Today we’d like to introduce you to Anne Arden McDonald.
Anne Arden, we’d love to hear your story and how you got to where you are today both personally and as an artist.
I began in photography at age 15, breaking into abandoned buildings, creating installations in the spaces, and making self-portrait performances for my camera. After 15-20 years of printing negatives, I grew tired of the darkroom experience, so I made experiments. Eventually, this led to a whole body of work where the process informs the resulting image. I’m inspired by the lively dialogue that occurs between painters or sculptors and their chosen medium. I’m also using a scientific method, where you observe phenomena, formulate a hypothesis, test it with experiments, use careful measurements, note variables, observe results, and use this information to build an image.
We’d love to hear more about your art. What do you do you do and why and what do you hope others will take away from your work?
While most photography employs a lens, and either film or a digital sensor, my work explores ways of generating images on photographic paper without using a camera or negative. These processes are utilizing optical situations, or chemical reactions, or a combination of the two. The methods are an unorthodox collection of materials and techniques from the domestic and scientific realms, brought into the darkroom, often coaxing or scrubbing an image into the photographic paper. My imagery is inspired by images of atoms and planets, exploring the microcosm and macrocosm of our experience. The circles and spheres are also inspired by my search for a sense of wholeness.
Photography is a very young and exciting medium, and there is a great deal of undiscovered terrain. I am curious to see what is possible with photo paper, and it never fails to surprise me. It’s possible that we have only scratched the surface of what this medium can achieve.
Do you have any events or exhibitions coming up? Where would one go to see more of your work? How can people support you and your artwork?
At the moment my work is on exhibit at Photo Eye Gallery in Santa Fe, until Sept. 15
http://blog.photoeye.com
I am participating in an open studio at Byrdcliffe Guild, where I’m in residence, on Sept 1 from 2-4 pm
http://www.woodstockguild.org/event/artist-in-residence-program-open-studio-session-3/?instance_id=1365
I am also participating in the Bushwick Open Studios, on Sept. 29 and 30, from 12-6 pm
https://artsinbushwick.org/events/anne-arden-mcdonald-cameraless-photography/
Contact Info:
- Website: www.AnneArdenMcDonald.com
- Email: Anne@AnneArdenMcDonald.com
- Instagram: @AnneArdenMcDonald.com
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Anne-Arden-McDonald-116579048353973/
Image Credit:
Robert Ripps
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