The Broken Mirror

Boxed In, photograph
“A photograph is only a fragment, and with the passing of time it’s moorings become unstuck.”
- Susan Sontag
More thoughts inspired by On Photography by Susan Sontag…
Sontag talks about the discreteness of a photograph and the effect of that on how we see things. Photographs become untethered from the stream of time they came from. [...]

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Do Not Disturb?

Abandoned, photograph
“Art is meant to disturb, science reassures.”
- Georges Braque
It may sound contrary, odd and… disturbing to think that art is “meant to disturb”. Not the usual way to talk about our old revered friend. What’s going on here?
All visual art captures and extracts a moment in time from the incessant flow of our lives. [...]

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Is Vague in Vogue?

Skimboarding I, photograph
“Exaggerate the essential; leave the obvious vague.”
- Vincent van Gogh
Every image has obvious elements – too often we find ourselves representing these qualities in excruciating detail. Why? Well, it’s… obvious. It’s easy and comfortable. It can make the viewer comfortable, too, and anticipation of that can compel us as well.
What is essential, on [...]

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What’s it Worth to You?

Waiting, photograph
I was in a photography gallery last weekend when I overheard the salesperson tell some customers that the pieces they were looking at had no Photoshop work performed on them. I wondered at this.
Admittedly the pieces were of the sort that looked as if Photoshop must have been used extensively (in fact, I actually [...]

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Seeing isn’t Believing

Truck Stop
“Why let what you see get in the way?”
- Joyce Kellock
What is so special about what we see? My main interest in what I see is not in the thing itself, but rather in what it inspires me to do with it. It’s just a starting point. From there I can roam in my [...]

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Now, Be Nice and Share…

Beachpeople I
“A photograph that has not been shared or at least printed is almost an unexistent photograph, is almost an untaken photograph.”
- Sergio Garabay
I have a lot of pictures which I have not shared with anyone or even printed – these are the ones I wish I had not taken, so I don’t mind that [...]

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What Color Are You?

Transits 3, Untitled 4
“I’ve been forty years discovering that the queen of all colors is black.”
- Henri Matisse
I like a lot of negative space in my figure work – I usually shoot the models against a black backdrop and like to print in fairly high contrast to accentuate the difference between the skin and the [...]

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Dogs and Cats

Escape, 10 x 10″ Acrylic and Spackle on Ilustration Board
“In order to keep a true perspective of one’s importance, everyone should have a dog that will worship him and a cat that will ignore him.”
- Dereke Bruce
Praise and blame – occurrences in our daily lives that are certainly not limited only to artists. But as [...]

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Originality

Why do we value an original piece of art over an imitation? These days, with improvements in reproduction techniques and technology, the reproduction may be as good as (or even better than) the original. I know, I own a fine art printing studio, and it is true that not only can the reproduction look every [...]

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Do You See What I See?

Continuing the discussion of why my son doesn’t like art, or more seriously, why we like some art and not others…
Why does everyone have such different tastes in art? The experience of an art piece seems like a combination of the inherent qualities of the piece itself as well as all the experiences and [...]

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