ABOUT THE ARTIST
A native of the foothills of North Carolina, Amy Rockett-Todd has been living and working as a designer, studio artist, and photographer in the flatlands of Tulsa, Oklahoma with her husband, children, and their two dogs. She began her professional life working with local architecture firms as well as an environmental graphics and signage design firm, specializing in architectural renderings and themed casino and resort signage.
She received her Bachelor of Science in Interior Architecture and Studio Arts Minor from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro in 1996. Her Studio Arts instruction included mentor and photographer, Arnold Doren (a student of Minor White in the late 50’s). Amy has gone on to participate in various continuing education workshops in printmaking and photography. She studied the wet plate collodion process at Maine Media Workshops + College in Camden, Maine, under the instruction of Jill Enfield.
Amy has work in many private collections and has exhibited in galleries across the USA, the UK, Spain and Romania.
Amy has a way of seeing and interpreting the environment through a lens tinted with hues of her architectural background. Her current work explores the relationships between the hand and technology. The final arrangements emerge from a photographic birth with a resting place in the visual arts.
Artist bio, CV and price lists available upon request.
UPCOMING ...
BAKER'S DOZEN : A Pinhole Dialogue
Sharing a visual pinhole dialogue with fellow pinhole photographer Antonia Small of Port Clyde, Maine, the two compare, contrast, and relate imagery specific to themselves as artists as well as the similarities and differences between the flatlands of Oklahoma and the rugged coastline of Maine.
TAC GALLERY, 9 E MB Brady, Tulsa OK
Opening April 1, 2016
Exhibition continues through April 30, 2016
Gallery Hours : Th, Fri, Sat 6-9pm
Exhibition book : http://www.blurb.com/b/6943426-baker-s-dozen-a-pinhole-dialogue
About the Portfolios:
Manus
Manus explores the relationships between the hand and technology fusing Rorschach-like imagery of architecture and flora, visually interjecting the hand as the conceptual spine of the work. Weaving historical photographic processes with digital photographic processes of today, Amy creates a dialogue between time with her abstracted collodion images.
The architecture-based pieces in the MANUS portfolio are directly born from a building's design. It's aesthetics and structure is reflected in the way each art piece is photographed, designed, and created.
Ferrotype
Ferrotypes use the wet plate collodion process to produce photographic positives onto tin. Using a large format wooden bellowed camera, Amy pours the collodion onto the tin, sensitizes the plate in a liquid silver bath, and places it into a plate holder that protects it from light until the photo is ready to be taken. After the photo is taken, the developer is poured directly onto the plate's surface, and is then placed into the fix bath. Watching the image appear in the darkroom is always exciting. After the image has been washed, dried, and scanned, she then varnishes the tin to protect the image. It is a one-of-a-kind process and each image is subject to the "collodion fairies" which is part of the intrigue of this 19th Century process.
Ambrotype
Ambrotypes also use to wet plate collodion process much like the ferrotypes, with the exception of using glass insead of tin as plates. There are added steps of cutting glass to size, using a whetstone to de-bur the edges of the glass, and cleaning all oil and dirt from the glass using a whiting mixture before pouring. Amy uses clear glass, black glass, ruby and a deep blue glass for her ambrotypes. Amy mixes her own chemicals for the wet plate collodion process. ... And the "collodion fairies" are always welcome!
Amy is currently accepting wet plate collodion portrait commissions. Please contact her at rocketttodd (at) gmail (dot) com
Pinhole
Inspired by the aesthetics of lens-less pinhole photography in how it can slow down time, capturing graceful movements within our environments, Amy experiments with various types of cameras, both handmade and mass produced - such as the Ilford Harman Titan 4x5, Zero Image 612b, a handmade 35mm camera out of a wooden domino box, several cigar box cameras, and a primitive cylindar camera made from a Pringles can. She processes her own film in her small home darkroom.