Stuck (in my backyard) - March 2022

Stuck (in my backyard) - March 2022 Archway Gallery, Houston

Part 1: Not-So-Still Life

This suite of images began with a simple desire to create a still life using persimmons ripening in my backyard. With a glance at the ripples near the pool jets and around thirty dollars in quarters to sink the fruit, a suite of “not-so-still-life” images was born. The degree of distortion in these images was controlled by the position of the bowl of fruit with respect to the pool’s circulation jets. The closer, the more distortion.

Fine art photography, abstract still life, impressionist still life, bold primary colors — Not-So-Still Life #2
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Part 2: Surface Tension

Over the years of being in my house, as fall leaves start making a mess of the yard and pool, I’ve noticed the amazing shadows on the bottom of the pool created by the lensing effects caused by surface tension around the edges of floating leaves. So, my final experiment was to figure out a way of capturing this effect without the background distraction of a fifty-year-old pool. Placing leftover tile from a remodeling job on the top step of the pool, gave me the background needed to make these unusual shadows pop.

Fine art Photography, botanical photography, leaf images, shadows, abstract floral, fall colors — First Kiss
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Fine art Photography, botanical photography, floral, shadows, abstract floral, spring color — Taking a Stroll
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Part 3: Life Distorted

The “life Distorted” series was a premeditated effort to produce a photographic reflection of our disrupted life over the past few years. The divisions between us at home and around the world has distorted our view of each other, and the world we live in. So, I took simple scenes from a town in Mexico, and a view of downtown Houston, sank them in the pool and let the pool circulation jets distort the image of our earlier lives.

The final image from Mexico produced a disturbing image approximating a screaming human form. The distorted “face” reminded me of the 43 college students who were kidnapped and killed by the police in collusion with drug cartel members in the town of Iguala, Mexico in 2014… “Iguala Screams”. Recently we often bring this disruption and distortion upon ourselves, which is the subject of the Houston scene.

Part 4: Second Derivative

This suite is based on the idea of taking images of plants distorted beneath the water surface of springs in the northern Rockies, and, once again, submerging them in the pool to carry out a second distortion of the scene. Thinking back to math class, I called this suite “second derivative”. In this case it becomes nearly impossible to figure out the original starting point, making these truly abstractions of an original reality.

Part 5: Office Aliens

Downtown Houston was basically a ghost town back in April and May of 2020. Any time of day, the streets were empty of cars, the office buildings closed, and tragically, only the homeless wandered over the streets. It was like a scene from a dystopian science fiction movie. Looking up at the buildings, my eyes once again focused on distortion, making out vaguely lifelike forms in the reflections from stressed glass panes in some of the buildings. It’s as though the downtown offices were taken over by a variety of alien beings. And thus, the “Office Aliens” series was born.

Part 6: My Other Backyard

Since my first immersion into the people and geology of Eastern Idaho and southwestern Montana, I’ve been returning as often as possible, and to this day consider it a second home. This is where I return for rejuvenation. Check out the Backstory on my 2018 show “Flyover Country”.