Wood.
The
word brings with it many meanings. . . many feelings.
Strength.
Warmth. Structure. Character. Wisdom. Beauty.
It
has been used for many things since the birth of humankind.
.
. . as a tool, a means of survival and as an art form.
It
possesses an innate quality that separates itself from other materials.
As
a living entity, it has a soul - an essence - that continues to survive
long
after
its death. As long as it is being recognized, utilized and admired,
the
spirit of wood continues throughout the ages. If forgotten or ignored,
it
rots and returns to the earth, beginning the process of life anew.
I pursued
these images of wood (trees, wood grain, barn wood and wooden
objects)
during the spring and summer of 2003 as a personal and artistic journey.
The
objects chose me.
There
is a spiritual connection between these diverse images.
The
stories and poems that accompany each
image
help guide the viewer on this journey.
Open
your eyes, and open your heart.
EXHIBITION
NOTES
The
images displayed in this online version of HEARTWOOD consist of a portion
of the main "gallery" exhibition.
The
original photographs were acquired using a Shen-Hao 4x5 large format wood
field camera, Rodenstock 135mm
lens,
TMAX 100 4x5" sheet film developed in D-76, printed on Oriental Seagull
exhibition fiber paper developed in a
custom
amidol-based paper developer, hand toned in a proprietary sepia/selenium
toner process.
The
negatives were printed using a process called "unsharp masking."
This involves creating a soft, fuzzy positive image
of
the original negative on another sheet of film, then printing the negative
(the original) and the positive (the mask) together
in
the enlarger. This process gives the artist an image that is sharper,
with more shadow detail and consistent contrast -
an
important tool that I use to ensure that the final output matches my pre-photograph
visualization.
ONLINE
VERSION NOTES
I
am always rather hesitant to place scanned images of my work on my (or
any other) website, Even using a high
quality
flatbed scanner, the images viewed by web visitors are only a reasonable
facsimile of an exhibition print.
In
particular, these scans from my large format negatives only display a fraction
of the emotional content of the original images.
The
online images, due to the scanning process and high compression, lack the
glow, warmth, sharpness
and
emotional content of the original images. The image is present, but
its soul is not.
I
invite you to view my prints in person, to feel the entire emotional journey
intended.
FEEDBACK
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invite you to share your comments and feelings about this online exhibition.
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