New (found) Harmony, Dye Sub Print on Aluminum, 24″ x 24″
Excited to announce that New (found) Harmony, from my recent series Attempting Utopia, was selected for the upcoming Firmly Rooted 2016 exhibition at M.S. Rezny Gallery in Lexington, Kentucky!! Over 290 artworks were submitted in this national call for art that ‘addresses our ongoing symbiotic relationship with plants’. Juror Stuart Horodner, Director of the University of Kentucky Art Museum, selected 29 artworks for the exhibit.
The exhibition dates of Firmly Rooted 2016 are July 12th – August 20th with an Artists Reception and Awards Ceremony on Friday, July 15th, 5-8pm. Stop by the gallery and cast your vote for the People’s Choice Award.
Attempting Utopia is a series of macroscopically photographed plant life in early stages of conception. Captured entirely in my back yard, these images, both beautiful and alien, parallel my experiences in starting anew. I abstract the bright future idea by exponentially enlarging the images and dye sub printing onto aluminum, which radiates a shininess affiliated with success. Images are frameless and float off the wall, constantly changing with the light as you move around them, representing the inevitable. Titles in the series reference real and fictionalized utopian/dystopian societies. (Shout out to Unique Imaging Concepts who printed the work…they are awesome!)
As a visiting artist I also taught a digital image transfer workshop with the students in Jose Bentancourts‘ Experimental Photography Class. I introduced the class to alcohol gel transfers and DASS supersauce transfers to wood, metal foils and glass.
I like to encourage students to bring in substrates of their choice for transfers images onto as shown in the above photograph.
Raeley Stevenson distressed the edges on the emulsion side of film before transferring onto watercolor paper.
You know you’re doing something right when you can generate excitement in sharing your process! And it was such a pleasure to get students excited about image transfer. A lot of great results came from the workshop as you can see below.
In addition to exhibiting and teaching, I was also lecturing…three lectures to be exact.
One lecture was to Jose Betancourts‘ Documentary Photography class. This talk was very detailed specific and entirely about my involvement with the Haitian Art Company and the multiple trips (one of which was 2 months!!) I made to Haiti during my 7 years of service to the gallery in Key West. As one would expect, this experience had an enormous influence on my life as artist and creative professional.
The business gave me unique access to Haitian artists and allowed me to experience the culture in a way that is unavailable to the average person. The photographs I have taken in Haiti reflect a bond I have with my subjects and contain emotional power attained only through the crossing of cultural boundaries. Obviously I highlighted my images of Haiti, developed in the style of 19th century photographs and talked extensively about my travels with artist Franz Zephirin who was determined to show me ‘the real Haiti’. We traveled to Cap Haitien and specifically to his grandmother’s voodoo compound where I was graciously given permission to record the events of a seasonal voodoo ritual. Ceremony of the Serviteur was shown in it’s entirety during this talk.
Base at Bad Branch, Digital Image Transfers on Wood, 14″ x 48″, SOLD
I can’t recall who coined the phrase ‘Pine Mountain Throw Down’ but I’m gonna borrow it for this post because it so appropriately describes the Wildlands Art & Music Show that took place this past weekend in Lexington, KY!
In 2015 Kentucky Natural Lands Trust, in collaboration with writer Erik Reece, and visual artist and writer Zoe’ Strecker hosted artists’ retreats on Pine Mountain, a 125 mile forested ridge line in southeastern Kentucky. These retreats were geared towards engaging and educating artists about the Pine Mountain Wildlands Corridor project in hopes they would be inspired by their experience. There was both a spring and fall retreat and the artists that attended became known as the Pine Mountain Collective. I was fortunate to attend the fall retreat during quite possibly one of the most beautiful autumn weekends of the year! (Read about my retreat experience)
Thru the Trees Comes Autumn, Digital Image Transfers on Aluminum Substrate, 30″ x 40″
I was inspired…we all were inspired! The creative outpouring that followed those retreats were displayed to the public during the Wildlands Art and Music Show at The Grand Reserve in Lexington, which benefited KNLT. It was a great success and very well attended! I’m sure I’m not alone in saying I’m ready to go back to Pine Mountain!
Peak Season Pulsations, Digital Image Transfer on Birch, 24″ x 24″
Below are some pictures from the event. Scroll down to the bottom of this page to see a list of all the artists involved in the Pine Mountain Collective with links to their respective websites!
A big THANK YOU to Greg Abernathy of KNLT for his hard work in organizing the retreats and the Wildlands Art And Music Show.
