New Photo on the Top

What that is is MIXED MEDIA. Gesso and charcoal and pastels. [20 x16] I cheated and added color. Can't wait for class to start even though I won't be there. I will be doing independent study.

But all the same I will be pleasantly obsessed.

This is the water wall under the National Gallery of Art in D.C. One of my favorite places on earth. I was running through the passage trying to find Georgia O'Keeffe as the museum was closing. I saw this window and the water wall. I stopped and snapped a photo and ran. Later when I looked at it I went WoW!

2003

It's been a long time. I am in this for the long haul.

My art in relationship to photography

Somehow along the way art that was photography based as acquired in classes at UTD crossed a line from reference photos to, man this is addictive and I take 1000’s of pictures and I don’t know enough and hmm… I need a new lens.

I took drawing concepts and we started off with a “lines in landscape” assignment. That is all it took. Since I am a graphic designer and work often with photos, to make art from photos seems like breathing. Next came mixed media, again my files are full of reference work. Silkscreen, yikes! Even oil painting and my obsession with the self portrait feeds this growing need to capture something more than… a face but also that emotion and personality of the person.

I started with self portraits to help me document like a diary my emotions in relation to catastrophic events surrounding the dissolution of a 25 year marriage. I can’t explain it except I was so out of touch with my emotions I had to see them through the camera. Being a playful person this lead to many other capturings of what I call my multiple personalities. I can say that these ladies helped me find myself and grow beyond the shadow of a person I was… made me laugh too.

Once I become comfortable with photographing myself and sometimes turning it into art I began to take other people’s picture with the same goal, to somehow capture more of them, as much of them as I can. Some have become art, some are waiting to become art.

As I prepare to take mixed media again I am primed to set this process in motion and see what happens next.