Fantasy

Artists use tools, techniques, and materials of various kinds in order to make art. The process which yields a pleasing and/or meaningful art work is a successful one, in my view. I have no problem using all the tools I have to create art from digital images. Some photographers are purists and believe that the original image alone should be shown. I don't agree with this idea. I don't find such rules useful.

Experiments

These digital images were created using photoshop and, in some cases, were derived from fractals. It is also interesting to heavily manipulate photographs to create new colors and forms. In some cases, the original photograph is completely gone. I call some of these images "machines" because the forms are complex and hard to describe.

Although I wasn't thinking that anyone would really be reading this, I just want to say that creating vivid colorful imagery is a nice way to avoid looking at an all too gray world.

Shmoo at Rest
Summer 2009

Trickle Down
Summer 2009

Connection
Summer 2009

Pansy Machine
Spring 2009

At the Door
Winter 2009

Transforming
Spring 2009

Rose Generation Machine
Winter 2009

Five Legs
Fall 2008

Confetti
Fall 2008

Gains/Losses
Fall 2008

Fierce Faces Machine
Fall 2008

From Orchids
Spring 2009

Howling
Fall 2008

Urn #1
Winter 2007

Nexus
Fall 2008

Slide
Fall 2008

Upside-Down Clown Generator
Fall 2008

Advanced Wahoo Machine
Fall 2008

Urn#2
Winter 2007

Circuitry
Fall 2008

Tapestry
Summer 2008

Abstract Machine
Winter 2008

Ball
Summer 2007

High Rise
Fall 2008

Abstract Machine #2
Winter 2008

Edge of Things
Winter 2008

Scapes: Land, Sea, City, Other

To me, the world is beautiful, chaotic, unpredictable, and can't possibly be captured in a photograph! But, we try, don't we, to appreciate and capture what we see? Sometimes, I feel sad that I can't convey clearly the interplay of color, form, and subject matter that I see around me. Modifying images, distorting them, crashing them, creating them is my way of getting at this wonderful place we get to live in.

Map
Fall 2008

Old Field #3
Summer 2007

Back at the Old Field
Summer 2007

At the Edge of the Woods
Summer 2007

View from the Old Field
Summer 2007

Reflections
Cape Cod: Summer 2007

Edge of the City
San Francisco: Fall 2007

Highway to the Triboro
New York City: Spring 2008

Early Evening
New York City: Spring 2008

Staten Island Ferry View
New York City: Fall 2008

Flowers!!

Most of the images below were derived from photographs that I made of flowers.

I believe that every photograph is a distortion of reality by virtue of the manipulation which is involved. I also think that distortion is one form of abstraction. The farther you are from the "real" image, the more abstract and unpredictable art becomes, and often, the more creative it is. I think what artists do to what we believe to be real is the real stuff of art.

In my paintings, the photograph is the structure. After the decisions are made how the image will be treated on the canvas, the photograph is set aside and the art begins. The same is true with these heavily changed photographs, which were started with a simple image and then moved into a new reality of motion, color, and form.