Creating “Nostalgia”
While driving home I decided to put on the band the Lumineers. I came across the song “Brightside” by the Lumineers. This song reminded and evoked emotions of high school Karly. It had this sense of nostalgia. It reminded me of carefree summers at the pond, bonfires with friends and high school romances. It made me feel this longing for another time that felt so long ago.
I think most people can relate to this longing of another time. We are so drawn to those nostalgia feelings. Sometimes we are so drawn to those feelings we forget about the bad. Our memories can become tainted. I wanted to create a series of a women where this happens. She’s so absorbed and stuck in the past that the present starts to disappear.
Memories vs the present can be a hard thing to represent in art but I decided to do a process called Gum Bichromate. I wanted the memories and present to bleed into each other.
Gum Bichromate is a 19th century printing process where a digital negative is printed onto light sensitive paper. Pigment color is brushed onto the light sensitive paper and then printed. This process is repeated several times until the desired color is established. These steps are repeated from 5-15 times. This is a multi layer image that renders a painterly effect.
My set up of painting each layer
Here is an image with 2 pigment colors applied
Here’s the same image with a couple more pigments applied. As you can see it’s a very time consuming process but can be so rewarding with you get the colors correct.
Here’s a final one with all the colors but I had moved the negative so the image wasn’t as clear as I wanted so I started again.
Blue and red pigment added and left hanging to dry
Yellow pigment added and was happy with this final result
An image with the first blue pigment applied
After 100’s of hours I finished this series and so far have gotten it into 2 shows (2023). The first show being “Coalescence” and the Student Art Show at Utah Valley University in the Noorda Center.
The Setting up of Coalescence
Images were strategially placed in order showing the women’s memories come to front but show her present start to fade away. These images are of the opening reception.
Part of my series at the Student Art show at Utah Valley University.
Below is the final images along with the Art Statement.
Above are the final images with the Digital vs the Gum print.
Nostalgia
“Unfold your today beyond your yesterday, or else, there'll be no tomorrow, only decay.”
Abhijit Naskar
We are so excited to grow up and experience the real world but soon realize the real world is not as picture perfect or carefree as we thought. We then tend to reminisce about the “good times.” Time doesn’t stop for anyone. The poor, rich, happy or sad. But the memories can remain. Some may call it depression or anxiety but I’ll refer to it as nostalgia. These photographs don’t exactly portray what memories I have experienced but a generalized concept that I feel would resonate with the viewer.
I use these images to tell a story about a woman who is clinging onto her memories/past. These images show her going throughout her day with her nostalgia. As you view the images, you will see 2 different images stacked on top of each other (double exposure). Continuing down the line, you will notice that the hazy background image starts to become more clear. Her reality looks very dull and lifeless compared to her memories. I used Gum Bichromate to illustrate her delusions. I wanted to show how beautiful they can be, but the more she focuses on her memories, the more they start to take a front seat in her life, and subsequently, her reality starts getting worse.
Her memories start to destroy her life. As she dissociates she loses touch with reality and in the end, they destroy her happiness. I had a time in my life when my present and future looked daunting. I would hold on to memories thinking I could keep them alive. But it does the opposite. The more I held on, the more my present lost its luster. This series shows how nostalgia has affected me.
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