 Honored to have this work selected as one of the Missouri Top 50 to be exhibited at next month’s Missouri State Fair. This is the second straight year my work has been selected for this prestigious award for which hundreds of works are considered, but only 50 chosen. I’m very fortunate to be included.
I saw this photograph, captured early one day in the Portland Place neighborhood off St. Louis’ Forest Park, as an opportunity to combine Autumn vibrancy with morning glow. I filtered it to create an impressionistic diffusion, then used the lighting effects function of my post processing software, as well as a color curves layer, to extenuate the directional light flooding over it from the rising sun. I first included it in a collection of works based around my friends’ home out of frame, off to the left. It’s also the largest, most expensive work I’ve produced in the analog; 16’x24’ metal plate with a satin finish in a partially whitewashed 1½ inch barnwood frame. It’s quite a striking package, if I say so myself, titled ‘A Walk In Peacetime’. I’m delighted and humbled to be able to share it with a broader audience. I have many people whose encouragement I am grateful for.
0 Comments
 A label is different from a title. A label is simply a generic identifier. A title is meant to provide meaning beyond flat identification. It is meant to offer context.
Many artists, perhaps even most artists, simply label. The artist intends for the visual imagery to resonate on an emotional level. Text is not part of the artistic expression. In some judged exhibitions, labels/titles are actually removed from the judges’ view so as to not influence the judges’ decision - the quality of the visual art alone, as perceived by the judge or judges, determines its merit. Titles can seem to create an overt insertion of the artist’s intent into the work, and that insertion can be unwelcomed by many art aficionados. Titles imply an act of storytelling rather than artistic expression, the difference being that one is strongly linguistic and the other strongly visual and subliminal. I had neither labeled nor titled my work for years and years. When I began exhibiting regularly, my good friends at Capital Arts began encouraging me to label or title my work. (Otherwise, they would have all simply gone on the wall as “Untitled”). This opened up a new level of expression for me that I dearly love. Prose is, after all, my first creative love, while photography was simply a sidebar. That, over time, the opposite has proved to be the correct prioritization is beside the point. Nonetheless, I am very linguistic by nature and I try very hard to give each work a title - almost always a title and not a label – that contributes to the art. For me the act of taking a completed work and engaging in storytelling by giving that work a title has been irresistible. In this work, I wanted to emphasize the sense of power and femininity, the strong and independent female protagonist suggested by the imagery. The calm beauty and grace unperturbed, perhaps even orchestrating and controlling, the chaos surrounding her as she goes about her work. This work is named for my amazing wife.  Six weeks creating nothing but noir, near-infrared work of tornado ravages and I was nearly giddy when I teased out my first abstract in that time. It was a nice meadow scene that could have played fairly conservative - maybe would have played conservative most of the time. The tornado works squeezed me back into a corner. It was good work, but it was repetitious work that restricted and narrowed my focus until the project was completed. Now, I wanted abstract and I dragged it into existence.
*** At a photography presentation at a local gallery this weekend I had to once again listen to an uneducated individual challenge the presenter that only photography straight out of the camera counts - anything computer generated (Photoshop) is verboten. The work in today’s post, as so many before, is not art. Half a dozen people argued in support of the photographer, pointing out that darkroom photographers also use enhancement techniques, and that the camera itself manipulates images. There was great support for the photographer, and partly because I appreciated that support I did not get into the discussion. At the time, it didn’t bother me. Then later I made of the error of thinking about it and it pissed me off. Anger is the most wasteful of emotions. Besides that, it’s self-destructive. The obsessive in me is incensed that this individual’s attitude still has to be tolerated, but on the other hand, it’s like coming across a flat earther (or MAGA) – one can shake their head in amazement at the ignorance on display, but then what’s the point of wasting emotion on it. As they say, you can’t fight stupid. One more post showing work derived from the May 22 tornado in Jefferson City (I get the feeling everyone is getting tired of them). Only a handful of the works included in my ‘After The Blow’ collection on display at Capital Arts have been posted here, and a number of additional works live in my portfolio. I’m posting many of them here in this slideshow, for the record if nothing else.
In a few months, the world will have moved on to the next disaster. The people, as they say, will forget. *** Capital Arts will be hosting a reception for its current exhibition from 1-4 p.m. this Sunday, July 14. Don’t miss the opportunity to see my ‘After The Blow’ collection, along with works from many other local artists. Wherever you are, get out this weekend and see some art! NOTE: Fifteen of these works depicting Jefferson City, Missouri’s May 22 tornado damage have been compiled into an artbook, which may be viewed and purchased at Capital Arts in Jefferson City, or purchased on this website in either 10-inch paperback or signed 12-inch hardcover.  The News-Tribune reported Wednesday that 611 structures in Cole County were damaged, minor to destroyed, by the May 22 tornado, 477 within Jefferson City. The Red Cross had reported over 1,100, but many of those structures were only marginally touched – a shingle or two. The big structures – the old school and the big, historic houses; the commercial buildings – are the first to get attention. But most of the damaged structures are small, moderate homes, built for single, small families, middle to lower-middle incomes, constructed, if not cheaply, then as cheaply as possible to be affordable, thirty, forty, fifty, eighty years ago. Only a little damage to those homes represent a significantly larger portion of their value than the same damage might to a larger structure; a moderate amount of damage and the cost of repair can supersede replacement.
This work frames the corners of two homes just off Jackson Street, each likely damaged beyond recovery, their pennies dropped into the collection plate representing all they had. *** NOTE: Fifteen of these works depicting Jefferson City, Missouri’s May 22 tornado damage have been compiled into an artbook, which may be viewed and purchased at Capital Arts in Jefferson City, or purchased on this website in either 10-inch paperback or signed 12-inch hardcover.  Before we delve into this work, please flash back to my first post in this sequence, which went out on July 24. Follow the link, take a look at that one, then return here …
… OK. Notice in the July 24 work that, despite the damage to the houses, the yards and street curbs seem fairly clear of debris? And in this work, the yards and curbs are NOT clear? Indeed, much less attention has been paid to the neighborhood in general. The photographic capture for the first work was made about 10 days after the tornado. The capture for this work was made ten days AFTER that, and there’s no comparison. The first capture is of East Capital Avenue, which I’ve written about before. Huge sums of money, both private and public infrastructure dollars, have gone into revitalizing the neighborhood, not to mention the close attention paid by both private and public individuals vested in seeing that said revitalization continues. The second capture is Jackson Street, comprised of decidedly smaller homes that have seen little to zero revitalization efforts in recent years. When volunteers came in to help property owners clean up, guess which neighborhood they went to first. (Don’t interpret that sentence to imply that first responders were slow into the neighborhood as that would be an unconscionable mistake. First responders acted with great professionalism and rapidly came into the area as quickly as any other). Please note, this is not hand wringing over unjust socio-economic realities; quite the contrary. The residents and property owners of East Capital are well organized, coordinated, and acquainted with each other’s needs. They’ve attracted a great deal of investment and attention to their neighborhood. They meet often and share resources in the best democratic tradition. Folks of the Jackson Street neighborhood may be great neighbors and terrific people; they may be banding together and helping each other through this crisis. But, like so many of us, up until the tornado they were pretty much laisse fare in the tradition of economic capitalism. It’s not rich vs. poor; it’s organized and dynamic vs. unorganized and laid back. Victims of either system are just as displaced, suffering just as much pain as the other. But it might make a difference how quickly life returns to normal, and just what shape that “normal” takes. (In the interest of not misrepresenting the situation, let me add that there are a number of neighborhoods, like Jackson Street, in which clean-up efforts have moved more slowly; predominately side streets with limited through traffic. Conversely, there are a number of neighborhoods, like East Capital, in which clean-up moved more swiftly for the simple reason that they bordered high traffic boulevards where impediments had to be rapidly removed.) *** NOTE: Fifteen of these works depicting Jefferson City, Missouri’s May 22 tornado damage have been compiled into an artbook, which may be viewed and purchased at Capital Arts in Jefferson City, or purchased on this website in either 10-inch paperback or signed 12-inch hardcover.  “Wow, this work is just painful”.
Perhaps no property symbolizes the resurgence of East Capital Avenue in Jefferson City as much as the building at the corner of East Capital and Lafayette Street. Formerly a small state office building that had changed agencies several times, it was purchased by private individuals who developed it into Avenue HQ, a cultural event space used for exhibitions, workshops, classes, performances, etc. My own work was displayed there a couple-three times. There was a bar downstairs that hosted music, including a cool performance by Hilary Scott. This space out back was host to a food trucks festival each month. It was torn to pieces by the tornado. The quote above is from a friend who helped take what valuables could be retrieved from the building in the days following the storm. In all, its owner was revitalizing five properties on East Capital. Every one of them got hit. Her plans are to rebuild. *** For photographers and damn photo artists, this work demonstrates the benefits and pitfalls of working in the infrared scale. The sky, the buildings, the details - all perfect. The sign that something is askew is in the trailer behind the building, which is actually a food truck. That’s a bright yellow vehicle, folks, and in this work it comes out nearly black. That’s because infrared excludes some colors while saturating others. If I had used a static technique or pushed to the far-infrared side of the scale, the vehicle would have been truer to color, but the buildings would have been bleached and the detail lost. If I’d isolated just the vehicle and filtered it differently it would have seemed incongruous with the rest of the work. It comes together as a great example of photo art, with the emphasis on ‘art’. The point is capturing emotion. *** NOTE: Fifteen of these works depicting Jefferson City, Missouri’s May 22 tornado damage have been compiled into an artbook, which may be viewed and purchased at Capital Arts in Jefferson City, or purchased on this website in either 10-inch paperback or signed 12-inch hardcover.  Not lost in the carnage of the May 22 Jefferson City tornado is the resilience of the community.
Within a couple days affected streets that had been covered in debris were clear. Within a week hard debris from yards and property began to be piled against the curb for removal, which came soon thereafter. All vegetative debris – trees and whatnot – were gone by decree by the end of three weeks. Repairs began within days and insurers be damned, although most property owners still waited for weeks and weeks. Structures beyond all hope of repair began coming down within the month. No one was killed. Only minor injuries were reported. Perhaps it was due to this community’s standing as the State Capital, that emergency management officials based here have drilled regularly for this contingency and worked with other communities that have experienced similar events. Regardless, the rapid response and on-going recovery from this event deserves a tremendous amount of pride. I’m not generally one to wave the flag, I’m really not. I think the highest degree of disrespect and anti-patriotism comes with covering ideology up in the flag. I think all flags should be made of asbestos so they would be harmful to those who wrap themselves in it. But, sometimes, it works. Sometimes everything does. *** NOTE: Fifteen of these works depicting Jefferson City, Missouri’s May 22 tornado damage have been compiled into an artbook, which may be viewed and purchased at Capital Arts in Jefferson City, or purchased on this website in either 10-inch paperback or signed 12-inch hardcover).  Take a look at the path of the May 22 tornado through Jefferson City, Missouri and two rather prominent institutions stand out: Capital Region Medical Center and Jefferson City High School. Between them are roughly three blocks, bounded by Madison Street on one side and Jackson Street on the other, with Oak and Adams streets running parallel between them. The tornado did not touch the hospital and did only minor damage to the high school’s athletic field press box.
It whacked the homes in between with eye-of-the-needle precision. The thing that has always fascinated me about this neighborhood is that running up the middle of these predominately lower-middle class homes are, on Adams Street, a string of gorgeous, stately houses that could have been plucked from St. Louis’ Forest Park; truly stunning early-20th Century gems clearly built for the city’s upper crust. They got whacked too. Perhaps not as badly as many of the smaller, more fragile homes, some of which were rendered total ruins, but they got whacked, nonetheless. This English Tutor style has always been a favorite of mine. There is a color version of this photograph that looks like a post card – blue sky with puffy clouds and perfect lighting all in a soft, gentle focus. It’s just that the roof has been torn up and the bay window ripped off, and probably other things I’m not aware of. Every city has those neighborhoods developed decades, even a century before, that seem to defy expectations. How did it come to be this way? How did it get here? What was the idea behind this? What happened? I wish I knew more about this neighborhood – how it came to be, who lived here, and why its economics ran askew. But I don’t. And, clearly, nature didn’t care one way or the other. Rich or poor irrelevant. *** NOTE: Fifteen of these works depicting Jefferson City, Missouri’s May 22 tornado damage have been compiled into an artbook, which may be viewed and purchased at Capital Arts in Jefferson City, or purchased on this website in either 10-inch paperback or signed 12-inch hardcover.  The Dallmeyer Home along East Capital Avenue in Jefferson City was built in 1869, 100 years before Woodstock and Altamont. A second story was added in 1875, remodeling in the neo-classic style in 1910, and a second story porch in the 1930’s. Supposedly its owners sat on that porch and watched Harry Truman and Winston Churchill pass by on their way to Westminster College where Churchill gave his ‘Iron Curtain’ speech in 1945. The roof of that porch, along with the roof the entire house, was ripped off by the May 22 tornado. A drone photograph from a slightly elevated angle shows the severity of the damage to the roof. And that was just part of the significant structural damage.
It, like so much else, is waiting on the insurers. *** NOTE: Fifteen of these works depicting Jefferson City, Missouri’s May 22 tornado damage have been compiled into an artbook, which may be viewed and purchased at Capital Arts in Jefferson City, or purchased on this website in either 10-inch paperback or signed 12-inch hardcover).  One of the standard effects of infrared photography is that foliage can come out glowing as though it had its own light source due to the visual spectrum infrared sees. I have found that this depends, actually, on the method of color mapping utilized. Infrared imagery sub-categorizes itself as ‘near-infrared’, most common in photography, and ‘far-infrared’ used in medical imagery. The extent to which foliage glows depends on how ‘near’ one goes. (Of course, some kinds of image capture, particularly film, is non-negotiable as the level of infrared is locked in, so adjusting the spectrum of light the image reflects only holds for computer generated work).
The thing with tornados, however, is that there is no foliage left. Trees are even more vulnerable to the destructive effects of high winds than houses, and by and large trees cannot be repaired or rebuilt. It’s the downed trees that have to be removed first. These mauled trunks are standing in Jefferson City’s Hickory/Adams Neighborhood Park. Teams of volunteers have already removed the fallen limbs. *** NOTE: Fifteen of these works depicting Jefferson City, Missouri’s May 22 tornado damage have been compiled into an artbook, which may be viewed and purchased at Capital Arts in Jefferson City, or purchased on this website in either 10-inch paperback or signed 12-inch hardcover).  Infrared photography is simply a means of capturing light at a slightly higher wavelength than light visible to human beings. Said light is reddish, as the name implies, which thus appear very bright in the image, as opposed to blues, which darken precipitously.
Black and white imagery sees the full range of colors, it simply expresses those colors in shades of grey. By restricting all but the infrared spectrum either by a) using infrared sensitive film, or b) placing an infrared filter on the camera lens, or c) applying infrared mapping techniques through post-capture computer software, the artist may achieve a work of intense contrast – the term ‘dreamlike’ is often used. As the reader might image, I prefer the latter of these three options because film or camera filters will set the image in stone, whereas the computer effectively allows the artist to “paint”. The Internet offers up a number of suggestions for using the computer to create infrared work, and some of these provide for greater flexibility than others. I generally use a number of these effects even in standard black and white work, which I often affectionately call “Noir” because the high contrast mimics many of the noir-labeled films of the 1940’s and 50’s. In this series of works I have pushed this technique to the limit and sometimes beyond (all these works reflect damage incurred in the May 22 Jefferson City, Missouri tornado). The starkness and seeming violent contrast between the light and the dark seems to me especially appropriate to the subject. Of course, flexibility and the artist’s freedom to ‘paint’ the effect, versus locking the effect in place, may lead to mistakes – the artist may move too far in a particular direction or purists may simply argue that the “true” effect is not achieved. (there is an analogy here to open and fluid democratic societies vs. authoritarian and rigidly enforced social structures, but, as happens so often, I digress). All subjects for future posts. (NOTE: As stated in my most recent blog, the next few weeks will be devoted to work around my community’s recent tornado damage. Fifteen of these works have been compiled into an artbook, which may be viewed and purchased at Capital Arts in Jefferson City, or purchased on this website in either 10-inchpaperback or signed 12-inch hardcover).  When the F3 tornado barreled white-trash-drunk through Jefferson City, Missouri on May 22, 2019 it presented photographers and artists alike with both a subject and a dilemma. For photographers, it was a question of getting out, getting light and getting position to chronicle the three-mile-long strip of damaged homes and businesses. Accuracy, sharpness, and framing proper to capture the impact of the storm were paramount. As an artist, my concern first was how to create art from images of tornado damaged homes, then, should art be created from images of tornado damaged homes.
I did not rush to the scene as a good photographer (and I include drone videographers as their work is equally important) should do – I waited a week to stay out of the way of first responders and for streets to be cleared. By then some of the rubble had been cleared away, but most of the damage was still evident. I also did not want to seem insensitive; any desire to create art in the moment would have paled in comparison to the stress and worry of those directly impacted. (I should quickly note that, for all its bluster and property damage, the tornado caused no fatalities and only minor injuries, thus greatly reducing the awkwardness of pointing the camera at the affected neighborhoods). The question of should dissipated as other artists I consulted encouraged me to continue my work (I recognize the morality of it may linger). The question of how answered itself in a thought as abrupt as the storm itself: Infrared. Create the works in infrared. I will spend the next few weeks posting these works here, roughly three posts a week if anyone has been counting. I’ve also collected 15 of these works into an artbook that will be available for viewing or purchase at Capital Arts or through this website. I may actually do a second volume as well. The purpose of art is to offer alternate visions of the world. That does not exclude it from reality.  What if you just weren’t there? Just did things differently and didn’t have to screw with the place. Not really friends with anybody there – their money, maybe, but you don’t really need anymore of that and you’d only blow it on something stupid, anyway. Behavior sets up outcome, you know. Stop trying to control everything. Just don’t be there. Nothing to feign ownership of; nothing to protect.
Nothing to shoot down.  A friend of mine who had successful careers as a nurse and a lawyer and now spends his time hiking and enjoying life (as well as counselling me as to the proper use and dosages of herbal supplements) recently found himself looking back on the adventures and travails that assault most any career and posted the question, “What the hell was the point of that!?”
THAT’S funny! Not uncommon at all to reflect on one’s life and try to make sense of the years; the good, the bad, the time spent in occupations, the people we knew. The question might expand to ask, “what did I think the point was at the time!?” There must have become an evolutionary necessity, once humans evolved to have self-awareness, to select out anyone born lacking an ability to see purpose in everyday things. Self-awareness breeds if not logic then a connection between the individual and the immediate world. And if you fail to see a purpose – call it ‘hope’ if you must – then indeed what IS the point? Black and white logic won’t discern it. I don’t think its software, I think there’s got to be an actual piece of grey matter in our heads, just as there’s grey matter that lets us see three-dimensionally or calculate geometry. Something that projects our place in space and time to a larger reality. We’re all aware of the health issues that come when those bits of brain are compromised. Of course, as soon as one thinks “I know there’s meaning here I just don’t know what it is” then one starts rationalizing. Hence comes the rise of religion, and, lately, of strong political ideology. After all, can’t be my own mind trying to ascribe meaning, it must be God telling me what it is. A tiny little Arc of the Covenant inside everybody’s head, yes? Here, let me TELL YOU how God wants you to behave. Our rationalizations along the trail don’t look the same after ascending to the heights, do they? But then, that piece of grey matter in our heads is hiking its own trail. Why did I come into this room? What was the name of that thing? I don’t remember doing that, when did I do it? What was the point of that, again? *** Surprised and humbled that my friend Harold has nominated me for a blogger recognition award. One is supposed to give a summary of why they started blogging and pay the nomination forward – I haven’t done any of that. I’d like to think the ‘why’ is apparent in every post, but, hey … (certainly should be in this one!) Thanks, Harold! https://earthwalkingworld.wordpress.com/2019/06/13/blogger-recognition-award/#more-2527 |
Curtis HendricksAll my life I have had to learn to do things differently. To see the world differently. Archives
June 2019
|
RSS Feed