, by recognizing the limitations of the ego and getting stuck in our individual soap operas. It was a foundational course for me. Some 35 years later I discovered Panache Desai who took much the same philosophy but incorporated the sacred with the technique. She would have been as delighted as I was to experience his teachings but by then her dementia had progressed and we could no longer have those conversations.

A beautiful quality she had which I think about often is her playfulness and sense of humour. Her laugh was infectious, and her ability to see the absurdity in life and find humour in ordinary everyday things was so refreshing and uplifting. At times when I find myself feeling blue I realize I just need to laugh more – lighten up! I believe it’s one reason she cherished all her grandchildren so much – kids naturally laugh and see humour far more easily than adults do, so she had great access to laughter through them. Each one gave her great joy.

I realize that ‘my Camille’ was different than yours. No, SHE wasn’t different, it’s just that my experience of her, my appreciation of certain aspects of her, my feelings about her were mine. Just as each of you will have your own Camille. To me she was my big sister, my friend, my mentor, my confidant, my person who I could always count on to love me warts and all. I know that each of you have your own memories and impressions, and opinions of who/what she was in your life. And they’ll all be different. But I expected one thing that isn’t, one overriding thought/feeling/memory that will be a constant among all of us: when we think of Camille, we think of love. Is there any better legacy to leave behind?