spring leaves

Friday, July 1, 2011

Mothers Day 2011 on the MKT Trail

One of the most amazing images of a landscape I've ever made.
I have a 35"x 55" boarderless print in the living room.


Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Dying Flowers





Stephen Rust brought me a set of small 6x9 paintings to photograph in late 2005 and this study of dying flowers really grabbed me.  I was watching my father go from a vibrant beautiful man and dying of skin cancer and congestive heart failure.  Something I had never seen before, and like the painting I had never seen anyone take the time to paint a study of flowers in this kind of state or arrangement before. I did the whole photo-session and a set of post-cards in barter for the painting.  I was so struck by quality of the painting, it is sitting in the room I'm writing this, as reminder of what is to come.

Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Abstract vs. Realism

Having been a abstract artist most of my life and being drawn to the simplicity of abstract modern art, I thought, I would start off this blog with a post of one of my favorite minimal abstract works.  For me the most interesting form of art is something so simple, yet by the use of your medium you push the limits of an idea. This is just a blue neon light very close to the lens and out of focus with a carefully lit purple background.  The image was composed in photoshop.  Modern Art has had a profound effect on my life, because I feel like it uses new and different tools, materials, and techniques to create something that has not been seen before.  However it has been my experience that most of the rest of the world does not share my joy of this simple yet complex creation of art. I have found that most of the general public relates to something they can identify with, like a landscape. I'm amazed by how many people identify with the landscape and other subjects that they can easily understand.  I used a new image, I made today to start off this blog, of an image I new people would like, understand, and identify with, but thats not what interests me. Yes the leaves image is nice, what can you say about it?  One of the best photography instructors I had was critiquing one of the best mountain photos I ever took and thats what he said ; "it's a beautiful print, but what can you say about it?". For me what he was trying to say is that art that does not make you wonder how or why it was done or something you haven't seen before, does it have value as art or is it just decorative? Oh and yes the question I get asked the most about my best work is how did you do that? For me the idea is everything, the art is just a celebration of the use of tools, materials and technique.