Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Whazzat?


Here's a daguerreotype I made last week. Anyone recognize this structure?
(A daguerreotype is a photograph made on a sensitized silver surface. it was the first practical form of photography--introduced in 1839.)

10 comments:

  1. Lovely print. A bird sternum...?

    I went to your friend's show on the very last day. Very cool. Thanks for telling me. I left a note in the guest book that said you said hi but didn't sign it myself. I hope it makes for a happy moment of confusion and space warp when she sees it. (I also recently signed the guest book of someone I went to elementary school with (whom I haven't seen since but knew he was an artist) with our now-dead art teacher's name from 6th grade. That will probably be a less happy moment of confusion for him, but too entertaining for me not to have done.)

    I look forward to messing with your head someday in your guest book at your hugely successful and sold-out show. xoxo

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  2. It is the breast bone from a fowl -- a turkey, most likely, or perhaps a chicken. I use them with a chopstick to hold up my knot of hair.

    Weren't daguerreotypes used in the 19th century, long before 1939?

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  3. Surely you must mean 1839? But I love the picture.

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  4. Yeah, 1839--corrected now. And "who me" is correct. It's the breast bone of a chicken.

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  5. The back bone/pelvis of a chicken, post soup pot?

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  6. Um, ahem. Please pat me on the back, too, for having the correct answer. (And yes, my having to write this shows that indeed, I am a loser.)

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  7. Oops, yes, Susie was also correct with "sternum."

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  8. Wait, "who me?" says "I use them with a chopstick to hold up my knot of hair." Can we have a picture of that??

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  9. Dear Robin:
    Yes, as soon as I figure out how to download exposures from my 1940's Leica, I will be happy to show you the gray hairs poking outside my bird brain held up by a bird's bone.

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