[00:00:00] Pam Uzzelll: Do you believe art can change the world? So do I! On this show, we meet artists whose work is doing just that. Welcome to Art Heals All Wounds. I'm your host, Pam Uzzell.
[00:00:52] I hope that you've enjoyed this season on Connection. As I get older, I'm realizing that connection is something that needs my attention and energy. I celebrated my birthday not too long ago, and it was a simple get together with close friends. As I saw the last guests out, I felt replenished and nourished.
[00:01:15] It's such a simple thing, but life's greatest pleasures are often the simplest ones. I've been saving this voicemail for the finale of this season. It really sums up what can happen when you connect with another artist. J. M. Golding tells her story of how she created a book of lumen prints with another artist she connected with through a photo website
[00:01:43] who was thousands of miles away. The book they created together is called Playing with Light, and you'll hear the story behind it in just a bit. Of course, I looked up this book, then looked further at J.M. Golding's work, and I felt like she would be a great guest on the upcoming season. The next season is about climate and the environment, and it starts August 21st.
[00:02:12] I'll talk more about that after we hear J. M. 's story about connection and creativity.
[00:02:22] J. M. Golding: Hi Pam, this is J. M. Golding. I'm a photographic artist based in the San Francisco Bay Area. Thank you for all
[00:02:30] that you do through Art Heals All Wounds. I'm so delighted that your theme this season is connection. I have a story for you about art and connection. The story is about two people, a continent apart, making lumen prints together. In case you aren't familiar with lumen prints, they're a rather arcane type of alternative photographic process.
[00:02:52] The most usual way to make a lumen print is to put an object or objects on a sheet of black and white silver gelatin photographic paper and expose it to sunlight, often for hours at a time. Photographic paper normally needs to be chemically developed, but in this process it doesn't. The image is visible right away after these long exposures.
[00:03:12] Artists often image plant materials, which revisits the 19th century origins of lumen printing. Also, the moisture in plants can create interesting effects. When you leave photographic paper in the sun, surprising things happen. Black and white paper turns color. The colors depend on the type and age of the paper you use, the amount of time it spends in the sun, Your geographic location, the season, the presence and amount of moisture, and probably other things including magic and alchemy.
[00:03:44] The possibilities are pretty much endless. Each lumen print is unique and the results from the process are wonderfully unpredictable. So, my story today is about a connection and artistic collaboration between the photographer and painter Hélène Barrette and me. Hélène and I came into contact about 15 years ago through a photo website.
[00:04:06] We discovered each other's work and got to know each other through our mutual love of blurry black and white film photographs, especially if made through a plastic lens or a pinhole. Hélène is in Quebec, nearly 3, 000 miles from me. In an email conversation in early June of 2022, she happened to remark that she hadn't made any lumen prints yet that year.
[00:04:28] I made lumen prints on and off for the prior 10 years, and my interest in doing more of that kind of work was already heightened at that time for another reason that had to do with a loss. Not long before, another friend, the amazing fine art photographer Diane Kay, had died. And she'd bequeathed some of her stash of photographic paper to me.
[00:04:48] Diane had made some spectacular lumen prints. Since Hélène and I both wanted to make more lumen prints, we decided to challenge each other to do that. Every couple of weeks or so, we'd send each [00:05:00] other the images we'd made, discussing our experiences, learning from each other, and inspiring each other. We expanded the lumen printing process by including glass objects in the images in addition to plants.
[00:05:11] Which I was first inspired to do by Diane's work, by the way. We've experimented with rather gleefully adding things from our kitchens, medicine cabinets, and laundry rooms to our exposures, just to see what would happen. We transformed unplanned events such as putting the paper wrong side up or using two sheets of paper instead of one into intentional techniques.
[00:05:33] Doing this work together deepened our friendship and also held my connection with Diane. And by the way, Diane's Lumen Prints had also inspired Hélène. It led to another project for me, one that's very much about art as healing process, but that's a story for another day. After over a year of making Lumen Prints together at a distance, Hélène and I decided to celebrate our collaboration by making a book of our Lumenprints, which we titled Playing with Light, or in French, Jeux de Lumière.
[00:06:01] Hélène's first language is French, and the book is bilingual. I think it's fair to say that we're both pretty thrilled with this work that's resulted from our connection. Thanks again. for your wonderful explorations of the healing and connecting qualities of art.
[00:06:18] Pam Uzzelll: You're listening to Art Heals All Wounds.
[00:06:45] Thank you, J. M., for sharing your story of connection. J.M. Is part of the Climate and Environment series that starts on August 21st. I'm learning so much about the role of storytelling as we face the future on this planet that desperately needs us to start telling new stories. I'm really looking forward to sharing the conversations with these artists.
[00:07:08] I want to share your stories too. If you have a story to share about the role art and creativity play in your life, Leave me a voicemail. Just go to my website, arthealsallwoundspodcast. com and push the widget that says, leave Pam a voicemail. Also, if you want to help me keep this show going and feel able to leave a small donation, you can do that at my website as well by clicking on buy me a coffee.
[00:07:33] This show is completely independent, so anything you leave helps me to cover expenses. Thanks for listening and see you on August 21st. The music you've heard in this podcast is by Ketza and Lobo Loco. This podcast was edited by iva Hristova.
