Love of Color

Somewhere near the midpoint between the abstract and the real, this image is enhanced, for emotional impact.

All in a Day's Work

Now there is a job, washing the windows of an iconic Seattle building, the Rainier Tower, yes, all 31 floors of it.

The Place

This is the site of a recurring dream, one of those places that, on the surface should hold no particular meaning, and yet, it does. Why this image of a place 3,000 miles away should hold such importance in my psyche is a mystery. I believe over time, the mystery will be revealed, perhaps with the help of art. As with dreams, art reveals what is within.

Focus on the Ordinary

A piece of ordinary architectural glass from decades past, seems a bit extraordinary when seen through the lens. What may have been overlooked comes into focus. What was clear now reflects an array of color, changing moment to moment, and depending on your point of view.

Real to Abstract

Start with something real, and then remove all traces of reality. The result? Abstract art.

Another good observation from Pablo Picasso!

Two Tone

I think Jackie looks great in red-orange and yellow. She had great hair.

Why should Warhol have all the fun?

Ripple Effect

Creatively, one of the great surprises of recent years is how much I respond to the color orange, and even more, all the colors of autumn, those being weighted on the red side of the spectrum.

Well, that would make it all more exciting.

Striations 02

Striations 02, a digital sketch done one-handed, while talking on the phone. Yeah, that was fun!

Striations

Reflections in a column meet Adobe Photoshop. Looks pleasing to me!

Glimpse

For those of you in the northern hemisphere, how about a little color to brighten your world in these cold dark months. The image du jour is "Glimpse."

Look of Winter

Showing some of the earmarks of good design, this image has variety, repetition, contrast, and the interplay of positive and negative space, also known to the Japanese as notan. All I had to do was look to the sky, point and shoot. I am glad that I had my little Nikon S220 with me, small enough to carry around on my belt. One of the good things about photography is that it provides a kind of emotional record, it puts you right back in the moment.

I wish everyone a peaceful and fulfilling 2011.

Manifestations of Man

If you don't look up, you will never know what you are missing!

Modern Fashion

Attendees at an Austrian fashion show in Shanghai, Peoples Republic of China.

Vanishing Art Form?

Here is a master at work, on the sidewalks of Beijing, just behind the Summer Palace. I have it on good authority, that this calligrapher knows what he is doing. As he paints with a water filled brush, the characters vanish as he writes.

I am told that the fine art of Chinese calligraphy, which requires years of diligent study and practice, is proving ever more difficult to learn, and is now yielding fewer true masters than before. The digital age is demanding more of the student's time, leaving fewer hours to learn the myriad characters, and perfect the brush strokes. Brush strokes are giving way to computer keystrokes.

What will come of all this? Will an art form be lost to time? No one is to say.

Triptych

Keep looking up.

Striking

I was fortunate enough to revisit the Museum of Modern Art yesterday. With everything I saw, I think this painting, Picasso's Girl Before a Mirror, rated at the top. A striking work, it looks even way better in person, that is, the scale, the color, composition, mood, etc. The listener is included for scale, missing when the work is viewed on line or in print.

Quick and Fun

It's amazing how much fun you can have, dragging an image into Photoshop, and playing around with it for a minute or so, transforming it to your liking.

Red Nude

"Red Nude" is a new work. Building on several layers of unsatisfying effort, the end result was pure fun.

Fresh Air

Monday's frustrating session in the studio, yields results on Wednesday, after I had time to let the paint dry and revisit several canvases I was working on. Like a breath of fresh air, the above work is aptly titled.

Modern, All In Its Day

Modern Art is a product of the 20th century, er, I don't think so. Take a look at this Greek sculpture from 2,500 BCE, in the collection of the Seattle Art Museum. It almost could pass as early 20th century AD. It reminds me of a Modigliani sculpture.

Maybe there really isn't much new under the sun, as noted in Ecclesiastes. I recently heard Julian Schnabel say, "it isn't who did it first, it's who did it last."

SAM and Company

We saw yet another fabulous exhibition at the Seattle Art Museum, more on that later. The Master, Picasso that is, just shined.


I got him to sit very still for his portrait. Actually, it's amazing how good an image you can get with a digital point and shoot, hand held, with no flash, cropped and enhanced in Photoshop.

Imaginative and Fun

Blue Man Group really delivers!

What You See

What you see is what you get, that is, when you mount a telephoto lens on your SLR, point it out the window on a rainy day, all in fun, and the camera auto focuses on the window pane and not some feature in the distance. The results look good to me.

As I like to say, you don't see that every day.

Ab Ex NY

I had the good fortune of doing a photo shoot in Manhattan on Friday, just a few blocks away from the Museum of Modern Art. With timing being what it is, the Abstract Expressionist New York exhibition was in full swing. I can't say enough about just how satisfying it was to view this show.


Here is a visual testimonial.

Among other observations, I have a new found appreciation of the work of Robert Motherwell.

Loose and Fun

I decided that my approach to art and creativity has become way too tight, careful, and constricted. Above is my latest exploration into all that is spontaneous, fun, and unrestricted. It felt good. My plan is to leave this canvas as is, that is, it will not be covered with gesso, only to be reworked later, as I often may be inclined to do. I prefer to go with the flow and keep this work as a reminder of a journey that is carefree, loose, and fun, perhaps, more how life should be.

Up Close and Digital

As I mentioned in a previous post, with digital SLRs being substantially more complicated to operate as opposed to the film SLRs of the past, such as the Nikon F2 that I cut my teeth on, it is important to keep current with the camera, staying familiar with, at least, the rudiments of it's capabilities. Once you arrive at a photo shoot, it's a little late to try to bone up on the fine workings of the camera, when you should be snapping into action.

I took advantage of this autumn rainy day to pull out my trusty old 60mm AF Micro Nikkor, a lens that is equally adept at macro work as it is with so called "normal" shooting, as, at 60mm, it approximates how the human eye would normally see. Well, the fun has just started, and I post one example above, a shot staged with very little set up.

With digitals, the results are immediate, no need to load the film and little need to bracket any shots through the wonder of Adobe Photoshop. There is no waiting for viewing, processing, or otherwise. Of course, there are things you can do with film that you either can't do with digital photography, or are limited, such as extreme F stop work, at one end of the spectrum or the other. This kind of depth of field manipulation seems compromised. Also, film is its own medium, with warm, specific results, that really can't be duplicated digitally. However, after experiencing digital fun, there is no going back to the past that can be anticipated. There is nothing like shooting two hundred photos in a row, without pausing to reload. You can't do that with film.

If You Have Two Friends

A morning spent oil painting in the studio yields equal measures of satisfaction and frustration, like two old friends come to visit.

Da Fu Wong

As my Chinese friends like to call me Da Fu Wong, which translates as Big Old Rich Guy, above is my name as written in Chinese.

Of the three characters, the left character means big (like a big man holding his arms out), the middle character is a large house sitting on a farm (you're rich), and the right character is, I think, a bunch of birds sitting around (wise old guy).

What a rich fascinating language!

Self Portrait

It's all in the point of view, in this case, on the street looking up at a cantilevered architectural overhang at the Seattle Public Library, a building like none other that I know.

Interplay

Variety, repetition, interplay of positive and negate space (notan). Yeah, that does it!

What Was,What Is

Sometimes I long for this place, but it doesn't even exist anymore.

Proximity

The visual interest inherent in the tasteful juxtaposition of contrasting materials.

Artist Unknown

The artistry of the stone wall.

Redux

The splendor of a dead tree on Mount Desert Island in Maine, redone, as a sepia tone. The tree is dead, but not lifeless, enduring in majesty.

Snapshot

The streets of Beijing. Notice the guide walk for the blind, center strip, a legacy from the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

Abstract Notion, Part 2

Pastel image du jour. Yes, I am in it for the fun.