Moving the Goalposts
Once Were Trees 2025 - one of my new cyanotype prints about suburban development
I’ve been in the studio every day this week, experimenting. At the end of each day I have three or four new cyanotype prints to look at and evaluate. The most recent ones always seem to move the goal-posts a bit more, until I’m not even sure what the goal originally was.
It’s been like that with most of my projects. I don’t know whether I can achieve anything better than what I’ve finished. It’s why I keep falling into little slumps at the end of a project. It’s also why I have to prod myself to keep going, to find new inspiration. Then the goalposts move again…
Towards the end of my Tootgarook residency, I researched experimental cyanotypes. I found information on bleaching with washing soda, overprinting dried prints and exposing papers that were still wet with the cyanotype solution.
It did mean longer exposures but also yielded some really interesting results. I was able to find thirteen good images that I was happy with to use for my 2026 calendar. The cover was the last print for the day and was still a little damp when I photographed it. There was a discounted shipping and calendar sale on which I wanted to take advantage of.
It gave me an opportunity to look back on the work I made for the 2025 calendar which is still hanging up in the kitchen. At the time, in November 2024, I didn’t think I had enough images to use. I had spent months recovering from my knee surgery and had little to show for the last months of the year.
I did however, like the square Finding Peace collages I made as well as the pain medication cyanotype prints. I look at them now and think how far I have come. Yet at the time, those collages were the best I had done and I was pleased with them. That’s what creating is all about really. Keeping on working with your materials as your goalposts move.
I went to Officeworks and had new A3 transparencies made so I could work a little larger on the kozo paper I made in Japan. It was a perfect opportunity to combine the suburban development plans for Rye near where I was staying with the images of the endangered Moonah trees that are the remnant vegetation on the Mornington peninsula.
I used selective bleaching on the A3 portrait orientated trees which looked like slanting rays of sunlight through the foliage (picture below). Now this image is my favourite and I wonder if I can do any better or repeat that experiment again. Such results continue to surprise and delight me.
It’s a good feeling when you feel like you’ve accomplished something new that you’re happy with. I’ve entered some of my new works in a couple of prizes. Let’s see if they get accepted!
Where the Light Falls 2025 - cyanotype on handmade kozo paper
