Faded places

Every community has its empty places, faded and overgrown. Some of these, when there had been no design or charm to begin with, become a blight on the landscape. But others have personality and become a part of the character of a place, in their decline adding a patina of charm and history. How do the well-intentioned and civic-minded learn to tell the difference,…

Subjective Realities

Each person’s heritage and life experiences are different, creating unique subjective realities that affect our interpretation of the world around us. I like these images because the feelings and stories they evoke for me tell me something about myself. The original images were captured at night, handheld, without the benefit of flash. I then enhanced the indistinct and impressionistic qualities to make the images…

A Modern Shrine

There is a new shopping mall near the airport in Orlando, Florida. It is called Mall at Millenia and is a part of a much larger mixed use (retail-residential) development called simply, and somewhat ominously, Millenia. These images are from the mall’s interior public spaces dedicated to the further glory of upscale consumption. For a moment I had a vision of this magnificent public…

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…

Friends

I promised Pat Coakley my next post would be something a little nicer, after the spooky “Green Ghoul” posted for Halloween. These two women were clearly friends, and I hope their friendship and humanity come through.

The ubiquitous mobile device

Mobile devices (what we used to call cell phones) seem to be everywhere and sometimes may isolate us as much as bring us together. The image above from San Juan, Puerto Rico, will be part of an exhibition at the Caribbean Museum Center for the Arts titled “Daily Strife” (opening on October 16). The exhibit commemorates Virgin Islands – Puerto Rico Friendship Day, and…

Bromeliad Beauty

This bromeliad was growing in a friend’s garden. It’s not a perfect specimen, but the colors, the bit of water still held in the center, and the curve of the leaves all drew my attention as an illustration of the imperfect beauty available at our feet every day, if we only take time to look.

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…

Contact!

Two large rocks along the shore just barely touched, bridged by a few small stones and had a thin channel of seawater running between them. The shadows and colors reminded me of a bruise radiating out from where the rocks made contact. For contact of a different sort, I had an opening reception for a show of my work last Saturday night at a…

Tagged!

Tagged! The thanks go to Jala Pfaff. Check out her blog, and don’t miss her website where you will see many more fabulous paintings and pastels! Since Jala was passing on a combination of two tagging awards, I’ll take my choice with the “Fabulous Blog Award.” This tagging thing is a great opportunity to get to know other artist’s work better, expand horizons, recommend…

Abstracts and Imaginary Landscapes

There is always a distinct tension for me between accessible realism, and the more abstract. By moving too far toward the abstract, there is a danger that the connection points for viewers get lost. The images in this post are part of a series of abstractions inspired by the brilliant color fields of Sandy Point and illustrate this tension. I have read that there…

Buck Island View

One of the visually stunning aspects of living on St. Croix is the nearly constant view of the ocean and the shoreline. The colors and textures of the transition from land to water inspired this image. This was sold at a benefit show for Haiti Community Support, a local non-profit dedicated to helping a small Haitian community. It has also led to the beginning…