Art Community

To expand the area in which our work is seen and to become engaged with other artists doing the same thing, Loren and I have become a couple of artist socialites...

About a year ago, we joined the Gloucester County Art League, although we have been limited in participation by a variety of good and bad excuses... Aside from occassionally attending a meeting, we have each shown two pieces in a gallery show at Gloucester County College in the summer... Below are the photos I selected:

In early February, we joined the Greater Woodbury Arts Council (http://www.greaterwoodburyartscouncil.org/Home.html)... After having been to only one meeting, we have already been invited to be the subjects of a "Meet the Artist" event on March 12 (10 a.m.- noon) in the basement of the Woodbury Mews, whose charm is like that of a filing cabinet for geriatrics (I've heard it said that a culture can be judged by how it treats its elderly-- what is to be said then about our culture where medical technology perpetually raises life expectancies while quality of life during those extended years is largely ignored, a consideration only within a specialized and formal environment in which the elderly are tucked away like documents that will likely never be read again?.. Do we respect our elderly or are we trying to move them out of the way while we fulfill our ultra-important business as thriving products of capitalist culture?)..... We will bring a few examples and offer some insights into our work.. I don't know if it will be like the debutante's ball, but it will be something of a coming-out event for me in my hometown where I haven't been widely regarded as an artist since my elementary school classmates gave me such distinction....

More recently, I have joined the Photographic Society of Philadelphia (http://www.phillyphotosociety.com/About.html), through whom I have already displayed a photo for the first time in Philadelphia (My only other public art activity in Philly was in the realm of movie production-- I cowrote and acted in a short film for the 48 Hour Film Festival in 2005 -- I made a short movie which was shown during a public gallery event at the art studio on the Saint Joe's campus in 2004 -- I acted in and helped produce a film by Deron Albright called The Legend of Black Tom in 2005)... The photo was hung on the northern wall of Bonté's Waffleria & Café between 9 and 10 on Spruce... It has recently been annointed "Web Within Weeds" and was also displayed for the Fuel House show in October... There may soon be plans for a solo show in the city.... There is much to be excited for here and gratuity extended toward the ambitious and helpful leaders Morris Klein (this guy is great-- real character) and Eileen Eckstein..

Explicit Interpretations

I've been hoarding photos waiting for a show, hoping to reveal them in a gallery / cafe / etc.... Growing impatient with an abundance of photos (I've been busy with the camera, just not so much with the blogosphere), I've decided to post some of the photos I've taken in the past few months... There are many fewer photos whose content is pure Nature.. I've incorporated more modern human inventions which are so prevalent in our urban and suburban landscapes, specifically the telephone wires and poles which are juxtaposed with the branches and trunks of trees to create a seamless skyscape of the natural and digital / human.....
As seen in the photos taken during the session in Deptford (previous post), the themes of communication and freedom have expanded from my previous works... Fences and metal barricades complement vast negative space that dominates many of the photos shown here... There are barriers and, beyond that, abyss of sky... The dialectic of mundane and spiritual (Earth and Air) is the axis which creates the opposing spaces for most of these photos... The photo entitled "God and Adam" is meant to evoke the famous image from the Sistine Chapel in which their arms are extended toward each other (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:God2-Sistine_Chapel.png)... In one sense, the angels which envelop Michelangelo's God are represented as telephone wires-- wires which carry reproduced voices which, through mechanical or digital translation, lack the breath and spirit which was essential to their originary formation...... The voice heard through a telephone is a de-spirited echo...

2010-10-20

These shots were all taken while driving around in Deptford, NJ, on a misty morning, the blues predawn and the grays after the sun had arisen

Adam and God