Definitely one of my freakiest collages. The hair pulled back so tight is what first
drew me to the model. I simply created a different type of ‘sensual’ portrait here,
with the senses all colliding out of synch, out of order, within her.
For many years after we moved from California and I wasn’t creating art work for
exhibiting and selling I was creating backgrounds for my computer. I probably made
at least one a day for many years.
The original photographs were not mine, but were taken from online fashion
photographs in most cases, then used in the collage. Click on the image then go to
‘all sizes’ to see it as large as it should be seen. Use it as a background yourself
if you would like.
We were staying the night at the Inn at Price Tower, Frank Lloyd Wright’s one and only
freestanding ‘skyscraper’ in the world (it’s 16 stories high so it isn’t crazy tall by
any means). It is about 50 miles north of Tulsa in a town called ‘Bartlesville’ which
was the founding home of Phillips Petroleum. It has an art center on the first 2
floors along with a gift shop. We always find unique and interesting things in the
shop when we go there and this time we found an engaging and happy store clerk along
with the usual stuff. She said one of the statements in the piece to us and I kept
hearing the rhythm of it in my head after, but with different content each time and
that was the basis for the other ‘truths’ in the piece.
I had gone down to Oklahoma City from my home in Tulsa (about 100 miles) to drop off my presentation for the upcoming Photoslam event. I decided to take the day and check out some galleries down that way, something I really hadn’t done before.
When I entered the ‘Untitled’ [art space] gallery this woman was at the door greeting people, explaining the current show, etc. She was very helpful about explaining how the show came about (it was a year end showing of multiple grant recipients’ work).
We got to talking about me being an artist since I had my camera with me, and I asked her if she was as well. She turned out to be an art historian in training, going to college.
The gallery was somewhat dark, but there were large windows in the front that let in great ambient light. Her eyes, as is obvious, were brilliant blue. I told her about my reason for being in OKC, and explained the ‘truth’ project I would present at the show. I asked her if she would be willing to pose for a collage from the truth series as well and she thought it would be a cool idea.
One of the artists in the gallery had large constructions. One of the constructions had a shredder attached to it that was churning out shredded paper very slowly. Photos of that, with photos of her were the perfect combination for what I learned about her as we talked; her life, doubts, fears, wonderings, etc.
We were in San Francisco for a mini vacation and took a tour of the south of Market
gallery area. This San Francisco gallery was airy and the assistant had great eyebrows
and there was an interesting painting with the word penis in it and there was a
colorful potted tree outside and a wall of tile and next thing I know I have a collage.
We had a fire drill where I worked and as we all gathered in this little outdoor area
I was up close to a woman I hadn’t met before. I introduced myself and she told me
where she worked in the building. I noticed when she was gesturing that she had this
great scar on her arm. I had my camera with me and asked her if I could take some
photos of her eyes and her scar for a collage. She was very excited about the idea,
much more so than most people and graciously allowed me to do so. I am sure any
number of people around me were wondering what the heck we were doing.
She later saw the collage and loved it, purchasing 2 prints to have framed and given
to her family. She had grown up hating the scar but in recent years had come to see
it as a good part of her body and life. The collage was a sort of confirmation of
that she thought.
I had to drive my father’s belongings back to California from Oklahoma in the fall of 2007. I kept my camera next to me in the rented moving truck and took a lot of photos out the window as I went. The Texas panhandle is one of my favorite areas precisely because there is so little to see there. What that actually means is that the interesting things you do see are spread out, they are alone, by themselves, easy to spot and appreciate.
Sometimes in dense environments, just as in a dense piece of art, it is hard to discern what is there. That is ok in a museum where you have time to look, but on a road trip it is nice to see something coming 2 miles away!
I stopped at a convenience store outside Amarillo and the clerk’s eyes were blindingly bright and blue with the west Texas sun shining in the window. I asked her if I could take some photos of her eyes and, though she was chided by her fellow clerk, she said yes and was a wonderful, albeit fleeting, model.
We were in an outdoor outlet mall in Napa. We were in an antique store, all filled
with browns and golds and muted tones when through the window I noticed this pair of
bright yellow vests floating against a wall. They were bathed in bright, bright
sunlight and the color was so glaring compared to all the rest I just had to go take
some photos.
I told them I would donate some money to their cause if they would let me take some
photographs of them and they agreed. Just moments before I had passed the two
cypress trees and loved their ‘symmetry / asymmetry’ against such a stark background.
Once I got home and went through the photos I kept seeing these two girls with the
two trees and so worked the images up to have that happen.
Day after day I saw a new addition being built about two miles away from our house.
The houses looked interesting, as much as a suburban tract house can. Finally a sign
appeared showing an open house so I went to check it out.
The woman showing the house was tall and willowy with a decided stylish side to her.
She showed me around and we got in a conversation about how she ended up selling real
estate and her background as a model. We went out onto the little front porch and as
we did so the light illuminated her face in a wonderful way. That clinched the deal
for me and I asked her if she would be willing to let me take some photos of her.
She agreed and that was that.
In the end, after many renditions and much more complicated collage efforts I kept
coming back to the beautiful detail of her skin in that light. The color was
fantastic but so was the texture all by itself so I landed on the monochrome/color
diptych as a way of showing off both those elements.
Another in my postcard series, #7 from our Colorado road trip in the summer of 2007. There was a great trail close to the home where we were staying and I took a hike on my own just for the purposes of photography. When I do something like that I often am not looking for a single shot (though I find those of course) but I am looking for pieces, for moments, etc. that will be part of the raw material for a collage. So in that case I am not worrying always about composition or lighting or a complete image. I am finding the essence of a place or a person and recording it.
In this case the trees had the knots in the shapes of eyes everywhere I turned, flowers were abundant and the creeks had the most amazing light playing on them. The final connection came for me when I saw this woman and her wonderful dog running on the path. The dog was protective and turned to scrutinize me, making sure I wasn’t a threat. The eyes of the dog were compelling and I loved the juxtaposition between the tree eyes and the real eyes.
