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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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On Exhibit July 2020

6/25/2020

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Picture
… and then the art galleries reopened …

My community gallery will reopen to the public Friday, July 26 with the local art club’s fine art exhibit. The next town over reopened its gallery a couple weeks ago, so I guess we can say public art is back on display. No public receptions at either venue – wear a mask when you go. We could argue all day whether these openings are too soon, whether masks should be required (they are not), whether it will all necessarily shut down again this fall, so on and so forth. We are not out of this by any means. Will the re-emergence of art make a difference? Who knows?

I’ve always loved exhibiting. There’s something about seeing my work on public display, surrounded by the creative brilliance of the community. That my work is so very different, that so many art groups including this one seems to prioritize brush and ink arts, those are things I simply avoid recognizing. The joy comes from having my work included as part of the public discourse. During the quarantine, galleries tried virtual exhibitions with, I felt, limited success. Like everything else ‘virtual’ there is a loss of intimacy and subtleness. Besides, arguably I do a virtual exhibit twice a week through this blog.

A third gallery at which I’m often exhibiting looks to be closed indefinitely, and a fourth shut down after Christmas before the pandemic hit. One of the things people stop doing in the lead up to a recession is purchasing art, so I knew a year ago that something was coming down the pike at us. Art sales simply seemed to be drying up everywhere – it was clear that claims of an economic boom were lost in the illusion.

There is a temptation to blame everything happening on the pandemic. But that ain’t it.
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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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