When It Doesn’t Read True…

Here’s To the Crazy Ones

Sometimes Life Is Like a Wasp’s Bite

September Reflections

September Reflections

 

There is an immense, painful longing for a broader, more flexible, fuller, more coherent, more comprehensive account of what we human beings are, who we are and what this life is for.
Saul Bellow 

 

Every year, when September arrives, I am always reminded how the month so aptly makes me reflect upon what has transpired in my life since the opening days of January. That was when winter served a cold mantle of frost and snow, turning only slightly warmer in the April, making me wait patiently for summer’s late arrival, only to be cut short by the arrival of September and the fall. Do I feel cheated that I didn’t have sufficient number of warm days? Yes, and yet, the unpredictable events that unfolded this year from January to September, have kept me engaged and alert to events unfolding around me.

I found this photograph, taken a few years ago, and it seemed to aptly display the unpredictable and unfolding rhythms of life:   The truncated fronds that escape out of the picture plane; the play of light upon some fronds held within the picture, some in focus and some not; parts of the plant escaping and cut off from view; lastly, the darkened negative spaces, found between the pointed fronds and curly strings offer a counterpoint against some of the hyper-lit surfaces of the plant. I believe that all these factors make a dynamic composition: The photograph is ambiguous, incomplete and yet, these aspects, like life, make the composition dynamic.

Suzanne

Seeing Their Souls

They say you can see the soul of a man through his eyes.
If I look closer, I can also see a cloth of color, embroidery,

and clues to his heritage.

His is a Voladore: a man of the sky, who flies upside down, tied at his heels, a person performing a ritual to ensure a good harvest.

There is More to a Hat than a Hat.

Creating a “body of work” can begin small with just one photograph but can “blossom” into a series of related photographs, making a story. In the case of the first entry on  blog, a close-up of a hat was the  featured photo. Some of the details were obscured or not present.  Part of other hats were present but not always clear.   Adding to the mystery surrounding the image is the  title, “What’s in a Hat?”?  The image and the title are so ambiguous  that they hopefully set up enough interest to invite the viewer to see what’s next?

Then we saw  Charros wearing the hats in profile. So some of the mystery was dispelled. Digging a little deeper, I introduced photographs of the hats being made. Raw and without embellishments they appear like a woman without make-up. Even the artisans are anonymous as we see only their hands moulding and shaping the hat forms.

Art is a Way of Seeing

Almost 30 years ago, when I took my first classes at the Victoria College of Art director, Joseph Kyle, stood in front of the class with his “trademark” pipe in hand and stated: “Art is a Way of Seeing”. This one small statement  set the tone for my becoming an artist. It may sound simple enough, but it is not. It required me to remove the filters, the acquired bias, and the distractions from my eyes. It enabled me to see  more than an object or a person in front of me. It aided me to dig deeper and tap into what I think and feel about my subject. This is how I hope you will view my photographs. I hope you will  do more than look but see something interesting, evocative, expressive, vivid, and graphic, that is more than just a digital image.

“There are painters who transform the sun into a spot, but there are others who with the help of their art and their intelligence, transform a yellow spot into the sun” Saul Bellow”

What’s in a Hat?

“What’s in a Hat?” was chosen as the title of this portion of my blog because it deals with three questions about my work and the subjects I  photograph: How? Why? and What?

However, the primary focus will deal with: What and Why. I will try to provide some basic answers to questions about my artistic motivation and my personal connection to a subject.  Closely tied to this will be a consideration of composition, line and form.

How will deal with the technical: ISO, Aperture and  Shutter Speed, something which I will only mention cursively, as technical aspects are not the focus of this blog.

Flan

Culture Creatures May 2010

The “parade” continues in Victoria.  This time I was privy to seeing a group of musicians, dressed in kilts, replete with drums, bagpipes, batons, and gloves march down Government St. from City Hall to the Provincial Legislature. These “highlanders marchers” boldly proclaimed their Scottish roots and demonstrated the adage that the sum of the parts were greater than the whole.  They were an assortment of men and women of varying ages, a colorfully clad group of musicians ,  loudly proclaiming their Scottish heritage.  

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