Time and Art

Valley of the Wiggle — mixed media photo collage on board, 12”x9”

Five years ago, in the middle of the 2011 Project, I created this photo collage titled Beach Day.  It instantly was one of my favorites of the 365 pieces done back in 2011.  That piece was a key to my latest project, Time Travel Photos.  

The latest work for the series is of a valley that became the Lower Haight.  Where I have lived for over 25 years.  I have seen a lot of changes over time and at some point in the future may even do a series based on the changes I have witnessed in my neighborhood. 

Another look at Sidewalk Topography

I just got a peek at the second issue of Featuring Magazine.  It is due out any day now.  There is an article about my work and I see this is one of the images they selected for the article.  I forgot how much I really liked this one and am reminded that I still need to do a much bigger version of Sidewalk Topography.

October 20, 2011 – Masks

It’s that time of the year to start thinking about the Halloween Costume or at least a good mask. Today’s piece for the 2011 Project is inspired by my visit to the de Young Museum last Sunday. I went to see an exhibit of photos by Ralph Eugene Meatyard. Many of Meatyard’s eerie photos were of his children in odd masks. I recommend seeing the exhibit if you can and wrote more about it on my art blog.

I had Meatyard’s work in mind as I did this piece but I look at the results and realized that John Baldessari seems to have also have worked his way in there too. There are times as an artist, when the work of other artists you’ve been looking at slips into your work.

September 21, 2011 – Sidewalk Topography

I’ve been walking around my neighborhood photographing sidewalks this week. That actually involves a certain amount of risk. People might think I am one the cranky busybodies who is gathering evidence to complain to the City about damaged sidewalks. Trust me, I have much better things to do.

You have to watch where you’re going, but I always find it tempting to look down at the sidewalk. The sidewalk, as seen from six feet up, has a quality similar to the view from the window of an airplane. There is a real map-like appeal to sidewalks with their cracks and lines and varying texture. This became even more apparent after printing some of the photos. After 10 years of working with map collage, I feel it’s time to experiment with some other map like elements. I believe there will be more pieces in the future using sidewalk photos….

August 22, 2011 – Accordion Boy

When you’re a teenager, being cool is so important. Alas, most teenagers are still too young to get what really is cool. Many teenagers simply crave the latest iGadget or something overpriced with a designer label. It’s refreshing to see that some kids get what’s cool. Shane is a kid that gets it. And what could be cooler than getting a new accordion? Actually it’s an old accordion, a real beauty, about 80 years old and sounds great. The accordion even came with its original case, lined in purple crushed velvet. Now we need to find him a tuxedo to match.

The accordion was purchased at the Accordion Festival up in Cotati. I love the Accordion Festival and go almost every year. How can you not smile and have a good time in a park filled with happy music and some of the most fun people ever. And unlike Burning Man, there is no dust involved. Afterwards you can stop for a nice dinner in Petaluma and just come home.

August 18, 2011 – Tioga Afternoon

"Tioga Afternoon" - mixed media, photo collage, on canvas, 4"x4"

In summertime the quickest way to Mono Lake is straight to Yosemite and then up and over the Tioga Pass. It’s not all that quick and still takes about 6 hours. Not that there is any rush, it is one of my favorite road trips. There are plenty of places to pull off the road along the pass. A wander through Tuolomne Meadows is a requirement for the journey. I’ve done the trip many times and it has inspired more than a few paintings over the years. The timing of the trip means that I always get there for the afternoon light. The way some of the streams glow in that golden light is worth the trip itself.

I grew up with a manual focus, 35mm camera. Never knowing if the picture turned out. Photography included the waiting, the cost to develop film, etc. I always feel a bit like I am cheating with a digital camera. But I don’t regret the device at all. It is the ideal tool for capturing the brilliant mix of light and water on a Tioga afternoon.

August 8, 2011 – Rusty

I grew up in a world where rust was dreaded. Rust meant the wind at your feet as the bottom of the car was falling out. It was a Subaru where all that was between you and the road was some grungy car mats. Living West gave me a different appreciation of rust. It’s the objects slowly, very slowly disintegrating in the desert. Rust is cold war ghosts in national park land. Reminding us that we’ve managed to reclaim some military bases for more peaceful purposes. I take a lot of photographs for future art projects, and I always photograph rust.

August 4, 2011 – Psychedahlia

You know it’s August when you see me at Dahlia Dell next to the Conservatory of Flowers in Golden Gate Park. Every year I take the same photos over and over. I can’t resist. The psychedelic dahlia dell delights me, it’s psychedahliac experience. If you haven’t gone yet, it’s time to take a little trip.

July 27, 2011 – Eastern Span

Once you come zooming down the Eastern Span, heading west, you know you’re almost home. There are two Bay Bridges. The Western Span is quite lovely connecting Yerba Buena Island to San Francisco. But with a sister like the Golden Gate Bridge, no one ever notices the Western Span of the Bay Bridge. As for the poor Eastern Span, she is the third sister. The Eastern Span is the sister with a “nice” personality. Actually, let’s just say she has personality, and honestly, she’s clumsy and she’s no beauty. But as you zoom along and look up at all the steel holding her together – hopefully for just a little longer — the Eastern Span welcomes you home, that crazy curve a quick tunnel and there is our City. From the Bay Bridge, San Francisco always looks great no matter the weather, no matter the time of the day.

The Eastern Span’s replacement will be ready soon (it actually would have been completed about 10 years ago if not for politricks). I already am missing that clunky old bridge.

June 7, 2011 – Kodachrome Explosion

It sounds like the name of a short-lived Albuquerque new wave band circa 1983. Actually it was just inspired by a vintage, souvenir booklet with lurid, colorful images of scenic New Mexico.

Ironically, actual kodacrhome images have held up incredibly well. Slides from the 1950’s have retained stunning color. When they are scanned, they sometimes look like brand new digital images. A friend recently started posting scanned slides of his 1950’s childhood. The images look new. It’s another example of how popular photography technology keeps changing and how some of the older images hold up much better than photos from the 1960’s and beyond. The concern is to make sure our current digital images are properly stored. One of the biggest faults with digital photography is that we will lose the opportunity to find random old photos in boxes and scrapbooks in the future.

May 21, 2011 – Other People’s Photos

There is something captivating about random, found photos from people I don’t know. The snapshots you find on the street, at garage sales and in found albums. You can deduce what you can from the photo and what was found with the photos. It is always a bit of an exercise in fiction. The macramé planter, bad hair and plaid pants and we know it was the heart of the 1970’s. The envelope from the shop where the film was developed is labeled “Victoria.” I know the Scottish parade was up in Canada in the 1960’s. The man with the sunglasses was an actor (there were headshots of him found in the box). Anything else I say is probably just made up.

March 4, 2011 – The Accordion is cool

Yes, the accordion is cool. If I had to pick my favorite instrument, the accordion wins. It’s an instrument that is exceedingly difficult to learn (oh to have the time). In less than two hundred years the accordion has spread and been incorporated into local music all over the world. As the accordion has traveled it has given birth to many musical genres from Forró in Brazil to Cumbia in Columbia to Norteño in Mexico. And of course, the happiest music of all, Polka!

The accordion is still often maligned in American culture. Years ago, it often was seen as the “ethnic” and working class instrument for immigrants. Generations later, many people who dismiss the accordion don’t even realize they are perpetuating bourgeois and anti-immigrant attitudes that linger in our culture. They need to step back and just listen. The accordion is the ultimate immigrant and has made a home for itself in all corners of the world.

Now mark those calendars, it’s less than six months to Accordion Festival in Cotati, California.

February 28, 2011- Black and White

It feels as if black and white photography has gone full circle and returned to the realm of artists. Digital photography has eliminated the color snapshot. The black and white snapshot all but disappeared during the 1970’s. There was a brief period when it was still less expensive to have black and white film developed, but by the 1980’s the average consumer started paying more for film and development of black and white.

I have an old photo album of my grandmothers that spans about 20 years from the 1930’s to 1950’s. It starts with a period of teenage photos and ends when my own mother was about 10 years old. The album acts as a great timepiece of popular fashion and car culture. It also spans about 20 years in consumer photography. Every few years a new camera was purchased with a new type of film and a new style of printing. Ironically these old black and white photos have held up remarkably well. Their condition is great. The color snapshots and polaroids of my own childhood have faded and discolored.

I used to experiment with 35mm black and white photography but never even came close to learning what I was doing. I never took that class and developed my own film. This morning I found these ten year old photos from my first trip to Death Valley and mixed them in with one my grandmother took in 1937 (so the date says). Now I have to sort through the hundreds of digital images taken last week in the desert.