Glass That Shatters Its Surroundings

Here’s what’s called a multi-faceted octahedron crystal. A fan of Cubism, I like the way this crystal shatters boring surroundings, breaking them up into an unlimited number of angular shapes.

Sculptural Refraction

Venturing out on sunny days, I expect to shoot things like reflections in the windows of sky-rise commercial buildings downtown or abstractions seen on the surface of the nearby river. But, at a garage sale recently, in the midst of a jungle of goods, this tiny refraction through crystal caught my eye because I thought it looked sculptural. 

"Painterly"

“Painterly”

This 1927 oil painting, “Wee Annie Lavelle”, by Robert Henri caught my eye at the local Hunter Museum in Chattanooga, Tennessee. From a distance the right hand side of her face looked detailed. A close look reveals surprisingly large brush strokes. For me, this process has always seemed magical. 

While I was a student at Art Center College in the early 1970’s, our instructors Lorser Feitelson and Harry Carmean used the word “painterly” to describe the use of large brush strokes to enhance the illusion of detail as seen from a distance.

Street Portraits

Feeling stale, I decided to do something that makes me uncomfortable - taking portraits of strangers. To put myself at ease, I started up a conversation with a potential subject. Responses ranged from “Definitely not” to  “Well, OK” to “Sure, why not?” It helped if a subject wanted to joke around. I handed each a card with my email address on it, so that they could contact me for a copy of the shot.

         

“Lady Smoking”: she couldn’t understand why I wanted to photograph her. When I convinced her how eye-catching and interesting she appeared, she gave me a “Well, OK.’

“Two Retired Men”: These guys were a lot of fun. They gave me a “Sure, why not?”

If the effects of refracted, or bent, light isn’t surrealism, I don’t know what is. Refraction happens when light passes through a transparent material such as glass, which slows down the speed of light transmission, bending it in the process. And the shadows cast by the refracted light I think are equally as beautiful.

The two photos here are my studies of shadow patterns cast by the sun through a couple of wine glasses. In the video clip, I filmed a glass egg in front of my clip of a train yard. The egg’s fraction flipped the train yard upside down.

I think that the things that you photograph are like dreams in that they reveal unfulfilled wishes. On this particular day, I’d been trapped by a cold and long stretches of bed rest. Needing an escape that was more interesting than sleep, I was drawn to this puddle, which seemed to offer a way out, a portal to a more interesting world, at the very least.

For me, the news of Donald Trump’s election to the Presidency of the United States was so grim that I decided to protest on behalf of the Affordable Care Act, which seemed doomed to extinction. I joined demonstrations held by ACA Advocate in front of Courthouse in downtown Chattanooga, Tennessee.

Could I use art in the service of political advocacy?

Here’s my launch into street photography portraiture: Colleen Davis, volunteer roving photographer who demonstrates in various cities in Tennessee and in Washington, D.C., stands in front of the Courthouse.

In a hurry with a lot going on around us, I used my iPhone. The results were too dark to see her face clearly, so I opened the portrait in Photoshop where I used Adjustments to lighten and brighten, targeting her facial expression that I think shows determination along with a micro expression of anxiety.

My critique here is that the shot’s too much like others of its kind. I’m determined to make future portraits more original.