It's Go Time

Hi everyone:

Tonight's blog was too important for me to award the soundtrack rights to any single musical act. So, I'm listening to a play list on my Shuffle right now- everything from The Jackson Five to The Sex Pistols is included...hopefully that won't result in too manic of a post.

The big news is that, as promised, I've got two new pieces to show y'all. Hot of the presses- I printed them up this weekend and have two editions I'm pretty darn pleased with - at least for now. So, without further ado, here they are, with some notes from "the horse's mouth:"

The name of the above print is "Lone" - as in "Lone Tree" - though I just found out there is a Lone Tree, Colorado. Who knew? And though this looks like it could have been shot in Colorado, it was shot right here in PA. And "So Lonely" by The Police just hit my Shuffle - how appropriate!

Anyway, this image represents one of my happiest accidents in quite some time - on a variety of levels. Firstly, when I shot it, I was kinda on the fence. It seemed like a scene I may be able to do something with, but I was thinking about 5 steps ahead because it didn't really look like much to me at first. The negative came back clean and the possibility was still there, but I still wasn't sure. But I included it in my scanning batch anyway - just as a hunch. When I got the scan back, I realized that Tom, my scanning guru, scanned it in color instead of the native b/w it was shot in. And I was thrilled because when I saw that image, I fell in love with it. It perfectly encapsulated a lot of what I've been feeling lately and I think it just works. In fact, the straight scan looked so good, I contemplated using it that way without employing my voodoo - and I will say that since I've been using this process, this piece looks the most like the original scan of anything I've done to date.

Next:

This one I felt had possibilities as soon as I shot it. Called "Tower", at least for now, this actually shows a radio tower poking out of the landscape. I grew up near a radio tower and I've always been a little intrigued by them. But for this, I knew I wanted it to look a bit abstract when it was finished, and my process was just what I needed to achieve that feel. As always, with my work, it's about the "essence" of something.

This one was also a b/w image scanned in color, but I converted it to gray scale before moving forward. A no-brainer...my ideas for color on this wouldn't have worked otherwise.

So, in printing these two images, I made some decisions for the future:

1. From now on, I'm only printing a max of 5 editioned prints with 2 artist's proofs for this body of work. Now, maybe it's because I printed both editions once, thought they looked great, and then realized they needed to be reprinted the next morning after I saw them fully dry. But, this process is too labor intensive to do more than 5 + 2, and really, I don't think it's necessary. Before, I was doing 10 numbered prints with no A/P's, and I think 3 prints is worth my sanity (or what's left of it). As an aside, remember that each print is unique because of the process - so get 'em while the gettin's good!

2. Because of the success with "Lone" (or my perception of said success), all negs will now be scanned in color and I will convert if necessary on the back-end. Without this step at the beginning, I probably would have passed over this image and not printed it. As it turns out, it is now on my home page - and if that doesn't say it all, I don't know what does.

Big shout-out to Tom for rockin' on these scans. There are several more where these came from - so hopefully I'll have a couple more new images in a week or two. In the meantime check out the website: http://www.sirinsky.com/ to see the images a bit larger.

Thanks again for being patient and enjoy!

-Marc

The Recovery

Hi all:

The title of this blog refers to my fun, but exhausting trip to Chicago last week. I'd expect my "recovery" to last quite a while, since the drive back was 15 1/2 hours through poorly lit mountain roads (except for the dreadfully flat, boring Ohio portion) with two screaming kids in the back. Not surprisingly, I woke up with a bit of a headache - so for blogging music, I decided to go with The Smiths. Chill, but not TOO chill so that my head falls to the keyboard.

I visited Flatfile for the last time during this trip (see earlier posts for reference), and I must admit I had mixed feelings. They had a postcard up on the wall for every exhibition the gallery ever mounted, and my name was on a whole lot of them - particularly early on during the gallery's infancy. I'm excited to start the next chapter in my career, but seeing all those postcards, the floor filled with office supplies and furniture being sold off - part of me was a little sad about it. But, onward and upward!

I also did some shooting while I was back - 2 rolls. I didn't feel quite as inspired as I did the last time I was there, but there is one shot that I'm praying turns out. The rest of it might yield a surprise or two, but I'm ok with having only one to be anxious about - especially since I should have a bunch of scans this week to get crackin' on.

Today's image is courtesy of a great artist named Mark Debernardi. A fellow Flatfile artist - I actually own a piece of his work: a spectacular self-portrait showing the artist with moth wings from Thailand - I should really take a shot of it and show it to everyone. A great guy - Mark greets all my house guests from our foyer, safely behind glass of course. The below shot is a really cool image of the WTC that he constructed using photographic collage and some other techniques that remain a mystery. So, enjoy all you New Yorkers! Web address for Mark is: http://home.earthlink.net/~mdebernardi/

And I have to show you guys this one too - because I just love it...

No other major news to report...I'll keep everyone posted on progress on the new work. Should be interesting!

-Marc

Are We The Waiting

Howdy!

Hope everyone's week is progressing nicely. I'm going to be doing the friends and family thing next week for birthdays, Passover, etc - so I wanted to get an entry in before the chaos hits. Tunes for my listening pleasure today is courtesy of The Sounds. Fun band, upbeat - something to counteract the rainy, cold spell we've had out here in the Northeast lately.

I had hoped to have some new work ready to post this week, but as it turns out, I'm still waiting for scans to come back...so it will have to wait a week or two more. Sorry guys. I'm also wondering that the hell is going on with the film I dropped off for processing like a week and a half ago. I called and left a message, but I'm starting to get a little concerned - I'd hoped to have my scanning pal squeeze in one or two more from that roll next week (provided they turn out), but that is starting to look unlikely. I've also got a framing guy and an accountant not calling me back - WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON PEOPLE? GET IT TOGETHER!

Since I'm playing the waiting game on my new images, I need something else to scratch my creative itch. I tweaked a few images on the website (http://www.sirinsky.com/) - just color and technical stuff, no new additions yet. I also plan to do some shooting this week as well - not sure exactly what yet, but I'm hoping to bang out another roll or two.

We also have a layout for how the basement will look, should we decide to move forward with finishing it. The front will be combo kids/guest room area and the back will be a home office/studio. Should be interesting to see if this actually happens - we're waiting for quotes on some things before we decide...WOW, my computer just went nuts and had to re-boot...lovely. Luckily, Blogger saves drafts every minute or two automatically.

A couple of weeks ago, I went to a mixer for creative professionals - very well-attended and made some new friends, but it was only marginally useful on the whole job front. It was almost entirely unemployed creatives, and nobody in attendance was in a position to hire any of them. Not exactly worth 4 hours on a bus. But, I had a great meal with my new friend Donna (http://donnarickles.com) and got some other stuff done in NYC while I was there. And yes, Donna's last name is really "Rickles." She's a really good sport about it, considering the hell she's caught for it during her life...

Not much else to report, but in keeping with my promise of incorporating more imagery into this thing, I've included a few pieces by artist Cathy Daley. I saw her work a few months ago in a show at Eli Klein Gallery in NYC, and I just fell in love with it. Her media for these is pastel on vellum, and at first they appear very simple, but to me, they feel stark and whimsical all at the same time. The feeling of motion and in some cases, pure unraveling that she conveys is really powerful. These low-res digital images don't really do her work justice - in person, they just jump off the wall.

Happy early Passover/Easter to everyone!

-Marc