Salvador Dali on the Human Condition

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Troy Paiva’s Night Photography

via Troy Paiva’s Night Photography Reveals a Lost America|CNN

Since the 1970’s, fine-art photographer Troy Paiva has been exploring junkyards and ghost towns. After a night photography class in 1989, Paiva said he knew he wanted to connect a sparsely lit style with abandoned lots. He bought his first “real camera” and went to work.

Using subjects in junkyards or abandoned mines in California nad Nevada means Paiva has to pack smart. He uses only hand-held lights to brighten the darkness.

The process starts with moonlight pouring onto a vehicle long forgotten by its owner. Paiva turns his flashlights, strobe light, lighting gel and camera toward the abandoned car. A long exposure captures the mix of colorful artificial lighting and natural light.

and while he hasn’t run into any zombies, ghosts or aliens, there is potential danger at every site, he said, including poisonous insects and drunken teenagers.

With photographer Joe Reifer, Paiva rents a desert junkyard for a weekend to expose students to night photography.

“You’re not taking pictures,” he said. “You’re making them. It’s quite addicting.”

reprised from article by Elizabeth I. Johnson, CNN
find more about Troy Paiva’s fine art photography

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Sandias Twilight painting

Sandias Twilight by Kim Borchardt

The American Southwest landscape has always appealed to me. The play of light as sun and shadows pass over the contrasting textures provides new inspiration every time. This is an 18″ X 24″ piece.

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Van Gogh’s shabby chic

Vincent van Gogh probably would have appreciated today’s “grunge” look. Teens carefully contrive to look cool and casual, by actively choosing garments such as stonewashed jeans and cutoffs, with exposed seams and ragged edges… The style even has a name, “shabby chic”. Ironically, mimicking the authenticity of bumhood, can cost just as much as a pristine wardrobe.

Van Gogh’s journals and letters reveal that his family was concerned about his appearance and how “shabby” were his clothes at the time. But he cared more about the art than the outward signs of success. In fact he thought it ironic himself, and explained,

This is the way I expressed myself to Father. I noticed that people talked about the strange and unaccountable fact that I was so hard up, although I belonged to such and such a family. I replied that I thought it was only temporary, and would come right after a time….What you say is true, financial questions have either advanced or handicapped many people in the world. It is so, and Bernard Palissy’s saying remains true, “Poverty prevents the good spirits from arriving.”

Poor Van Gogh, content to wear, “two workmen’s suits of rough black velvet, of that material known as veloutine. It looks well, and one can wear it everywhere…”

Apparently Van gogh’s parents were somewhat concerned, enough to ask his brother Theo in a note,

We have improved his appearance a little bit with the help of the best tailor from Breda. Would you be so kind as to do another work of mercy and have his chevelure metamorphosed by a clever hairdresser – here in Etten we don’t have such people. I suppose a barber of The Hague might be able to do something about it, therefore try to coax him into coming with you to one.

 

As they say, clothes make the man. Everyone could benefit from having their “chevelure metamorphosed by a clever hairdresser”, lol… What could Vincent van Gogh achieved if he had been dressed in Ives St. Laurent…? Vincent’s journals are worth a look.

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Between Disney and Dali

Today I discovered the work of Inka Essenhigh, a fine artist whose work encompasses elements of Salvador Dali, Dr. Seuss, Japanese woodblock prints, and fractals, in its design.

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art pages

Gene Matras pen and ink illustration work

Aphelion Art scratchboard works by Cathy Sheeter

3Kicks Fine Art Studios by Matt Marchant

“morning drawings” by Gabriela Vainsencher

“One hundred awesome paintings in one year” by Anna Judd

Julia Sverchuk’s line drawings

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