Houston, TX May 2024

Photograhpy

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"…Only art penetrates what pride, passion, intelligence and habit erect on all sides – the seeming realities of this world. There is another reality, the genuine one, which we lose sight of. This other reality is always sending us hints, which without art, we can’t receive. Proust calls these hints our “true impressions.” The true impressions, our persistent intuitions, will, without art, be hidden from us and we will be left with nothing but a ‘terminology for practical ends’ which we falsely call life."

— Saul Bellow

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Galveston & Houston January 2023

Photograhpy

Mirrors in the World

With refreshing sets of limitless boundaries, I'm able to place 1' x 1' mirrors into the world. I drag along cliches of what and I choose to see are merely reflections of 'my' psychological constitutions.

Visually, the sharp lines of mirrors' edges juxtaposed against reflective abstractions grabs me. I'm reminded of Frank Gehry's architectural & design sensibilities. Too often I hungry for chaotic abstraction when deep within an obvious structure; conversely, exclusive abstraction easily looses my attentions through a lens.

I find humor and contentment wandering through the corners of the refelction of a reflection's reflection.

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Pearland, TX Current

Photograhpy

Infinity Box

Shooting the interior of a 2' x 2' x 2' mirrored [interior] box, isn't overt. Marveling within infinity's dimensions of ambiguity, reflections of: contrast, juxtapositins, organization, mathematical suggestions, and socially constructed dimensions - is FUEL.

Meaningful and poinant, the reflections on water forced me to stop, stare, and daydream in childhood - the story about the dog seeing his reflection while standing on a bridge, believing his reflection was a different dog holding a bone in its mouth.

I experiment with the narratives enrapturing ideas suggesting the world I [choose to] see is merely a reflction of my self.

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NM, TX, & CA 2023

Photograhpy

Spatially Specific

Christopher Alexander might argue that any space without regular human intereaction, is a 'design failure' of a space.

Any area with defined boundaries, usually by a name / title, I consider spatially specific - including those with zero human interaction, those spaces where crumbling souls swirl in stale, damp air.

Spaces host people. They may not think for themselves, but they certainly evolve in some twisted Darwinian ideology - survival of the fittest. They reveal themselves as a result of what treats the guest notices from their buffet.

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Silver City & Houston 2022

Photograhpy

Covering Events

Spanning across a definitive beginning, middle, and end, it includes accessing myriad qualities & characteristics of a social gestalt.

Events unfold, they are unpredictable. I find event photography reveals the finer human qualities to me. It's people oriented.

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Silver City & Houston 2022

Photograhpy

Sports

I try to explain to my wife why I classify myself as a "deviant althlete" while growing up; maybe I still am, I tell her. I participated in organized sports, biked for transportation, and used to ride the bus uphill to school while boarding downhill, home. I never listened to the, Dead Kennedys, or had an 'A' on the back of a black leather jacket. But, it appeared those who did had some powerful, fearless, control over their bodies (and a matching attitude / confidence) that I never found on skates with a puck.

The Skatepark - The finest sanctuary for folk to physically get gnarly while jamming parallel to supportive members of their community. It's the venue housing the finest ballet, in any town.

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Silver City & Houston 2022

Photograhpy

Abstractions

Recently, abstractions come by way of being too familar with a scene. Instead of focusing, I let go, blurring the scene both intellectually and visually. With a slow shutter speed, I connect with the gesture, akin to moving a brush across a canvas - literally painting with light.

Conventionally, my photographic abstractions are images rooted in design and color - and on occasion adorate human characteristics.

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Galveston, TX September 2022

Photograhpy

Pinhole Photography

I took an interest in emulsion-paper based Pinhole photography before 2010 when I realized I wasn't experiencing a regular "Whoohoo" in the darkroom. Claude Smith (ceramicist) shared with me his "Whoohoo" moments, both with verbal and pictorial explanations. Following our conversation, I decided to dig deep and muster his enthusiasms. I found them.

Aside from requiring my Art Appreciation and Digital Arts students to create pinhole photographs, the last time I exercised any serious maturity for the Pinhole Photograph was through documenting WNMU's "Great Race" with a Pinhole camera I made from a cylindrical industrial detergent container capable of holding 16" x 20" paper.

I'm now in the digital age, using a protective cap with a pinhole in it. I now have instant gratification permitting immediate exposure compensations. Additionally, I can now move the camera in sweeping motions with a slow shutter speed, something I never considered using a cardboard box or old oatmeal containers for cameras.

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Silver City & Houston 2022

Photograhpy

In Their Studio

Behind the scenes reveals an intimacy between the artist & their medium, and between the artist & their expressions.

Gazing at a piece stopping me in my tracks during a brisk walk through a familiar museum / gallery remains a septic and myopic experience. On walls designed to exhibit or sell an item, I can't help but to bring the howling whispers of currrators, museum directors, architects, or marketing machines, into narratives I have no choice but to construct. I'm cornered by business.

In the artist's studio lives the playground of their soul.

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Silver City & Houston 2022

Photograhpy

Musicians

Not until I brought a 300mm lens for my Nikon F3HP to Merlefest (2004), did I have an iota of the emotional depths musicans often travel while performing live; their canvas is being constructed right before my very eyes. If they are doing right, a touch of their soul spreads wide, is almost palpable beyond their hands.

I was hooked in 2004 - I wanted to experience more.

Live performance in Silver City, NM was free & occured daily - somewhere. I could always walk to experience the music. I could always walk to discover the image.

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