Art::Take Note

What are people taking note of in your life?

Art: The Good Fight

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Blind Photographers

"I have a private gallery, but, unfortunately, I am the only one who can visit it. Others can enter by means of my photographs, but they do not see the originals, just the reproductions." Evgen Bavcar

Blind Photography is interesting because it highlights whether a piece of artwork's accomplishment is based upon merely the aesthetic product or the experience of making that artwork. Any fool with a digital camera, autofocus, flickr.com and perhaps a slight aperture adjustment are making bland photographs. So does the value and artistic appeal of these photographers increase because they are "blind"?

This evening, I ran across an intriguing show on HBO entitled:

Dark Light: The Art of Blind Photography

It featured three artists, but I was mainly drawn to the work of Pete Eckert. Having lost his eyesight, he now shoots his subjects without any sight or visual cues. As he described in the episode, to receive guidance from the sighted world would erode his desired outcome--giving an entry of sighted people into blindness. His methodology seemed to very particular has he would light meter from outside the studio, and slowly meter his way into his shoot, thereby giving him a frame of reference (full sunlight). Then he uses flashlights, colored paper, lasers, and candles to cause different burns in the negative.

Electorman

Cathedral

Honey

My apologies to those who are uncomfortable with the naked form in artwork, but I find his use of nude models particularly interesting in light (pun not intended) of him being blind. In a way he is not aware of the allure of the naked form, and by contrasting it with the neon light, it seems to cause this tension where the eye is taken away from what it would be naturally drawn to.

Check out this article in Time and this photogallery.

Comparison

Ellie's Christmas present was an easel

and so I wanted to share this work of hers...

which reminds me of my style...

Art: Scenes from a Garden IV

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Art: Scenes from a Garden III

Art: Scenes from a Garden II

art: springtime

art: stretching

art: commerce

Echoing Voices

I think this is a new, post-seminary phenomenon. No longer having my mind overwhelmed with terms that I pretended to understand, my mind seems to latch on to particular phrases or ideas I hear in normal conversation, talk radio or off my podcast collection.

Driving home from my Presbytery Examination (I passed by the way), I listened to the Dave Ramsey show. It's a very interesting quasi-Christian, financial help radio program. I strongly agree with his no-nonsense, no-debt approach, and will be interested to learn more.

The phrase that stuck with me was: "Successful people don't know who American's next top model is, or who got voted off the island." As someone with a television addiction, as trite and silly as the statement was, it did help illuminate where my priorities lay.

I don't think "success" is a bad term for the church, in fact our shying away from such concepts because we don't want to be like the megachurch may be part of our problem. However, we should strive for success in the church, not at the expense of the gospel but in light of the freedom found in the gospel.

Therefore, as I seek to create the appropriate rythyms in my fully-employed life, Dave's words came at a crucial point for me. Methods of escaping the constant pressure of the church are important, but often times I can escape to the detriment of my family, and my own life into the worlds of Jerry and Elaine; Jack, President Palmer and Chloe; Jack, Kate, Hugo and Sawyer; and those folks on the island (or in China in the current case) who have no lasting significance on the success of ministry.

Now, I am not quite ready to say that successful people don't know what's happening with Jim, Pam, Dwight, Andy and Michael.

PS-is it bothersome to anyone else that probably 80% of folks will know what shows I am talking about merely by listing the character's first names?

Life Phrase

As Ellie grows, I am getting startled and scared about how my parenting can greatly influence her development.
This past week, I came to the unscientific conclusion based upon self-reflection that we have a guiding statement at somepoint in our child, which greatly influences our worldview. I wish I could claim mine was biblical (in the literal sense, though I think their is some theological teeth to it). But it actually came from my third grade art teacher, who told me,
"There are no mistakes in art."

This was revolutionary to an elementary child. Everywhere else, I was being taught about rules, and living into the "system" of standardized education. I was being told to never ever let the #2 pencil cross outside the boundaries of those little bubbles, because otherwise I would be doomed to fail the Iowa Test of Basic Skills. Life was being set with boundaries, with rules, with structure...and then this art teacher spoke one little sentence, which she could have never realized how profound that statement was on my life, "There are no mistakes in art."

It took me a long, long time to really accept that Truth. Not in a Joel Osteen, there is no "sin" sort of way, but a providential God sort of way. Though I am not sure I fully have, it can be seen in my artistic transformation. My early artwork was maticulous detailed drawings, where each brick was drawn in exacting and exhausting detail. Then, my senior year of college, I witnessed and experienced people I greatly respected make dramatic "mistakes." At that moment, the words of my teacher echoed in my heart telling me to explore past the boundaries, to draw with abandonment, to accept the tears of the paper, to expect the finished product to look nothing like I had imagined. To dig deep within my heart and explore the depth of God's creativity.

I can remember the first "exhibit" I did following this transformation. I had such joy, release and peace from the experience that the following week a fellow student put up his own creative release and when asked why he had drastically transformed his approach he said that he had wanted to try what Wes was describing.

Why do I write this now? Because I realize that I want to pass along a similar abandonment, joy and peace to Ellie. Not because an art teacher once said it, but because God says it to each of us: "you know that Christ appeared so that he might take away our sins." That she would feel free to make mistakes and accept the tears (pun intended) and to expect that life may look nothing like we imagine, but that God is working it all out for His good.

Facing Fears

Lindsay, Ellie and I are enjoying a pleasant week in Florida with family and friends where we are able to head to the beach, the driving range, and just plain relax. The only problem is that every night I have to walk past three of the biggest spider and spider webs to get to the apartment. Ever since I saw Arachnophobia at 12 years old, I have had a rational, appropriate and reasonable (or so I tell myself) fear of spiders.
Needless to say, each evening involves a short prayer and a fast sprint beyond these webs. In the morning, however, I have actually stopped to watch them because I able to see these creatures in a new light. And though my heart pounds, I am amazed by their web design.
These webs are probably 5 feet in diameter with two or three levels to them. They are strategically placed near a light so that when the bugs congregate around the light at the evening they will inevitably get trapped. During the day, I have seen a bee get stuck in the web and struggle to escape. As the bee and the spider danced for survival, I realized that this is an unintentional artistic expression of the spider, because she is more interested in her food then her design,
So like a mischievous 5th grader, I threw a small piece of paper into the web. Immediately the spider sprung into action to attack this prey. But this time, she was able to discern that this scrap of paper would not be dinner and quickly cut the nuisance from her web.
Now, as I walk past the web deep within the layers of this expansive design is a hole. A twinge of guilt appears as I realize that it marks the place where I interfered with this spider's creation. But then I will have flashes of Arachnophobia, and remember that these are deadly pests that can kill John Goodman , and anyone with good rational sense would be terrified by these creatures.

jealousy

I was taking some birthday pictures of Ellie, when someone else decided she wanted to be center stage

Art Show

Thank you for those who stopped by the art show at PTS this weekend. And also thank you for those who left comments. To me art does not finish when the pencil (brush) gets set down, but is an ongoing interpretative dialogue between the artist, the artwork and the viewer.


Also thank you for the people who pulled this together. Doing a show like this was a passing thought I had during my second semester here, but I realized the sheer manpower ('cuse me "personpower") it would take was too daunting.

For those who were not able to make it up there, I think you missed a really unique show. To see such a variety of talent--watercolor, painting, and photography--and expressions within our community was a vivid reminder of the one true Creator.

Job 6:13

"Do you think I can pull myself up by my bootstraps?

Why, I don't even have boots!"

-Job



I had this unsettling feeling after watching "Pursuit of Happyness." While the story was 'heartwarming,' I am concerned that it will perpetuate a lack of concern or initiative to help the poor. When Will Smith, newly hired, ends up tearfully amongst a sea of normal people, he narrates about discovering true happiness. Cinematography wise, Will Smith is amongst white upperclass Americans deligently working hard at their jobs. And when you contrast that to the scenes of him in the homeless shelter, I think the film's message is too simplistic. During one scene of the movie, it not so subtly suggests that the way out of a homeless shelter is to be the one working hard to fix a bonedensity scanner, rather than being like the rest of the "lazy" homeless by sleeping.

I wish it were that easy,
That unsettling feeling had rested for a few weeks now, until I found the above quote from Job (in The Message), and this photograph by Ted Szukalski entitled State of Hope...I hope we can see the plight of poverty is a bit deeper and more complex than pursuing happiness through America's idealized self-made individualistic work ethic.

art: nativity

Sunset

art: the wanderer

art: restoration