Portrait with Smile and Eyebrows in a Store

She sold me the paper coasters in Tucson and had a trucker hat on and I asked if I could take her photo but without it on and she said she was vain but she would let me and I am glad she took the hat off because her eyes were cool.

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Portrait of CS With a Window Behind Me

The Model CS. I scouted out this area before she was done working so I knew I wanted to capture someone's face with the beautiful light in the tall windows behind me. She obliged.

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Homesick

She was sitting across from me as I was holding down the fort waiting for our daughter while my unwife went browsing the little stores on 4th Avenue in Tucson. Turns out she was acquaintances with my daughter. I told her we were hoping her friends would watch out for her since we didn't live in Tucson and she said she would, but was leaving to move back home to Oregon in three weeks.



She had moved to Tucson to become independent and discover new things, just develop on her own, which she had done for 6 months. But she was homesick for family and felt that the lack of structure to her life in Tucson, without the familiar obligations and connections was very hard. Her Uncle was in the hospital and she felt bad not being able to visit him.

She is a good and strong young woman, I think she will have a great life.

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Portrait in Reflected Light

She was at the front desk, then in the gallery as I looked at the exhibition. We got into a long discussion about the images in the show and that led to a discussion about my work which led to me asking her if she wanted to create some art with me which led to her saying yes which led us outside to take some photos I will use in a collage and also some straight portraits, of which this is one.

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The Application

I love taking photos of models getting ready for a shoot, it is almost more interesting and fun than the shoot itself sometimes.



She had been running around off-set wondering where her lip gloss was, so when she found it I followed her into the kitchen at the auto repair shop/photography studio and took some shots as she put it on.

We were having a photo shoot in an auto repair garage that adjoins the photography studio. We had someone in who was giving a tutorial on studio lighting. At one point he asked this model to do some poses on a divan/couch with her shirt pulled up, exposing her abs and belly button. I could tell she was a bit uncomfortable with that and was worried about what her parents would think, especially her father. The poses weren't exploitive as such, but they were on the cheesy side and I could tell she was a bit awkward about it.

Turns out she has the same name as one of my daughters and graduated from the same high school, a few years later. We talked a bit about her going to college and what she wanted to do. She seemed to like the photos I took off-set. I will have to ask her what she thought about the ones I mentioned above.

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The Hostess

Often I will just play with an image just to keep in practice regarding my Photoshop skills. I spent about 2 hours on this one, just trying different things not having a particular agenda for it since it wasn't commissioned. I like having some time to do that and it is essential for any artist to spend time just 'goofing' off so to speak. Without it your work can become so stale and uninspiring that you cease to do it any more.

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Another Way of Watching

There were 2-3 kids playing on this bar for a quite a while. I also waited quite a while until there was just the one girl and she was in just the right pose with just the right horse walking by. I wish I had a chair while I was waiting but it is always worth it to wait for the right shot.

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The Young Equestrian

This week will be a number of photos from an Equestrian competition I photographed in Inola, OK.



This is a pretty straight portrait. I waited for her in the shade of the arena knowing that the very bright sunlight behind me would make for a great glow on her face and in her eyes.

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People of Color #4 - Portrait with Mask and Sunburn

Day four of my week long series on 'People of Color'. A regular customer of mine at the restaurant where I worked for many years. I didn't mean it to be such a flat, graphic image but something about the lines on the sheet and pillow started me in that direction and it slowly built from there. It wasn't stylistically consistent with my other work at the time, but the subject matter and the stripes definitely were.

I don't know if she ever saw this drawing or not actually.

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People of Color #3 - Woman With a Hook

Day three of my week long series on 'People of Color'. Her tattoos sang beautifully together.

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People of Color #1 - A Spotted Woman with Flyer

This week you get to see sketchbook drawings again, woo hoo! These are colored marker
drawings I have done over the years. I drew, then colored, the people.



Most will have symbols and images familiar to those who have seen my work over the
years. I would love to know your thoughts on those symbols and the drawings in general.

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Stare

Another in my series of portraits. She was modeling for our local photo group. I
walked away from the group, looking around the back of this barn they were using. I
found this gorgeous rust and metal wall and immediately went back and stole the model
away for a brief amount of time to get this shot.

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Portrait with Brick and Wind

Another in my week of portraits. This is a dancer/model from the Tulsa Ballet who posed
for our photo group in the spring of 2008. I don't know her background, but I see a
real Russian look to her with her eyes and bone structure in particular.

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Portrait in a Kitchen

This is a series of black and white images that I worked on to create a very painterly,
beautiful and moody feel to them. I wanted them to look hyper real yet very other
worldly at the same time.

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The Girl with Fingers for Wings

I brought my 88 year old father into the Vietnamese Nail Salon to get his toenails trimmed. He
can't do them anymore and they get REALLY long before he says anything about them.

While I was waiting I noticed this woman getting her nails done. I was particularly drawn to her
wide set eyes and asked her if I could take her photograph. I took some photos of her fingers
and nails sitting on the towel waiting to be filed.

Later when I was doing the collage of her face photos I connected the finger photos and kept
seeing them as little wings. I envisioned her wanting to fly from the Vietnamese Nail Salon to
New York or Dallas, to BE somewhere, to fly to the top, to be seen gliding and flying and rolling
across the sky.

I later came across her at the local Target where she is a co-worker of my daughter. She didn't
remember me taking the photos at all.

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The Vortex She Creates

I did a photo shoot with her back in 2007 and witnessed what a vortex of activity and energy she
created while she was modeling. I kept having a feeling of watching a human tornado. I took
some photos around the house of objects, windows, etc. and put together this collage that really
seemed to play off this idea.

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Stars and Straps Forever

Hey it's Fourth of July week here in the states. Can't let it go past without posting my favorite
photos in Red, White and Blue now could I!



This was taken on July 4th, 2007 in Frisco, Colorado at the town parade. A perfect way to show
the american colors and still be stylish. I like it.

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The Two-Thumbed God - Church Drawing #3

Day three of a week long exhibition of drawings I have done while in Church.



Drawn at Faith United Methodist Church, Tulsa, OK

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Composition with Heat

3rd in a series on 'night'. It was a very hot and humid night and I loved that she had
that sheen or glow of heat on her. I also loved the blue/red compositional element of
the door and wall behind her.

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Truths and Things I Made Up About This Woman #21

I had gone down to Oklahoma City from my home in Tulsa (about 100 miles) to drop off my presentation for the upcoming Photoslam event. I decided to take the day and check out some galleries down that way, something I really hadn't done before.

When I entered the 'Untitled' [art space] gallery this woman was at the door greeting people, explaining the current show, etc. She was very helpful about explaining how the show came about (it was a year end showing of multiple grant recipients' work).

We got to talking about me being an artist since I had my camera with me, and I asked her if she was as well. She turned out to be an art historian in training, going to college.

The gallery was somewhat dark, but there were large windows in the front that let in great ambient light. Her eyes, as is obvious, were brilliant blue. I told her about my reason for being in OKC, and explained the 'truth' project I would present at the show. I asked her if she would be willing to pose for a collage from the truth series as well and she thought it would be a cool idea.

One of the artists in the gallery had large constructions. One of the constructions had a shredder attached to it that was churning out shredded paper very slowly. Photos of that, with photos of her were the perfect combination for what I learned about her as we talked; her life, doubts, fears, wonderings, etc.

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