There is no easy way to say this, but there is a funny way

For more images of Photo Fresco and Screen Paintings go here: PhotoFresco.com


I get different results almost everytime I work with this process. This makes the game of trying to control my results entertaining and constantly surprising, if not frustrating. The reality is that I must not know what I am doing if I can continue to get this many different results. When I try to make a mistake I get a perfect print. When I try to get a perfect print I get new flaws. I can only say that my dry skin from mixing plaster and my messy floors with broken castings is a testament to my determination to get this right.

At one point I thought I had understood the mix and the pour and the results, but when I went back to repeat that with black and white images I've only gotten clearer and cleaner prints. I'll post the images later of the image rocks drying around the fireplace, but romantic it is not. I've only had an obsession like this a few times in the past, like when making a model for an engineering class or making a chopped bicycle when I was a kid, model cars, puzzles, car repair, to name a few. The problem with this undertaking is that the only thing I can do is make more samples. So each result leads into a new test, which leads into a missed target and a new test. I've got so many Frida Khalo Phot-Fresco prints that I get dizzy looking at them and I can't remember which test proved what.

My last test was using very wet plaster and this seems to be the right direction to go with what I am after. I am trying to get a uncontrolled blur around figures in black and white images. Sort of a halo effect. I consider it materializing the character's soul from the photograph. Maybe this is why the results are so elusive. Once I get the blurred image I can then use that to create a screen painting from which puts the color and life back into the print. (See Burroughs reference on earlier post).

I could probably manipulate the images in Photoshop and get a result that is dramatic, but the plaster Phot-Fresco printing process seems very holistic and as it is very elusive to get a good print then I think the process may be true to form for what I am after. I don't want something that I can visualize, I want some that manifest itself from the materials. This is what I got occasionally when I was a photographer and now I think I have a process that can merge that effect with rock and ink. Onward.