The Transitional Image

Abigaill Berenika

I've been happily spending much time of late online with the vast portfolio of Abigaill Berenika over at AltPhotos.com. She has infused my love of photography with a new excitement. Her work seems quite personal, as she shoots the same model over and over-perhaps self portraits. I don't know, she doesn't write much about her process and I'm enjoying getting everything I need from just looking at the images. Her work reminds me a lot of of Robert Parkeharrison's older portfolio, but with a much less dismal theme. Her tone does have a melancholic ring to it, but it's more dreamy in a good weird way. Her use of Photoshop is thrilling. She manages to keep her images looking as if they were done with alternative processes-and maybe they are, but I doubt she actually shot a real building floating in a stormy sea...She's a genius, a mysterious brilliant!

The altphotos site is compelling. There are quite a few Polish photographers (Berenika is Polish) posting there and their work as a group is generally above and beyond. I wonder what's going on in Poland that makes it possible for so many to be so poetically inclined and capable?

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This Image "Butterfly Bridesmaid". Elena Ray Copyright 2004.

Two Avante-Garde Links

http://www.ubu.com/

http://radiom.org/

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This Image 'Disappearing Form". Abstract on collaged paper. No longer in physical existence-it collaged into something else.

Imprinted Woman

When I was preparing to shoot this nude series I knew I didn't want to create images to stimulate the male libido. I was seeking a psychologically expressive female figure for myself. Some of the feminist literature that has influenced my thought in this area is a book by Linda Nochlin "Women, Art, And Power And Other Essays". In this book she reaches an all time high (or low if you please) in feminist rhetoric when she photographs a male nude holding a tray of banana's held at knee height....!!
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This Image "Imprinted Woman". Photo montage printed on Kinwashi. Three images montaged in Photoshop: Nude, Chinese calligraphy pattern, and cut radish (the vegetable) pattern. The final image was printed on an Inkaid prepped Kinwashi paper size 16'' x 20". The radish "paper" is very interesting; a small sheet about 6 x 8 inches of thinly sliced radish rounds pressed together into a translucent sheet. I found it at Hiromi Paper in Santa Monica http://www.hiromipaper.com/store/home.php.

Something Happened

The most important thing, I think, with my work, is to actually physically take the steps required towards manifesting the idea. The longer I think about what spontaneously arose in my mind the less viable it seems. I vacillate. I literally go around in circles between the three rooms I work in tapping things like an eccentric old woman. But when I commit with feet, hands, brain, heart, eyes, materials, tools--something always happens.
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This Image "Untitled" Elena Ray Copyright 2007. Yesterday after a particularly calming yoga practice I started looking through the thousands of frames I have of Tasya. In tandem I started going through a stack of papers hidden in envelopes and boxes I'd set out on my office table. Some of these were sample packs from manufacturers-two sheets each kind of thing. Lumijet has a product which is piece of flimsy super shiny silver "paper" ("Lumijet Mirror Finish Silver") which I decided to try. The first sheet got jammed in my very picky 4800, but the it was compelling, so I took a chance and sent the next sheet through. Gorgeous! Crystal sharp print with incredible depth. But the really interesting part happened when I scanned the print. The flatbed scanner completely transformed the printed image. All the grain from the inkjet primer on the silver was picked up giving the image a mysterious aged quality much like an old faded tintype or some kind of antique alternative process. Nobody seems to sell this paper anymore though...

Work Is My Sanctuary

There are endless doors into it...but they all close up when I step away. I find myself in this void almost always on the return from a trip. Wherever paradise was before is lost...the paradise of immersion in processes.
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My unfinished American Clay wall, as I left it before leaving to visit Sequoia National Park.

Bob Emits Cosmic Knowledge

This morning I went out and sat with my new cactus Bob, named after my father who insisted I name him after him. Bob is full of mescaline. Trichocereus terscheckii. He did seem to have an immediate pull on both of us while we wandered around the nursery, always finding our way back to him...way too much money for a cactus. I decided to pull out the plastic, my father then offered the bounty of his wallet, and so, Bob found his way into my old SUV. I didn't know what he really was until I Googled his Latin name, and then the crazy gift suddenly meant BIG COSMIC REVELATION. Here it was, the botanical body of Christ, waiting to be planted in my garden (of Eden)...

Last year I found a book which I did not borrow or buy, hidden in an obscure drawer in my office. Apparently some loving soul planted it there for me to find. It was "True Hallucinations" by Terrence McKenna, who I'd never heard of. But, being the avid reader, a habit picked up from my father, I endeavored to see what it was all about. And I was blown away. Not only was it an biologist's plea for sanity, it was a brilliant madman's manifesto of psychedelic scientific inquiry, with a hippie adventure to boot. One of the craziest reads I've ever taken. Absolutely charming. And informative.

From what I understand of McKenna, I have "the teacher" in my life now. This teacher comes from outer space, planted here on earth by an evolved consciousness to facilitate my evolving consciousness.

I have no desire to cut Bob up and eat him. He emits enough of his wisdom for me. We placed him in the small garden outside of our enclosed sun room where I practice yoga, and read. Already I find myself visiting him, just to listen. Already, mental connections generate easily with him...This morning I sat near him on a big stone with the mental image of Kozo in my mind...I've once again decided against making "intentions" or "praying for"...all those ways (to my mind) are products of consciousness and so are limited. Instead, just to hold an image, a question, curiosity, interest...those are the open ended brain waves which can take you beyond your conditioning. And it worked. I came away from my brief meditation with a radical idea for my substrate!

Bob was sold to me as a sort of faux Saguaro. Trichocereus terscheckii resembles a Saguaro but grows 10 times as fast as one. So, if he lives, in a decade, Bob should be 15 to 20 feet tall, with arms!
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This Image "Endurance". Photograph of Saguaro printed on collaged and pigment stained Kinwashi.

Pour The Ink

In between my two yoga classes this morning I went to Annie's for a cup of her magical Oolong tea. While I was there she gave me an impromptu intro to calligraphy. She was using phrases like " pour the ink" and "open the brush" that were making me crazy with delight.

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This Image: "A Pleasant Surprise Is In Store For You". Elena Ray Copyright 2007. Mixed medium collage on various papers. Photograph of bird's nest printed on Japanese rice paper with gouache staining and Chinese calligraphy. Red square collage with bird head. Japanese block printed tree paper. Two leaves collaged onto Kinwashi paper. A fortune reads " A pleasant surprise is in store for you". The characters mean: love, trust, dream, and fortune.