Head to Toes

People can be interesting from all angles. I was listening to a scratch band playing at a benefit in the forest when the man in front of me removed his hat. The graphic image created by his orange shirt and glistening scalp totally distracted me from my intended goal of getting some images of the musicians. A similar thing happened with the dancing woman…

A conundrum of sorts

The past few months I’ve been puzzling over the tension that sometimes occurs between the content and subject matter of an image, and its more abstract qualities of composition, color and design. Ideally, the two should complement each other, with the design qualities strengthening the emotional impact of the subject matter — and vice versa. However, I have found that is not always the…

Almost abstract

These two almost-abstracts are a little change of pace. The first started as a door in a yellow stucco wall, and the second as a broken guardrail near one of my favorite beaches. But those reference points are largely irrelevant now. It is interesting how non-representational art can demand both more and less of the viewer. Abstracts have the potential to become eye-candy —…

1961 Plymouth

This classic was built at the end of an era of unusual excess in automobile design — the period of flamboyant fins, rocketship tail lights, and copious chrome. This had been a police cruiser, and was restored in that manner with one of the dual headlights converted to a red flasher. Even in this earlier time, cars had become such an integral part of…

A suburban maze

What is at this glass corridor’s end? Is it the door to the vault where the secrets are kept? Or is it a way out, and with the right spin of the red dial the door will swing open? Or, is it the secret red button that when pushed will launch next wave to resolve the crisis? Whatever it is, I am not sure…

Carbon Seam and Palm Lights

The dead trunk of a palm plant washed up on the shore. At one end was the tangle of roots joined to the base of the trunk. At the other, the spiraled remains of where the living palm fronds had been attached subtly tailed off into fibrous strands. These two semi-abstracts are interpretations of each end of this single object that had washed ashore.

Bottled Sunlight Mixed with a Gentle Rain

Every July the local botanical garden sponsors the “Mango Melee” — a county fair-like event featuring dozens of varieties of local mangoes and other locally grown tropical fruit. This little pile of grapefruit was accented with one pink and one yellow fruit cut open to display the richly colored and textured interiors. If you could bottle sunlight mixed with a gentle rain, it might…

A Mango-Tangle of Colors

The abstract images below started as photographs of one large mango and six small ones. The first image is more or less the original mango colors. Stored sunshine. The other two emerged as I was working with the image. For me — even though there is little or no content to the images — they each evoke a different reaction and different feelings. While…

Outfall

This image started as an abstract, but somehow also became a reflection on our culture and economy. It is interesting how the colors, the grid-like overlays, and the shapes contribute to an ambiguity of meaning that the imagery of the pipe and wall alone could not carry.

In case of emergency…

Did you ever feel like you needed an escape hatch? Here’s one. Just pull the red handle and see where you go.