December 12, 2023
I left the dots at the end of the September note. I got that far and planned on finishing it the next day……
It’s been 3 months.
I added several juried selections, the most exciting was getting 3! in the Your Daily Photo site. Ann Jastrab was the juror for the month of September, and she told me I should submit a few images. She selected one and then YDP selected another. YDP has “calls” for selected topics, and they had one for “Newspapers.” I couldn’t think of a newspaper image so just put in 3 I like. I was selected one more time. I put in 3 of my 1970s rock and roll artists, The Doors, and 2 of Frank Zappa. We’ll see..
I have worked on the web site for several days over several weeks and have updated some things and added or moved around others. There is now a Yosemite, a Southwest and Pueblo page. A few new family photos in Ephemera. A site that has too much is growing bigger.
September 9, 2023
I'm listening to a series of Detrich Buxtehude organ pieces and contemplating the nearly year since I put in the last note. I took note of the work it would take to mount 2 shows in 2023. It's a good thing I started working on them in December, it took my full efforts to produce matted prints for each. Fortunately 4 prints found their way into new homes including 2 of the oversize prints of the Tower Theater. I've put the whole show and some photos from the installation and artists reception. I have also a few new selections from juried gallery shows. Two were in SEC4P shows, a couple more in the Black Box and Center for Photographic Arts Auction. I've managed to have 24 selections to date in 7 different galleries. I'm satisfied to find selections from my earliest work from 1970 to iPhone camera this year.
We spent most of the summer in California, 7 weeks is a long time to be away from my studio. The most important issue to being gone is how to mothball 2 ink jet printers. The old 3880 was fairly easy ......
November 26th, 2022
Back in the workspace full time. Submitted for 4 shows and made 2. The Street Sweeper, Carnaby St, London 1970 will be in the
Southeast Center for Photography Gallery (SEC4P) in South Carolina in December. 2 were selected for the Black Box Gallery in Portland, OR, Calle de San Sebastián, San Juan, Puerto Rico, 2004 will be in the gallery space and Dorm Apartments, Eugene Oregon 2022 in the online gallery. I'm amazed to get 2 at the Black Box. I've put the photos in at the bottom of RECENT WORK / Fall 2022 Gallery Shows. I'm waiting for the results of my submittal to the Grants Pass Museum of Art for 2023-24 solo shows. Grants Pass is 45 minutes north of Ashland on I-5. I have one more call to submit to SEC4P in December and then a Members Show in Santa Fe, no jury, that makes it easy and nice. Starting the process of printing, matting and framing the pieces for Bloomsbury and Viewpoint. 35 pieces is a lot of work.
Tom.
October 11, 2022
I have made my first solo showing. Viewpoint Photographic Art Center in Sacramento, May 10 thru June 3. I am planning on being at the Artists Reception scheduled for Sunday May 21st (to be confirmed.) I will have about 20 photos in the "Step Up" room. The back room. My first solo, I can't be disappointed that it won't be in the street facing space. But, whoever is in that space had better be good or the public may spend their time in my exhibit. I plan on being great. (Ha). The name of my exhibit is from the book (BOOKS) My Familiar Places. Since I lived in Sacramento and just an hour west in Vallejo for nearly all of my life I have chosen photos from the large format negatives I made in the Sacramento Valley and Crockett. (Carquinez Bridge series) I'm looking forward to the exhibit, not so much the hours it will take to print and mat 20 photos.
I have been asked to put together a show in the place I had my first show (October 2019) Bloomsbury Blends here in Ashland. That show will be installed for March 2023. Many thanks to Kimberly for asking me. It will be curated from the 1970s Denmark/Europe group of street photos. The space will hold only a dozen or so prints. It will be fun to put together. I haven't printed many of that group and as they are "street photography" with a lot less black area to print, they will be easier to get done.
Submitting to Calls for Gallery shows is a time consuming business. Since it does take a lot of effort and success of having one photo selected for a show is low (ish) (I've had really great success and hope it continues.) I'm going to put the work I am submitting up in RECENT WORK. By "Call" and date. I can get something out of the work even if I am not in the selections.
The first is the 2022 Crocker-Kingsley I just submitted.
Artists Statement:
During the pandemic a photographic expedition was walking in my neighborhood. I’ve always been fascinated by the abstracts created by everyday activities on the built environment. Pavement and concrete that has been thickly coated with repainting over years has a curious quality. Chipped off pieces have the thickness of broken pottery, layer upon sedimentary layer it begins to tell a story all its own. Bright yellow safety paint, chipped, cracked, broken, then repainted with another sagging, flowing coat, like donut glazing, mundane but beautiful.
After months of walking along the same streets I saw the traditions of abstraction and minimalism in the random marks made by the tread of tires scraping along the curb faces of distressed yellow paint. They are bold aesthetic statements that allow multiple interpretations but still retain the basic values of a photograph.
Tom..................
September 16, 2022
Mid-July started what could be called a vacation. Retired in Ashland has felt like vacation so I will just say we weren't home for a few weeks.
The last two weeks of July we were in Eugene, Oregon at the University of Oregon, Hayward Field for the Track and Field (Athletics) World Championships. The first time they have been held in the USA and only 150 miles from my home.
Walking around the streets of Eugene yielded some worthwhile photos and some have been added to RECENTS. It follows that being with 10,000 screaming track fans from 40+ countries I could - and did get Covid. Fortunately, the "light" version, but 10 days of quarantine cut the 4 weeks we were to spend on the cool California coast down to three weeks. I took about 40 lbs of camera gear with me but used only the Noblex 150 Pro panoramic camera I bought in 2015. I wanted to expose as many rolls of film as possible, just to see if I knew how to load and use it. Loading a Noblex, forwarding the film and unloading it is a new and partially intimidating experience, especially if you don’t want to expose the film before or after making desired exposures. I was partially successful. There’s room for improvement. Three images using the Noblex in RECENTS / PANORAMIC FILM were made in California and another from earlier here at home. A fascinating old technology, the Noblex 150 camera has a rotating lens that creates a 150-degree panoramic on 120 film, check it out on line.
I've added some of a new series to RECENTS / SIX FEET OF SEPARATION. An ongoing project that documents the remnants of the separation, isolation and other measures we were asked to adhere to in public spaces. Like the pandemic itself, the quarantine and disruption of life are slowly disappearing. Before they dissolve altogether, I am searching for them or finding them as I move about my now, more normal life.
Another addition to RECENTS are photos made at LAKE SHASTA in northern California. I drive past Lake Shasta on every trip to California. The fall of 2021 the lake was unbelievably low and the orange soils exposed in the setting sun were breathtaking, in both the beauty of the scene and the tragic consequences of the driest years the state has known.
A series of photos I call STREET SEEN are now in RECENTS. I'm fascinated by the patterns and designs created by road workers spraying oil to fill cracks in streets here in Ashland. That series extended into the quarantine; my daily dog walk around the neighborhood was my only outing. On those outings I noticed that the black rubber of truck tires scraping on the yellow painted curbs made patterns I could see as abstract expressionist images. Street Seen now includes many other subjects, but all have been "seen" while I have been walking around town.
May 31st, 2022. My photo, Pastel House in Ashland that was selected for exhibit at Black Box Gallery has been added to About, Jurors Selections.
May 14, 2022. Denmark 1970-1972 Folio
I just rearranged and added photos to better represent the group titles and fill out the stories portrayed. Have a look and enjoy!
May 2, 2022. I finally have a better photo for my About page. Thanks to my good friend Dennis Scott..