"My involvement with the cyanotype process began in the summer of 2014 while I was teaching a collage workshop at Anderson Ranch in Snowmass Village, Colorado. A fellow instructor working in the next studio incorporated cyanotype into her experimental drawing curriculum. Her students placed objects and film negatives on photo sensitized paper for brief exposures to the Colorado sun. As I watched them work, it occurred to me that one could also make cyanotype prints with paper cutouts. I proceeded to cut images of figures, buildings, plants, and animals out of opaque and translucent paper and organized them on clear acetate. I was essentially constructing photo negatives with scissors and tape.
In 2019, I began to make 'cyanotype collages' by cutting up misprinted cyanotypes I had accumulated over the previous four years and reassembling them into new compositions. This approach reminded me of quiltmakers who recycle scraps of printed fabric to construct fresh compositions. Indeed, my interest in collage parallels a long fascination with traditional quilts, especially those featuring pictorial appliqué. Making these collages, I felt connected to those pictorial quiltmakers."
David Hornung
International Quilt Museum
1523 N. 33rd St.
LIncoln, NE 68583
United States
402-472-6549