Here’s what’s called a multi-faceted octahedron crystal. A fan of Cubism, I like the way this crystal shatters boring surroundings, breaking them up into an unlimited number of angular shapes.
Sunday, October 07, 2018
Wednesday, May 02, 2018
Sculptural Refraction
Venturing out on sunny days, I expect to shoot things like reflections in the windows of sky-rise commercial buildings downtown or abstractions seen on the surface of the nearby river. But, at a garage sale recently, in the midst of a jungle of goods, this tiny refraction through crystal caught my eye because I thought it looked sculptural.
Monday, February 26, 2018
"Painterly"
“Painterly”
This 1927 oil painting, “Wee Annie Lavelle”, by Robert Henri
caught my eye at the local Hunter Museum in Chattanooga, Tennessee. From a
distance the right hand side of her face looked detailed. A close look reveals
surprisingly large brush strokes. For me, this process has always seemed
magical.
While I was a student at Art Center College in the early
1970’s, our instructors Lorser Feitelson and Harry Carmean used the word
“painterly” to describe the use of large brush strokes to enhance the illusion
of detail as seen from a distance.
Wednesday, December 20, 2017
Street Portraits
Feeling stale, I
decided to do something that makes me uncomfortable - taking portraits of
strangers. To put myself at ease, I started up a conversation with a potential
subject. Responses ranged from “Definitely not” to “Well, OK” to “Sure, why not?” It helped if a
subject wanted to joke around. I handed each a card with my email address on
it, so that they could contact me for a copy of the shot.
“Lady Smoking”: she couldn’t
understand why I wanted to photograph her. When I convinced her how
eye-catching and interesting she appeared, she gave me a “Well, OK.’
“Two Retired Men”: These guys were a
lot of fun. They gave me a “Sure, why not?”
Sunday, October 22, 2017
If the effects of refracted, or bent, light isn’t surrealism,
I don’t know what is. Refraction happens when light passes through a
transparent material such as glass, which slows down the speed of light
transmission, bending it in the process. And the shadows cast by the refracted
light I think are equally as beautiful.
The two photos here are my studies of shadow patterns cast
by the sun through a couple of wine glasses. In the video clip, I filmed a glass
egg in front of my clip of a train yard. The egg’s fraction flipped the train
yard upside down.
Wednesday, August 02, 2017
I think that the things that you photograph are like dreams
in that they reveal unfulfilled wishes. On this particular day, I’d been
trapped by a cold and long stretches of bed rest. Needing an escape that was
more interesting than sleep, I was drawn to this puddle, which seemed to offer
a way out, a portal to a more interesting world, at the very least.
Saturday, June 17, 2017
For me, the news of Donald Trump’s election to the Presidency
of the United States was so grim that I decided to protest on behalf of the
Affordable Care Act, which seemed doomed to extinction. I joined demonstrations
held by ACA Advocate in front of Courthouse in downtown Chattanooga, Tennessee.
Could I use art in the service of political advocacy?
Here’s my launch into street photography portraiture:
Colleen Davis, volunteer roving photographer who demonstrates in various cities
in Tennessee and in Washington, D.C., stands in front of the Courthouse.
In a hurry with a lot going on around us, I used my iPhone.
The results were too dark to see her face clearly, so I opened the portrait in
Photoshop where I used Adjustments to lighten and brighten, targeting her
facial expression that I think shows determination along with a micro
expression of anxiety.
My critique here is that the shot’s too much like others of
its kind. I’m determined to make future portraits more original.
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