blue christmas/blue palm tree (for phil)
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blue christmas/blue palm tree goes all the way from san francisco to costa rica.
Wednesday, December 22, 2004
Sunday, December 19, 2004
church street getting darker before the rain
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this photograph is an altered rendition of the one which is the base image for daisies and saul on the way to damascus. the brewing rain storm can really be seen as it encroaches the downtown part of san francisco. i was just sitting on my stoop when i absent-mindedly snapped this photograph.
dolores park at dusk (for kaye)
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admittedly my favorite vista for photographs, dolores park at dusk (for kaye) just took form when i was fiddling with a new program that came with my external dvd writer/burner. the contrast between the cloud cover, the setting sun and the slow demise into sunset is rally striking, and fortunately, pretty regular an experience in my backyard.
church dome parallel to church street
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i have tried for ever to get some photos that capture this dome for this church, and sadly i have still yet to succeed. it is a striking, yet simple dome with very cool, seemingly cracking and disheveled tiles for its roofing. i'm not there yet in getting the dome right, however, this is getting closer to what i see in real life. church dome parallel to church street is a digital of mine taken pretty much from my favorite spot to take photos of downtown. this time, though, rather than shoot north-east (which would yield another dolores park at dusk (for kaye) shot, instead this is taken looking directly due east.
bloom poem #9 (foto of the detailed final piece)
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although not the most precise of photographs, this picture is what bloom poem #9 looks like after i have hand-detailed it and mounted it on canvas. this is a 10" X 14" reproduction of what is usually a 15" X 21" image. sorry about the unnecessary glare. the yellow border is just yellow masking tape -- when i was finishing up the corners, however, the blue ink kind of spilled and before i could stop the blue, it has created as small puddle as can be seen on the left hand side of the piece. i liked the puddle, painted the blue around the edges, scraped some of it off and before i knew it, i had a final version that was really striking. so i kept it as is.
bloom image #9 (for maria)
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if you scroll down about 22 images (to one posted 11/28), you can see how bloom image #9 (for maria) has been altered by my hand-detailing. while this image is usually a 9" X 12" piece, the rendition done here is 10" X 14." bloom image #9 (for maria) was made for a really great person who saw my art by way of americablog.com. all said and done, it is really quite amazing. the varnish i used to finalize the piece was actually plastic dip, a sort of liquid, fast-drying clear plastic that one uses on tool handles, etc. it makes for a great finish and also lets you touch the art with no fear of messing it up. this piece has a great home now in southern california!
Monday, December 13, 2004
six mini-golden gate bridges
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six mini-golden gate bridges is a fun 8 X 10 small rendition of the larger piece 6 different versions of the same bridge for jordan. the photograph from which i developed the image was a gift from my friend jordan who happens to be one of the most talented young photographers i have ever been lucky enough to be friends with. what attracted me to jordan's photo and which i intentionally emphasized in this piece (and its much larger parent) was the fog. it is almost as if it is eating or shrouding a specific part of the bridge. but i digress. i have pasted below most of the individual panels which make up the big parent piece.
one of the images for "six mini-golden gate bridges"
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each of the individual renditions of the golden gate bridge image is 8.5" X 11" so that when put together, they make for a 17" X 33" image (six different versions of the same bridge for jordan). this image and the next four are both details from this larger piece as well as free-standing images in their own right.
one of the images for "six mini-golden gate bridges"
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this is my favorite of the panels. i can't say exactly who or when, but this version reminds me of a very distinct california advertising style, very northern california to be as imprecise in my precision as possible. just as i think of currier & ives as winter and new england, whatever this style's name and whomever this style owes its look to, i always see it and think "berkeley, beat poet, san francisco, city lights, chez panisse." anyone know the style i am in homage to in this?
Monday, December 06, 2004
still life: shoes, altoids, socks & hanger
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the single shot that is now still life: shoes, altoids, socks & hanger is from a digital photograph i took by accident. it really is just a pair of my shoes, a tin of (empty) altoids), my favorite pair of socks and a white clothes hanger that should be in the closet. still life: shoes, altoids, socks & hanger is my triptych's triptych (the title too being nine syllables, one for each image in the finally image). it just came to me that my predilection for fractals and closure, or at the very least -- repetition, is so far the only consistency i see in my stuff. nevertheless, this image is 21" X 27"
turtles for susan
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the original photograph that turtles for susan is based on is not my own photo. it is, it would stand to reason, susan's photo. and it is. from ravello, italy. just one amazingly wonderful fountain, turtles, naked guys, an empty piazza and what appears to be the outline from the aol figurine from television. this picture and the one for permutations were both given to me by susan and this image, for a lot of special reasons, is dedicated to her. it is 8.5" X 11." this image happened quite by accident also, and on the same night that still life happened except that unlike still life, this photo was intentional; my futzing around with it to get this final image is what was by happenstance.
if by chance that the person now reading this is by chance the girl (with the geography trivia) who sat in front of me on the jet blue flight to nyc thursday morning (from oakland), this is what the image looked like before i colored it and gave it to you. i hope you enjoy it.
for you a pair of broken angel wings
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this is one instance where nothing i try does this image justice. for you a pair of broken angel wings is one of the pieces i am most proud of; the poem also, although there is most assuredly a disconnect between the image for this piece and the point of poem. the central image is actually a photo a friend sent a bunch of us by way of an e-mail of a single cherry blossom out his window. i really wanted to work with the photo, got his permission and about two months later, this is what emerged. there are seven pairs of images , in three columns, with the center column's pair being the same to its left and right, (to the left it has been desaturated; to the right it has been inverted). past/present/future... morning/noon/night... want/have/need... yesterday/today/tomorrow... before/during/after... memory/fact/revision... etc. seven pairs for seven days (a.m. and p.m.).
the image is really big. 3' X 4' the poem runs down the far-right side of the image, like a feather, like the greek myth, like sadness.
because i can't seem to get a good rendition of the whole piece here, below i have uploaded all seven pairs of the image that make up the whole. and, below, are two excerpts from my poem for you a pair of broken angel wings which is in, of, a part of and apart from the image...
(----)
When I wrestle control from my fears
That is when I succeed in redress
Your legacy still haunts me
Whereas I once had whole thoughts
I now cobble it all together in half-breaths,
These fragments only cohere because of commas and dashes.
Were my life spoken absent these I’d float
Float un-tethered I float broken. You stole wholeness,
You left me with my stuttering again intact.
(----)
If I could give you a gift my deepest hope would be this:
To be granted permission to hand to you in heaven
The wings that make you an angel
And as I hand them to you I break them,
Like you to me I snap their knuckles, like you to me limp
I’d make useless your wings, impotent and ugly
For you I would fashion a pair of broken angel wings
Unflinching I stand as you disappear out of my sight
Through clouds and wind and memory leaving me with silence.
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