Glossary

This glossary is a list of processes, techniques, concepts and terminology that relate to my work. Click on any of the bolded words below to see a list of all the related projects and news. To the right is a search box to search for any terms that interest you. Below that is the “tag cloud” – click on a tag to see all the projects and news related to that tag.

  • 3D printing

    The 3D printing process builds a three-dimensional object from a computer-aided design (CAD) model, usually by successively adding material layer by layer, which is why it is also called additive manufacturing

  • abstract

    Artistic works that do not attempt to represent reality or concrete subjects.

  • aerial

    Images captured from an aircraft or UAV (drone).

  • analog

    pre-digital chemical based photo process

  • analog-digital

    techniques using both analog and digital processes

  • archiving

    An organizational method for storing and finding things and digital files

  • art

    I know it when I see it

  • art fair

    a venue where many galleries present artwork in booths

  • artist book

    A limited edition handmade book signed by the artist.

  • artist residency

    an opportunity to make art in a place that is not the artist’s own familiar surroundings

  • assemblage / collage

    a technique of art creation by which art results from an assemblage of different forms, thus creating a new whole. Multiple images presented together as a unit, sometimes separate prints pasted in a specific design, sometimes assembled digitally.

  • behind the scenes

    explanation and photos of how things are done

  • blog

    Recommended blogs that I find interesting. A blog (a truncation of “weblog”) is a discussion or informational website published on the World Wide Web consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries (posts). Many blogs provide commentary on a particular subject or topic, ranging from politics to sports. Others function as more personal online diaries, and others function more as online brand advertising of a particular individual or company. A typical blog combines text, digital images, and links to other blogs, web pages, and other media related to its topic.

  • books

    Recommended books which I find interesting or that I have created. A book is a medium for recording information in the form of writing or images, typically composed of many pages (made of papyrus, parchment, vellum, or paper) bound together and protected by a cover.

  • bookstores

    Recommended bookstores

  • CAD design

    Computer Aided Design – Digital 3D design process that produces a model or sculpture that can be output as a physical 3 dimensional object.

  • camera

    A device for creating a photographic images. Derived from the Latin/Italian word for “room” as in “Camera Obscura” meaning “darkened room.”

  • camera obscura

    A Camera Obscura is the natural optical phenomenon that occurs when an image of a scene at the other side of a screen (or, for instance, a wall) is projected through a small hole in that screen as a reversed and inverted image (left to right and upside down) on a surface opposite to the opening. Usually takes place in a darkened room. The earliest known written record of the camera obscura is found in the Chinese text called Mozi, dated to the 4th century BCE.

  • cars

    Automobiles and Trucks

  • cibachrome/ilfochrome

    Ilfochrome (also commonly known as Cibachrome) is a dye destruction positive-to-positive photographic process used for the reproduction of film transparencies on photographic paper. The prints are made on a dimensionally stable polyester base as opposed to traditional paper base. Since it uses 13 layers of azo dyes sealed in a polyester base, the print will not fade, discolour, or deteriorate for an extended time. Characteristics of Ilfochrome prints are image clarity, color purity, and being an archival process able to produce critical accuracy to the original transparency. Cibachrome was in use from the 1960’s until about 2012.

  • collaboration

    Working with another artist or expert to create a piece or project that would not be possible by only one person.

  • collage

    a technique of art creation by which art results from an assemblage of different forms, thus creating a new whole. Multiple images presented together as a unit, sometimes separate prints pasted in a specific design, sometimes assembled digitally.

  • collodion

    Collodion is a flammable, syrupy solution of “nitrocellulose” also known as “cellulose nitrate”, “flash paper” and “gun cotton” in ether and alcohol. In 1851, Frederick Scott Archer, an Englishman, discovered that collodion could be used as an alternative to egg white (albumen) on glass photographic plates. Collodion reduced the exposure time necessary for making an image. This method became known as the ‘wet-plate collodion’ or ‘wet collodion’ method. Collodion was relatively grainless and colorless, and allowed for one of the first high-quality duplication processes, also known as negatives.

  • combo photograph/photogram

    Combining photographs from a camera with the historic cameraless photogram technique.

  • completed

    completed projects

  • creative process

    Creativity is a phenomenon whereby something new and somehow valuable is formed. The created item may be intangible (such as an idea, a scientific theory, a musical composition, or a joke) or a physical object (such as an invention, a printed literary work, or a painting).

  • crooks and liars

    people to avoid

  • dark ages

    stories of how things used to be done in the 19th and 20th century – often using a darkroom

  • darkroom

    photographic laboratory for creating analog imagery

  • Denver

    Colorado capital and gateway to the Rocky Mountains

  • determination

    some things do not come easily, it is important to persevere and keep working

  • digital

    computer generated or manipulated

  • digital capture

    Image creation using a digital camera. The first practical digital camera was developed in the mid 1970’s by Eastman Kodak Co.

  • digital printing

    Paper based printed output from a digital file, often inkjet prints.

  • exhibits

    recommended art shows

  • experimental

    exploring processes and techniques that are unfamiliar or novel

  • filing

    archiving

  • found

    discoveries

  • friendship

    bonds among people

  • gallery

    place for exhibitions

  • hands

    imagery of human hands

  • historic

    how things were

  • history

    a description of how things used to be

  • honesty

    truthfulness

  • imaginary

    how things might be, but are not

  • justice

    fairness – in the judicial sense

  • landscape

    picturing the earth around us

  • laser etching

    Also called Laser Engraving is the practice of using lasers to engrave an object.

  • lost

    what existed but is now gone

  • lumen print

    A lumen print is a solar photogram – an image created on photographic paper, exposed by the sun. It began as one of photography’s earliest experiments in the 19th century.

  • magazines

    periodical publications

  • monoprint

    a single unique print not made in multiples

  • multiple exposure

  • museum

    public exhibition space

  • naive

    innocent, lack of sophistication

  • nature

    the natural world

  • nature printing

    Nature printing is a printing process, developed in the 18th century, that uses actual plants, animals, rocks and other natural subjects to produce an image. The subject undergoes several stages to give a direct impression onto materials such as lead, gum, and photographic media, which are then used in the printing process.

  • New York

    the city where the Hudson river enters the Atlantic Ocean

  • news

    what’s happening now

  • on demand printing

    Print on demand (POD) is a printing technology and business process in which book copies (or other documents) are not printed until the company receives an order, allowing prints of single or small quantities. It has been a viable way to publish books since the late 20th century.

  • one-of-a-kind

    a unique object or print – no multiples or editions

  • ongoing

    active projects

  • panorama

    a view in which the width is many times greater than the height. Often used in landscape photography

  • photogram

    Camera-less image making using light and objects to create an image on an analog chemical light sensitive material. Many of the very first images made using chemical processes were photograms.

  • photographer

    person who makes photographs

  • photoshop

    Adobe Photoshop is a raster graphics editor developed and published by Adobe Inc. It was originally created in 1988 by Thomas and John Knoll.

  • pinhole photo

    A pinhole camera is a simple camera without a lens but with a tiny aperture, a pinhole camera – effectively a light-proof box with a small hole in one side. The first known description of pinhole photography is found in the 1856 book The Stereoscope by Scottish inventor David Brewster, including the description of the idea as “a camera without lenses, and with only a pin-hole”. One older use of the term “pin-hole” in the context of optics was found in James Ferguson’s 1764 book Lectures on select subjects in mechanics, hydrostatics, pneumatics, and optics

  • portrait

    depiction of a person

  • prints

    images presented on paper

  • process

    technology used to produce work

  • projects

    a series of works unified by a single theme, idea or technique

  • quotes

    wise sayings

  • recent work

    what I’ve been up to lately

  • recommendations

    I liked this and thought others would too

  • record keeping

    keeping track of how, why, and what was done.

  • reminiscences

    remembering experiences, people, places and ideas

  • salt print

    The salt print was the dominant paper-based photographic process for producing positive prints (from negatives) from 1839 until approximately 1860.The salted paper technique was created in the mid-1830s by English scientist and inventor Henry Fox Talbot. He made what he called “sensitive paper” for “photogenic drawing” by wetting a sheet of writing paper with a weak solution of ordinary table salt, blotting and drying it, then brushing one side with a strong solution of silver nitrate. This makes the paper light sensitive and is exposed when dry.

  • scanning

    transforming analog images into digital form

  • sculpture

    3 dimensional artwork

  • seen

    stuff that got my attention

  • self portrait

    depiction of the artist by the artist

  • shooting on location

    Making photographs outside of the traditional photo studio.

  • silver-gelatin

    The gelatin silver process is the photographic process used with currently available black-and-white films and printing papers. A suspension of silver salts in gelatin is coated onto a support such as glass, flexible plastic or film, baryta paper, or resin-coated paper. These light-sensitive materials are stable under normal keeping conditions and are able to be exposed and processed even many years after their manufacture. It was commonly used for analog black and white photography throughout the 20th century and still used for fine-art applications today.

  • slides

    transparencies, positive images on translucent film

  • solarization

    A darkroom process where analog film or photo paper is re-exposed during development to create special effects. Also called the “sabattier effect”.

  • storage

    filing and organizing information and images both digital and analog

  • teaching

    sharing knowledge in a formal or informal setting

  • technical

    geeky explanation of process and technique

  • thoughts

    stuff rattling around in my skull

  • time lapse

    technique whereby the frequency at which film frames are captured (the frame rate) is much more spread out than the frequency used to view the sequence. When played at normal speed, time appears to be moving faster and thus lapsing.

  • tintype

    a photograph made by creating a direct positive on a thin sheet of metal coated with a dark lacquer or enamel and used as the support for the photographic emulsion. Tintypes enjoyed their widest use during the 1860s and 1870s, but lesser use of the medium persisted into the early 20th century and it has been revived as a novelty and fine art form in the 21st.

  • travel

    visiting a distant place, getting from here to there

  • trust

    an expectation of honesty and reliability

  • video

    an electronic medium for the recording, copying, playback, broadcasting, and display of moving visual media

  • VR

    Virtual Reality

  • welding

    A fabrication or sculptural process that joins materials, usually metals or thermoplastics, by using high heat to melt the parts together and allowing them to cool causing fusion. MIG welding and TIG welding are used for my sculptures.

  • wet-plate collodion

    An early photographic process. The collodion process, mostly synonymous with the “collodion wet plate process”, requires the photographic material to be coated, sensitized, exposed and developed within the span of about fifteen minutes, necessitating a darkroom for use in the field. The collodion process is said to have been invented in 1851. During the subsequent decades, many photographers and experimenters refined or varied the process. It was most commonly used from the 1860s to 1880’s it replaced the first announced photographic process, the daguerreotype. One collodion process, the tintype, was in limited use for casual portraiture by some itinerant and amusement park photographers as late as the 1930s.

  • woodworking

    The activity or skill of making items from wood.