About The Artist | Sally Rothenhaus
You can view photos at my online gallery and peruse the neglected blogs at www.cShoresal.com/pressthis and www.sallyrothenhaus.com.
ARTIST’S STATEMENT
People say I “see things”. I show them something familiar in a way that causes them to think about it differently. I have not yet experienced a place or topic that wasn’t interesting enough to study visually. When I look through a lens, it separates me from my biases in a way that makes room for insight. In addition to family and community, that insight is pretty much what I live for. Favourite photography includes scenic land & water scapes, details of the natural world, old or new functional things like tools, antique machines, boats, cars, and elderly buildings and people.
The desire to move those images out of the dark recesses of hard drives and into the world has led me to the process I most often use, dye sublimation. I learned the art of dye sublimation while searching for ways to make medical alert jewelry that was durable enough to survive trips through the washing machine, and also kept my images looking great so people would want to wear or carry them around everywhere. It wasn’t long before I was experimenting with larger possibilities. Beautiful, hi-def art panels are nice, but because the result is so durable, I’m able to use it to bring the images that speak to people into daily lives in a variety of other ways. Birdhouses were my first success, and my line of ‘Art for Outdoor Living’ now encompasses a number of beautiful, durable, and useful items for indoor/outdoor use.
PROCESS
To create a birdhouse, I use heat, pressure, and dyes to transform metal panels (polymer sealed and UV stabilized) until an image is trapped within its surface. I build the interior birdhouse using ¾” plywood, then use nylon hammers and other tools to work the imaged metal panels to cover the wood birdhouse. The result is beautiful, very durable, and appealing to both humans and birds. Because each house uses five panels, I am able to combine several images to tell a story. The extraordinary result looks great in gardens, woodlands, grasslands, and beachside. The birdhouses are also striking displayed indoors, sure to be a real conversation starter.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Sally Rothenhaus is a photographer and bookkeeper living on the Connecticut coast. She is always looking for ways to get her photos out into the world, and this has led to the creation of cShoresal, the Art for Outdoor Living line of beautiful and useful items to enjoy every day, and Chronicles family story displays to get those family photos looking great and out where they can be shared without worrying about damage to the original images. She was originally inspired by a need in the Type 1 Diabetes community to make medical alert jewelry that appeals to people who really just don’t want to wear medical alert jewelry. That is where Sally learned the durable and beautiful possibilities of dye sublimation as an art process. In addition to photography, Sally is enjoys playing music in the fife & drum community, her decades of work as a tax professional, and her family and friends (human and otherwise).