Ghosts of Christmas Past

30 DAYS OF DEALS // DAY 23
See the history of image manipulation in Faking It: Manipulated Photography before Photoshop, an Amazon Editor's Pick for this holiday. This captivating book reveals that almost every type of manipulation we associate with Adobe’s now-ubiquitous Photoshop software was also part of photography’s pre-digital repertoire, from slimming waistlines and smoothing away wrinkles to adding or removing people in images, not to mention fabricating events that never took place. Among the techniques discussed–and beautifully illustrated with works from an international array of collections—are multiple exposure, combination printing, photomontage, composite portraiture, over-painting, hand coloring, and retouching. Save 37%, enjoy free shipping with gift wrapping available!

Jana's collage finals

Finally posting this! – two finished collage and solvent transfer pieces. One was shown here in progress in a post from August 17th. Solvent transfer uses safe, non-toxic materials to transfer photographic imagery onto a variety of substrates. For these pieces, I used wintergreen and peppermint oil which are both available at a health food or organic grocery store. The oil causes the Xerox toner to release and adhere to the paper underneath. My process works something like this:

• look through magazines for ideas about my concept or sketch a concept and look through magazines,
• make rough cut-outs and place around the page to plan the composition deciding what to photocopy and what to transfer, 
• make photocopied imagery,
• trim out imagery,
• transfer first, apply colored pencil, and paste/collage last

When making solvent transfers, use a small bit of transparent tape to secure each piece in place, Xerox side down (images will be backwards unless you reverse them), then coat the back side with oil using a cotton swab. Pressing down with my left hand to hold the transfer in place, I use a spoon, using the edge to rub back and forth over the image. For more tips on solvent transfer, attend one of our classes on Transfer Imagery!

Duality, 2012. Jana Perez.

Flora and fauna, 2012. Jana Perez.

Jana's work in progress...

Spent yesterday and also spending today in the studio for some MUCH needed "me" creative time. Working on four/five collage + transfer pieces. Three are figurative and two are "flower" compositions. This work uses solvent transfer and collaged cut-outs from magazines - both historical and contemporary. I buy old magazines on eBay and newer ones from various sources. These reflect my fascination with our cultural ideas of "female". Here are a few snaps of one composition in progress.