A Seldom Seen Stretch of the Eulipian River

I worked at a restaurant named Eulipia in San Jose, California from 1981-1994 while I was going to graduate school and starting out as a college art instructor. I finally left when I moved to Tulsa to start a new career in Interactive Design.

This collage was a result of a photo shoot with three of my co-workers from the restaurant. We did the shoot in one of their backyards while they were sunbathing on a hot summer day. I had been creating a series of collages that used body part close ups combined with sky or other neutral colored backgrounds.



This collage resulted from having all the photos on my drawing board which was a large door actually attached to two drawing board bases. As I laid them out I started seeing a flow to the images. I originally had only one row, with the body below and the sky above. At that point it seemed like a landscape. But I had a lot of photos from the shoot and I laid out a second row to see if those photos might have a different rhythm and flow to them.

I got the idea to turn the top row over and the blue matched up and became a river in my mind. Then it was just a matter of finding the right place for each photo so the flow of the river was pleasing to my eye.

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Exhibition

I have 10 of my photo collages in a group photography show. It opens this coming Friday evening in Stillwater, OK. Come to it if you can!



Exhibit One Gallery
105 N. Main Street
Stillwater, OK

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Rejection Suite - Some People

I like this one because of the simplicity of the statement that I allowed to show
through combined with the scary tribal type face image. But I also love it because of
personal reasons, the woman is my unsister-in-law and she was the model who would be
enthusiastic about most anything I would suggest to do, including getting her face
painted as seen here. Also the background is a very memorable image from my unwife's
house. The blinds would make a beautiful pattern with the sunlight in the late
afternoon and there was a hanging stained glass piece in the window that would cast
it's color with the blinds straight lines.

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Rejection Suite - Now You Know

This is the second in a week long posting of a series I did from about 1986-1993. This
is one of my favorite of the series because I love the transition of the ocean and the
clouds into her body and the dimension brought in by the hedge/sidewalk image on the
right side.

I love the simplicity of the statement as well. Know you know.

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For We Have Had To Eliminate Many Fine Artists

The Rejection Suite - A new week, a new series of old. This one is my 'rejection letter' series. I applied
for full-time, college level teaching jobs in fine art for approximately 8 years, from
1985-1993. I never did land that job. I started to take the rejection letters and
collage some of my rejected photos on top of the letter. I let show through from the
letter a word or series of words that had power and meaning out of context.

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Who Are Your Role Models?

This is post #6 of a week long series showing pages from my 'Sketchbook with Voices'
book from back in the 80s and 90s.

This page was filled with questions that I answered by using letter press letters (the
old fashion way, before digital, of graphic designing text with fonts). The model and
I were at the beach in Santa Cruz, California and I took close ups of her against a
cliff to collage. These were from the proof sheet that was made of the shots.

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Something So Beautiful it Hurts

Here is another page from the 'Sketchbook with Voices' book I worked in back in the 80s
and 90s and am highlighting this week.

The idea when I took the photos making up this collage was to get my client up against
one of her favorite pieces of furniture, a large armoir/wardrobe closet. Later, when I
cut up the proof sheet into pieces to do a mock up of the piece I realized how
crucifix-like the pose was. This led me to this page and it's challenge to think about
beauty and pain/hurt together.

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If You Are Going To Go For It

This is 4th in the week long series from my 'Sketchbook with Voices'
that I worked in back in the 80s and 90s.

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Portrait of Chinese Masks

The Chinese pavilion at Epcot Center in Disney World had a door that faced the
lagoon. The sun was setting on the other side of the lagoon and was streaming into
the pavilion at a completely horizontal level. It is odd to see sun that low coming
into a building. Usually there is something that gets in the way, another building,
trees, walls, hills, etc. But in this place at this time it was filling the room as
if it was a flood of water. I stayed there until it set.

The woman behind the counter was having a hard time looking at customers because the
sun was right behind them, hitting her in the eyes. I asked her if I could take her
photograph and in spite the blinding light, was happy to allow me too. I walked
around the room finding other elements and came across the buddha. I didn't realize
it would fit perfectly with her, but I did feel it had the same dimensions. Later I
was pretty dumbstruck to find that with virtually no manipulation the two faces
matched up perfectly.

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One Person's Truth is Another Person's Truth

She wasn't sure what the photos were going to turn out like, and either was I. I
loved the light in the lobby where I worked and this student happened by one morning
as the sun reflected off the granite floor.

I liked her red complexion but when I worked half the collage up in black and white
and took out 2 of the 3 channels I also loved the porcelain look of her skin. This
got me thinking about how others might perceive her in different ways; red, white,
porcelain, ruddy, however, her perception of her self, her truth is the same no
matter who she is in front of. That is how I came upon the title for this piece.

It is in the 'Truths and Things I Made Up About This Woman' series, even with the
variant title.

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wind ow

We had a fire drill where I worked and as we all gathered in this little outdoor area
I was up close to a woman I hadn't met before. I introduced myself and she told me
where she worked in the building. I noticed when she was gesturing that she had this
great scar on her arm. I had my camera with me and asked her if I could take some
photos of her eyes and her scar for a collage. She was very excited about the idea,
much more so than most people and graciously allowed me to do so. I am sure any
number of people around me were wondering what the heck we were doing.

She later saw the collage and loved it, purchasing 2 prints to have framed and given
to her family. She had grown up hating the scar but in recent years had come to see
it as a good part of her body and life. The collage was a sort of confirmation of
that she thought.

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Post Card #1 - Texas Panhandle

I had to drive my father's belongings back to California from Oklahoma in the fall of 2007. I kept my camera next to me in the rented moving truck and took a lot of photos out the window as I went. The Texas panhandle is one of my favorite areas precisely because there is so little to see there. What that actually means is that the interesting things you do see are spread out, they are alone, by themselves, easy to spot and appreciate.

Sometimes in dense environments, just as in a dense piece of art, it is hard to discern what is there. That is ok in a museum where you have time to look, but on a road trip it is nice to see something coming 2 miles away!

I stopped at a convenience store outside Amarillo and the clerk's eyes were blindingly bright and blue with the west texas sun shining in the window. I asked her if I could take some photos of her eyes and, though she was chided by her fellow clerk with the huge curled bangs and hair, and the darked lined lips and fake eyelashes, she said yes and was a wonderful, albeit fleeting, model.

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Postcard #7 - California Road Trip

We were in an outdoor outlet mall in Napa. We were in an antique store, all filled
with browns and golds and muted tones when through the window I noticed this pair of
bright yellow vests floating against a wall. They were bathed in bright, bright
sunlight and the color was so glaring compared to all the rest I just had to go take
some photos.

I told them I would donate some money to their cause if they would let me take some
photographs of them and they agreed. Just moments before I had passed the two
cypress trees and loved their 'symmetry/assymetry' against such a stark background.
Once I got home and went through the photos I kept seeing these two girls with the
two trees and so worked the images up to have that happen.

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The Jeweler Who Didn't Like the First One

I went into a jewelry store in Tulsa looking for something specific for my wife. I didn't find it but had a great salesperson help me. She was informative and thoughtful. The whole front of the store was facing south with big windows and it was winter time so the sun was streaming in. It bounced off the floor and glass cases and landed on her in a wonderful way. I asked her if I could take some photos of her and she obliged me.

I did a collage and showed it to her a few days later. She was upset about how it looked, thinking I had made her look rather ugly. I didn't think it did, but I didn't post it out of respect for her discomfort. I did this one later, working with less manipulation and distortion and I think she was happier with it.

I love this piece because of how I got the hair and the line of her face to match up. She is the same top to bottom but then a second look obviously shows something isn't as it should be. Just a bit of a skewed perspective on the portrait.

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Postcard #6

My wife and I were on the ferry from San Francisco to Sausalito. She had always wanted to go on it and never got around to it when she lived in the city. It was a very beautiful fall day, clear and warmer than one can ever hope for in San Francisco.

The woman was at the bow of the boat with her boyfriend speaking German. She seemed deep in thought looking out over the bay, the shore, not saying much, just thinking. She watched as a lone pine tree outlined itself against the sky as our ferry docked for a quick stop on Angel Island. Then she sat down facing the sun and leaned her head back to soak up the rays. I kept wondering what ideas and dreams were running through her mind (even if it was in German).

Later she stood and talked to her friend, and I noticed the really bright red stripe across her midriff, I think it was underwear, but I wasn't sure. I loved how it stood out and snapped a couple of photos.

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Truths and Things I Made Up About This Woman #14

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One Person's Truth

One Person's Truth, originally uploaded by Make Studio / Digihuman.

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Truths and Things I Made Up About This Woman #13

Truths and Things I Made Up About This Woman #13, originally uploaded by Make Studio / Digihuman.

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