Absolute Blogmusings from an absolutely blank mind Boarded UpIt’s been a busy month, and it’s taken me longer than usual to get around to updating my picture-of-the-month (now just called “featured”). Here ’tis.  
Dividing Line
Click here to see the image in the gallery. This photograph was taken just last weekend and I believe it may be a candidate for my “off the wall” series – what do you think? It’s another example of my attraction to simplicity – at least on the surface – but with a wealth of detail in the textures. In fact it was the knot-plugs (or whatever you call them) in the white painted board that first caught my eye, and then the cracks in the wall. The other aspects of the composition were almost subconscious and only really came to the fore (for me) while processing the images. Anyway, I’m certainly liking it right now. I hope you like it too. If I feel the same way next month, perhaps I’ll add it to the portfolio. IT’S HERE! – checkout the new Absoluteblank.com websiteWell, I have been talking about it for over a year now … and finally it’s done! absoluteblank.com is now revamped, refreshed and rehosted. 
absoluteblank.com As well as rebuilding the site on a new platform to make it much easier to update and maintain, I have reorganized the work to showcase specific art portfolios and keep other work in a separate area. The whole shopping cart process is new, too, and will allow me to offer promotions and extend the range of products I can sell in the future (in addition to the prints I make myself). The site experience is super-cool with features like “dim-the-lights”, sharing via Facebook and Twitter, visitor favorites collections, and much more! Take a look and let me know what you think. If THAT weren’t enough, this very blog has been rehosted and now has it’s very own domain, absoluteblog.net. Update those bookmarks now!
To celebrate the new look (and to reward you for finding this blog at it’s new address) I’m offering 30% off the price of any Artist Print when you use the code SNARK11 at the checkout, (valid until the end of March 2011). SPARK-ed Again!The results are in, and another round of SPARK is done. For those that don’t know, this is a web-based project that pairs artists of various kinds with writers across the country and around the globe. It works like this: Artists, musicians and photographers provide a piece of work as in inspiration for their partnered writer – who in turn provides an inspirational piece of writing – typically fiction or poetry. Each person then has ten days to respond in their chosen medium, and the results are shared on the web. This round my partner was writer Greg Adkins. My inspiration piece for Greg was this: 
Investigation You can read his response here. My photograph in response to his inspiration story was this: 
My Friend Across The Street Both the story and my photo can be found here. This image was made at the disused Naval shipyard at Mare Island – an amazing area of abandoned buildings where I hoped I’d find something to fit Greg’s apocalyptic storyline. As I walked past one of the buildings I noticed that a side door had been broken open. I squeezed through and found a huge open space surrounded by offices – presumably belonging to the clerks and supervisors who’d worked there. There was much less vandalism than you might expect, just a few broken windows, and as the late afternoon light shone through the high windows it caught these shards of broken glass and I took this photograph from inside one of the offices. I have many other images from that day that would have worked, but even as I pressed the shutter, I was reminded of the last line of the story and knew this was the one. As usual, ALL the work is amazing and fascinating: I highly recommend you to check it out and browse around. A Picture for MarchOn the principle of “better late than never” here is my offering for the month of March. I have been so busy creating my new website – and shooting and processing photos for a high school event – that this got pushed to the back of the queue, but finally, here it is: 
Rewind See the image in the gallery here. This image is another candidate for my “Off The Wall” series – where I look for “found” art in “blank” walls and other surfaces which is reminiscent of modern abstract paintings. This is an image of wood panels that were clearly painted at one time, but have been weathered to the extent that the original grain is exposed. This weathering has also revealed evidence of the process of painting, as paint has been removed over time layer by layer. I love how a few ephemeral straight lines and right angles contrast the natural curves of the now predominant wood grain. Embracing LimitationsA recent picture-of-the-month featured an image which used a technique called “HDR” (High Dynamic Range) which combines multiple exposures to allow a photograph to show something closer to what the human eye sees in a scene with high contrast (one which has both extremely dark and extremely light areas). This month’s image, turns that technical limitation into a benefit. Here, the limitations of the camera are exploited for artistic effect to create an image intentionally different to what you would have seen with the naked eye. 
Entrance Click here to see this image in the gallery. By exposing only for the light streaming through the doors and windows, those features become isolated in a sea of darkness and all the distracting details disappear — turning an otherwise ordinary scene into an abstract composition. The pattern on the floor becomes a lifeline for the eye which enables the viewer to link the islands of light and re-create the missing scene from the disjointed fragments. I particularly like how the details seen through the windows are transformed into little framed works of art. If you had been standing next to me as I took this picture you would have had little idea of what I was doing … unless you glanced at my camera screen. Sometimes in photography, as in life, embracing limitations allows you to go beyond what is expected, and create something extraordinary. |
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