h!n!k!

Hi guys,
Some of you don’t know me very well, so getting an email from me (or most likely a facebook message to a link to this blog) may have surprised you. I am looking for your help on a pretty major project that I am going to be constructing over the course of the next 3 months. Please read the little ditty I wrote for you below, and get back to me with any questions at the contact info at the end of this post. Thanks so much!
-Niki

   As some of you may know, I have been in college for some time now. I went to the Art Institute of Phoenix where my major was Interior Architecture & Design. After I left AI, I decided to pursue a passion of mine that I had since high school, photography, and started attending Phoenix College. I’ve been studying there for the past few years, taking every single photo class they have offered. A few semesters ago I took a class that focused only on alternative photo processes (cyanotypes, gum bichromates, emulsion lifts & transfers, salt prints, mordancage process, vandyke & kallitypes, so on so forth etc etc etc). These are all fairly expensive and complex processes. Sometimes taking weeks to get one print just right. It can be extremely frustrating and difficult, but I love being in the darkroom making images. I was initially doing landscapes and still life photos, but a year and a half ago I decided to fine tune my skills and start doing portraits using these processes. Currently I am enrolled in a studio art class (focuses on photography) at PC and am writing a proposal for a semester long project. I can do pretty much whatever I want (just short of shooting stills for porno) and the sky is really the limit. Having done mostly landscapes, I’ve grown accustom to working alone, only really having myself to rely on to get projects finished. But, over the course of my education one thing I have always wanted to do and never really got the chance to was to do a collaboration with another artist or photographer. 
This is where you come in….

   During a brainstorming session I was having over several cups of coffee this week, I thought about how I could collaborate with another person using my skills in alt. photo processes and I came up with a really fun idea. Basically it goes like this- I see art all over the place. Some of you I have put faces to, some not, but I am always really interested in the person behind the art that I see so many times a day in so many places around downtown. What I would like to do is take a portrait or two of several downtown artists (or artists who have a lot of work up downtown) and use my old timey photo processes to print their portrait onto a piece of their artwork. Depending on the medium, it would esentially become a collaborative piece of mixed-media artwork.

   What I would like to do is get at least 12 (ideally 20) Phoenix artists who work in any medium (as long as the finished product is flat enough to print photos onto) to commit to donating at least ONE, but preferably TWO 8” X 8” pieces of their work, on any material that will be easy enough to hang and that is at least 1.5” thick. YOU CAN DO ANYTHING YOU WANT ON THESE SQUARES! My only requests are that you do not have your squares painted more than 50% black, brown or other dark color, AND that you have at least 50% of the work surface be mostly flat. You also need to be able to commit to doing at least one, one-hour portrait session (which can be done in the location of your choice. I also have access to a studio with lights and the whole shebang, if you so desire) that will be used as the photo to be printed onto your artwork. The 8X8” pieces need to be completed by March 1st and your photo session must be scheduled and completed before April 1st. 
As I said earlier, the chemicals that I use to complete these processes can be very very expensive. I spend WAY too much money every semester on photo chemicals and paper and camera gadgets. I am asking for you to donate your time and art to this idea I have in my head that will ultimately help me continue my passion for art and education.
Once the project is completed I am planning on having a book made that will include all of the artwork, so the more people who participate and the more artwork that gets donated- the better. You will receive a copy (or two if you donate two pieces) of the book as well as a formal invitation to the opening of the collection, at a gallery TBD. 

This is the last semester I have at PC before I pursue my MFA at The Academy of Art University in San Francisco.  This is my last shot to a scholarship and I would really appreciate all of your help. Thanks so much guys.


Contact me:
Niki Noriega
(602) 214-1655 (texts are best)
hiiniikii@gmail.com
http://www.facebook.com/hiniki
http://hiniki.com 
-or-
@ jobot coffee shop
918 N 5th St
PHX, AZ 85004
(tues 7am-12p, Thurs 12p-6p, Sun 12p-6p)