I Still Have A Day Job

It’s been a few weeks since I have made a blog entry.  Priority things that maintain our home took all of the available minutes for a while – lots of things going on.  But this blog (and my art in general) is important to me so I figure out ways to make it happen.

Though they are few, I put a lot of effort into the actionable events I participate in.  I try to learn what I can do to make it as successful for me as possible.  I do those things that I have learned as best I can.  I say this because I still have a day Job – there is only so much time available to my artwork.  I’m married, we both work, we have kids in school, my oldest is in college, we divide the work (a lot of work) of maintaining our house, we have dogs, my mom lives with us, we have a horse, we have large extended families, we do stuff with our kids, etc.  So, when I say I still have a day job, it’s a bit more than just that.  It’s easy to see how I’m at the point now I can’t afford the time to watch TV anymore – well, save for watching Game of Thrones.

The next actionable event I’m participating in is just around the corner – the Palm Springs PhotoFestival.  I’ve been once before back in 2013 – I was still an undergrad at Cal State San Bernardino at the time, so we had the student discount working in our favor (there was a small group of us).  This event costs a good amount of money – especially if you’re participating in the photo review.  I guess it’s unfair to say I’m going to the festival – I’m going to the photo review.  I’m working on getting my work seen by people who may find it compelling enough to want to see it in a show or published.  That’s what the review is about for me.  And to get a critique of what I have done.  That is very helpful as well.  Ultimately, my goal is to work as an artist and earn as much as I do with my day job, so I don’t need my day job anymore.  Doing this photo review is working towards that end.

But part of the cost (like printing your edited portfolio) is having something to help your reviewer remember who you are.  And that is the purpose of this writing.  That and making a blog entry.

I’m making a small photo book give away for my reviewers.  I wanted to say something about the projects that I’ll be showing in the book as well.  They are my Motion Project, Juxtaposition Project, Kinetic Ambiguity Project, and Victor Valley Project.  I know that my art, my images, are just what someone is looking for.  I just have to find that someone.

Abandoned Places as Contemporary Fine Art

I created some new images this past Saturday (3/9/2019).  It always feels good working with my camera in hand.  I did a few different things but the major focus were a couple of abandoned places.  They were not really that far off the beaten path but abandoned just the same.  The thing that is intriguing for me is how this type of work can be fine art.  It’s tough wrapping my head around how we package our work and discuss it will impact how well received it may be in the world.  Or not even noticed.  If I were wealthy, would I still do this work?  Of course, I would!  It would take up a big chunk of my day unlike now where I try to squeeze it in where ever possible.  I’m a photographist, after all and this is what I live to do.

I find a peculiar strength of character in those places long abandoned – I want to know the story of these humble structures.  But most I will never know.  And there is a certain disjointed charm in that knowledge.  I think it motivates my approach to the subject and directs my composition to some extent.  That must be the source of the contemporary fine art in these abandoned places.  But I didn’t show you any of those here today.  You can see one on my Instagram but today I am showing you the view of the regal San Gabriel Mountains as seen from the Victor Valley.  Why this image and not one of the abandoned places?  I haven’t edited that crop sufficiently enough for blogging yet – I just wanted to talk about it.  But this one, taken on the same day, is ready. 

When I’m done with the image creation for the day and packing up my gear, I have a since of euneirophrenia that swarms through my thoughts – that feeling of, “I know I have a winner somewhere in that group”.  I think this one is a winner.

A Work in Progress

Well, I did it.  I opened my very own Etsy store.  It’s not the usual way they go on Etsy but it’s what I want to do.  Or should I say, it’s how I want to approach it. We’ll see how well it works.

I just have four items in the store right now but I will be adding to the store every week.  I also added my Etsy link on the right side of this blog with my other links.  I put on my Instagram page as well.  I suppose I should put in Facebook too but I rarely use Facebook anymore.  We’ll see.

This is pretty cool though.  And it’s step one in the plan.  We’ll see…

This image is a close up of what is at my Etsy store.

And this image is a close up of what is currently at my Etsy store also.

Essence of Art

I read an article on The Washington Free Beacon website titled, “Finding the Essence of Art

Review: ConstantinBrancusi Sculptures at the Museum of Modern Art”, by Emily Ferguson.  I bit and clicked on the article because of the title, “Finding the Essence of Art”.  Well, I’m always on the hunt to find a way to be showing my work in galleries and museums.  As I see it, of course knowing the essence of art will help me do that.  And this guy, Constantin Brancusi, had some cool pieces too – I remembered a couple from when I was an undergrad (work we discussed in a class).  I loved the very first sentence in the article, “Watching two people argue about art is like watching two people try to ice-skate uphill.”  I was like, “yup”.  The rest of the article was good but more review than finding essence really.  A good review though – better than the stuff I write and call a review.  But I did revisit some since of what has been bugging me ever since I changed majors back in 2012 to become an art major rather than a finance major.  I’m not on a quest to get rich – it’s why the finance major became a business minor.  All I really want to do is make a good living (like make what I make now in my non-art job) being an artist.  That’s all.  So, what’s been bugging me is selling my work or rather me not selling my work – this doesn’t go the way I want it to unless I’m selling my work.  Ok, you’re like, “what does this have to do with the article you read?”  You should read the article and gleam that for yourself.  It was interesting but this is not about that.  This is about art (pause) work.  I need to move the needle on sales so I can get to where I want to go with my art work.  Maybe chasing the gallery thing may not be for me.  I need my own customer list.  I need to control the promotion of my work.  I need to be in charge of the operation, the business, that I am pursuing. I need to figure out the essence of my grind, my hustle – how I should be putting in work.  I’m moving into a world where perceived value is viewed as actual value and I need to understand that and adjust accordingly.

I’m still doing the portfolio review at the Palm Springs Photo Festival in May though.  I’m just saying.

This is an example of AP print of the Window Pain series (yes, pain not pane), part of the Victor Valley Project.  It is a 13” x 13” chromogenic print, cross processed, medium format, matted in a 16” x 23” frame.  This will be for sell soon.

Brick and Mortar

So, I know where I’m going but I can’t work on it at the moment.  I’m on another mission at this time.  But that’s ok – I can still share with you these images from my Victor Valley Project.

H&A International

Downtown Victorville, on 7^th Street, is where H&A International used to be.  The building is still there but a new business has moved in.  That’s a good thing.  Change in the way of the community coming back.  It’s a long way to go but it’s the right direction.  But this is not about that.  I like this #image – its symmetry, its balance that is really asymmetrical, the colors, the over saturation of the colors, the use of the negative space – I like this image because I’m not finished with it.  I thought I was but realize that I’m not.  Truth be told, I want to see more than what we see at the moment because more is going on that what is seen.  And this is #California – so very much California but not the California known by most.  There is so much to see.

A Street and 7th

  I made this image of downtown Victorville back in August 2014 in the morning.  Photography is really a kind of therapeutic thing for me.  I don’t know if I’m mentally unstable or not (I don’t feel like I am) but I feel really good when I’m creating images.  It’s just something about #photography that challenges me to take what may pass as ordinary and to try to make it extraordinary.  I don’t think this image is that but that is always the goal.  But this image does is a part of my continuing Victor Valley Project and you can look as some older examples of that at my web site if you are so inclined.  Though not extraordinary, I think this is a strong image though.

The Objectivity Project Show

I've have fallen behind on my posting.  But there has been a lot going on.  Like this upcoming show - a lot of preparation.

43rd Annual Student Art Exhibition at CSUSB’s Robert and Frances Fullerton Museum of Art

Hey, I never mentioned this before but I won something.  I won the Phantom Purchase Award last month at our 43rd Annual Student Art Exhibition that was held at the Robert and Frances Fullerton Museum of Art (RAFFMA), which is located on the California State University, San Bernardino (CSUSB) campus.  The exhibition will run until the end of July.  Last year I took a lot of pictures of the exhibition but I did not do that this year.  I did take these two photos a few days after the show opening.  This was the first time I have every won something in connection with my photography.  It feels good.

I shot this with medium format color slide film then had it processed like it was print film.  That is called “cross process”.  And I really like how that looks.  I am going to do a lot more.  The print itself I called “Window Pains” because I did not have a name for it.  But Window Pains is the name of the subset of my main project, “The Victor Valley Project”.  Enjoy.

Burnt out in Apple Valley

On June 17, 2011, I was back at this burnt out place for another look.  I wanted to do a model shoot here.  A wanted a kind of contrast with beautiful (the model) and ugly.  But this place held more than that.  It represented yet again lost dreams and hopes of a family or of a person.  And it was also a testament to the people who inhabit the Victor Valley – people who maintain a ‘no matter what, we’re going to keep on moving forward’ attitude.  Well, that’s at least how I felt seeing this place.  I took some liberties with Photoshop on some of these too.  I just wanted to render a different feel.  I shot it all with my Canon PowerShot S5 IS.  For a “point and shoot”, that’s an awesome camera.  So, have a look.

Site Survey, Victorville, Part 2

Here I am in Victorville.  This was shot on June 4, 2011, the same day as the previous entry.   And a correction on the previous entry – that’s not Victorville, its Apple Valley.  But this entry is what we’re on.  Wow, I’ve been living here for almost a year now.  I like Victorville though; the air is a lot better and I’m back in the high desert.  Plus, something is happening here, a sort of regrowth.  It’s slow in the making but things are starting to happen.  This town is in the right place for the future.  The whole of the Victor Valley is, for that matter.  And I’ve been capturing parts of it.  But these are photos from last year (remember, I’m catching up to the present).  And again, I’m laying the ground work for my “Victor Valley Project” but I’m not aware of it at this time.  I call these survey shots for future projects.  This day was my first real Victorville/Victor Valley survey.  I have done many site surveys since these.  I have done quite a few actual photo shoots and project work too since then too.  I’ll be posting some of that in this blog too but these are from last June.  I shot it with my PowerShot A540 too.  Have a look.