"I've been following Johnna Arnold's rich explorations of color for some time, and she just gets better and better. She's represented by several cliche verre prints, a variation of the photogram process in which she places objects into the enlarger head instead of directly onto the photographic paper. Acting as a self-described "slightly mad scientist" examining magnified everyday objects under an ersatz microscope, she uncovers the unexpected mystery and the magical beauty of utilitarian things. "Artichoke Seed," for example, gleams like an antique gold, enchanted egg pulsing in the bottomless velvet black one might encounter in a Velazquez or Dutch Masters painting; "Rainbow Chard with Mealybugs" features a couple of larger-than-life-size leaves, veins and all, in unlikely shades of ice-blue and purple; and in "Onion Rings from Sparky's Burgers," which at first glance looks like an earth-orbiting satellite, she has done wonders with saturated fat."
Household Specimen #1: Artichoke Seed