"Tower" ferrotype mosaic assemblage. MANUS portfolio. Amy Rockett-Todd 2014.
"Tower" (detail). Amy Rockett-Todd 2014.
My design and architecture background helps guide my artistic endeavors, which led to this new work, MANUS, combining art, architecture and photography. With the creation of each piece, I am inspired by historic buildings in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
The Tower piece is based off of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Price Tower in Bartlesville, OK. There are 8 image sections symbolic of the 8 residential balcony levels within this building. The images are adhered to a 30.60.90-degree triangular substrate. The angle degrees match the angle degrees used within the Tower’s structure, as all angles within the building are either 30.60. or 90 degree angles. The 8 (4x5) ferrotype images on the right of the piece are abstracted images taken digitally directly from the exterior of the site, then printed onto OHP film and exposed via the wet plate collodion process in the darkroom. The 8 ferrotype images on the left of the piece are abstracted ginkgo leaf images, symbolic of Frank Lloyd Wright’s beloved ginkgo tree. He had his home and studio originally built around his beloved ginkgo tree. This piece stands roughly 4 feet tall and includes 16 one-of-a-kind ferrotype images. The ginkgo images have all been hand-tinted with archival pastels in oranges, yellows, and blues, and have been varnished with a sandarac lavender oil varnish, as all of my collodion images are sealed with this protective varnish layer.
Most of 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.