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Curtis Hendricks

DamnPhotoArtist

Photo Art* & Small Literature**
* Computer-based art that uses a photograph as a base
** Short Prose

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Age Of Holy Plastic

12/17/2019

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Picture
Little or nothing in this world surpasses the dumb ignorance contained in the contention of a ‘war on Christmas’. The notion of arming teachers in schools is close, but this is dumber. A nation blowing its oil reserves on Christmas lights, in which Christmas movies take over the airwaves, in which half the people walking towards you on the street are wearing a crucifix and 90 percent of the rest have one at home, is hardly under attack. That a simple ‘Happy Holidays’ recognizing  those who happen to have a different faith puts some individuals right out of their water only suggests a deep-rooted insecurity.

To be clear, December 25 is the date in which we celebrate Christ’s birth. Biblical scholars, however, pretty much agree it was more likely to have occurred in March, as based on scripture, primarily from the book of Luke. This created a marketing problem – yes, a ‘marketing problem’ is exactly what to call it – for leaders of the early Christian church who were trying to mold it into an institutionalized religion. First, March-ish is also the time for recognizing the RE-birth of Christ – Easter. Second, celebrations surrounding the winter solstice in the northern hemisphere were preeminent – every culture celebrated the time the Sun began moving north again. It was like Carnival time in the Caribbean. For Christianity to be taken seriously it had to have a winter solstice celebration too.

Hence, Christmas, and for the true believers, nothing else existed.
 
So, I guess I can understand that for some a mere hint that something else legitimate exists might be threatening. But it’s stupid. Perhaps even psychotic.
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    Curtis Hendricks

    All my life I have had to learn to do things differently. To see the world differently.

    Art attracted me from the beginning. Almost every home in the tiny farming village where I grew up had DaVinci’s ‘Last Supper’ on the wall. I would come across modern abstract art in magazines and be absolutely fascinated by the colors and techniques.

    But there were no artists in my village. No one understood what modern art was. Or why it was. But there was an appreciation for photography.

    I began shooting with a 1960 model Agfa rangefinder fixed-lens 35mm camera and learned to use darkroom techniques to finish my work. Graduating to a single lens reflex camera I worked primarily with Kodachrome. Digital photography opened a new world. The computer became the artboard I never had; the darkroom I could never afford. I discovered there would never be a camera or a lens that could capture what I saw in my head – that, I had to learn to create on my own.

    I use the photograph the same way a painter uses a charcoal sketch – as a starting place. I squeeze out the unseen hiding between the pixels; the angels, the demons of my own imagination.

    ​Light. Color. Darkness. Perspective. Introversion. Mystery. Love.

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