This is a great example of how I use bad photos. The sandal strap photos turned out
too purple, made the skin look deathly. But when you put them against the slate green
color of the Cezanne painting the purple becomes a perfect color IMHO.
2nd in a week long series showing my ‘Impressionist Suite’ from the mid-80s.
The body impression of a sock on a calf from a friend of mine fit perfectly over this
painting by Mary Cassatt. I loved how the arch of the calf connected the two arms and
created a sort of elongated football shape in the middle of the image.
One of the things I was trying to accomplish in this series was to force the viewer to
see the abstract qualities of the original impressionist painting by covering up the
main subject matter of the painting with the latter day impressionist photo.
This week I am going to show you an early series of mine, one of the first where I
collaged photos onto other material. I had been focusing on photographing physical
memories that showed up on one’s body and I had done a series on tanlines earlier.
Now I focused on body impressions. These were photos I took of parts of the body
having been pressed by something. Maybe a bracelet, or a bra strap or underwear
elastic. Something that left an impression. I then had the idea of collaging those
photos on top of Impressionist paintings. The play on the idea of impressions on
bodies vs. impressions of light in paint appealed to me.
I took it to the point of making the images a collaboration between the original
impressionist artist and myself, titling the works so they included part of the
original title with my new addition and dating the work from the inception of the
original back in the 1800’s to the time I added my photos on top in the 1980s and
90s. Some fellow artists and gallery directors etc. thought that was a bit
pretentious of me, assuming I was equal to the impressionists. But I know this
much….the impressionists themselves would have enjoyed both the fun play on art and
the resulting images.
Many people want to do something interesting with their lives. They want to
accomplish something. But they are unaware that effort is needed, deliberate focused
effort, to do those things. What stops them is the overwhelming nature of the big
picture. ‘I can never graduate from college, I can never get a law degree, I could
never move to another country, I could never learn photography.’ They are thinking
about ALL the things they need to do and it seems like it can’t be done.
But the truth is you don’t have to do ALL those things. All you need to do is the
next thing. If you, for example, want to be a portrait photographer. What is it you
need to do? Do you need to have an entire studio, all the top equipment, the best
computer and software and printer? No, you don’t. What you need to do is take a
photo and look at it. Then maybe you need to read your camera manual and play with
the settings. Then maybe you need to look for good lighting opportunities in your
house or yard and take some more photos.
See what I mean? You might have a goal, you might have a dream, and that is good.
But the key is that you then put that big picture dream on the back shelf and focus
on the events of today, right here, right now. Here is an example. Take Tiger
Woods, the famous golfer. It is obvious that from an early age his goals have been
lofty. He truly has set his sights on being the best golfer ever, winning the most
tournaments over the longest amount of time as possible. Intimidating goals to say
the least.
But guess what? Interviews with him repeatedly have him saying that when he is on
the golf course he thinks of NOTHING but the shot he has right in front of him. Not
the dreams, not the accolades, not the money. Just the shot. And the amazing part
is the more he is able to focus on that one shot and NOT think about anything beyond
it, the closer he comes to winning the tournament, having the best season, and having
the greatest career in golf.
He has very few stop signs in his head. What are your stop signs?
Stop sign #10 – But…but…but…
Answer: no excuses, go be who you are suppose to be and create what you are suppose
to create. Don’t wimp out, don’t be a lazy baby about it. If you see something on
the side of the road that might make a good photo, STOP YOUR CAR and take it! And
no, I don’t mean you should do that on the way to your daughter’s wedding with a car
full of people. Be smart about it obviously.
Here is a good quote. “It is easier to act yourself into another way of feeling than
it is to feel yourself into another way of acting.” What that means in the context
of the stop signs is that if you wait until you feel creative to act on it, you might
wait a long time. But if you act creative, if you take the photo, walk around the
corner, look at a detail, pay attention to the light, even if you don’t feel
creative, guess what? You will have a VERY creative day!
So, go take the photo! Then take another and another and another until you can’t
stop smiling because you are so proud of yourself, just as we all will be.
Stop sign #9 – Everyone is so much better than I am.
Answer: True, they are. Get over it and take your photos. Pretty soon you will be
who the faint hearted ones look at and say ‘they are so much better than I’.
There are those who feel they know everything and as a result have nothing left to
learn. There are those who feel they know nothing and as a result are afraid to
learn. Both types miss out because they have wrong thinking about it. Their
thoughts in that case are all about ‘self’. The ‘know-it-all’ is wanting to show the
world how much he or she knows. The ‘know-nothing’ is consumed with what others will
think of them.
What both have in common is a lack of concern for others.
The know-it-all isn’t out to encourage and motivate and lift up those who aren’t as
educated and as a result more often than not diminishes and puts down those who know
less. People don’t like to follow ‘know-it-alls’ and so they eventually find
themselves alone and bitter.
The ‘know-nothings’ aren’t thinking about what gifts they do offer to others. They
are also not thinking how their need for education might be a gift a teacher needs to
get motivated themselves. They don’t realize that teachers need students, mentors
need mentees (mentoes, mentals?). All they are thinking about is how they will appear
to others and so they hide and bewail their shortcomings. They are tiresome.
What both types have in common is selfishness.
So, yes, there are people who know more than you. They are better at lighting,
cameras, painting, drawing, selling, marketing, planning, printing, talking, on and
on and on.
Will that fact (and it is a fact) make you hide, or will it inspire you to go find
those people and have their input and help in your art life?
Stop sign #8 – It costs too much.
Answer: What is it you can’t afford? A point and shoot camera? A computer?
Transportation? Membership fees? Be creative, find a camera at a pawn shop, or a
resale shop. If you can’t afford a new computer, once again, find a refurbished one.
Maybe trade services for what you need. You don’t have to go anywhere to create
interesting photos, you have yourself as a subject, and you don’t have to travel to
get there do you? You have your home, your yard, your sidewalk, your street signs.
I realized by having children that we are all capable of saying we don’t have the
time or the money to do something. But I found out that without exception my children
almost always found a way to do the things they REALLY wanted to do. That usually
did not include cleaning out the garage with dad, so in that case they had too much
homework. But a call from a friend to go to the movies, well, in that case, they
realized they could do their homework when they got home, or in the morning. In
other words, they WANTED to go to the movies, and found a way.
In other words, don’t say ‘I can’t afford it’. Say instead ‘HOW can I afford it?’
and go out and find the way.
Do you WANT to be a photographer, an artist, a creative person? Then you WILL find a
way and you will not use excuses.
Stop sign #7 – I don’t know what to photograph.
Answer: What are you passionate about? photograph that.
Even if it is your secret doll fetish or chronicling the cutting of your toenails.
Artists who continue to create art are the ones who have admitted to themselves and
the world what it is they love. They have courage.
There are two things you must love to be successful. One, you must love your
subject. You must feel passion and love and excitement about it. If it is old
couches, fine. If it is women, fine. If it is carpet samples, fine. If it is women
on old couches looking at carpet samples, fine. It doesn’t matter what you have a
passion about, what matters is you admit it.
Two, you have to love the process, not just the end result, of creating your art. If
you don’t then eventually you will find ways to not create it. So, if you don’t love
setting up lights and getting all your equipment in synch to create a great studio
image, chances are you won’t do that as often as you need to be successful at it. If
you don’t like climbing out in nature, getting dirty and sweaty and being at the
mercy of the elements, then chances are you will not be a great, or even mediocre,
wildlife photographer.
You get my point? What do you love? Subject, style, process? Admit that and do
that.
Couldn’t resist, a woman on a couch (but without carpet samples).
Stop sign #6 – What if people don’t like what I do?
Answer: Guess what? They WON’T like what you do! At least many won’t. Many might,
some will. But that is like saying what if someone doesn’t like my flower garden or
looks or gift, etc. So what? Are you not going to plant your garden or wash your
face and comb your hair or give any gifts because MAYBE someone won’t like your
choices? NO, of course not. You will go do those things. So, time to do a reality
check and realize that the normal state of the creative life is that someone won’t
like what you do. That isn’t bad, it’s to be expected. Embrace it, have it be an
acceptable part of your understanding about life.
The Denver Art Museum, by Daniel Libeskind – I have a funny feeling many Denverites
don’t like this building, though I am sure many do as well. What sort of building
would have been built if the goal was to have everyone like the building?
Inside the Museum – Molten Polyester, by Ed Ruscha – I am sure this isn’t universally
loved or understood by all that see it. What would this image look like if Mr.
Ruscha worried incessantly about whether people would like it?
Stop sign #5 – I don’t have time.
Answer: How much time does it take to snap a photo of yourself behind the wheel
waiting in traffic, the full kitchen sink, the beautiful toy in the sunlight in your
kid’s room. It isn’t time you are lacking, it is imagination and decisiveness. Keep
your camera with you. If you have a big honkin cadillac of a camera, then get your
phone out when you are on the go. FIND A WAY to take the photo!
This photo was at a local diner. It took no more than 20 seconds to get my camera on
the table, take the shot, review the shot and put the camera back down on my seat. It
isn’t time you are lacking.
