Scissored

Here's another image from my Phantoms series now on view at Art Sites in Riverhead thru August 7th. This Saturday I will be giving an artist talk at the gallery at 5:30 about my process and what inspired me to create these images. I hope those of you in the area can come!

This one called Scissored seems to be one of the favorites of the exhibition. It was taken at the Lincoln Road Mall in South Miami last February. I stationed myself in a particular spot where I had a view of the shoppers strolling by, then I watched and waited.

When this young phantom came along, I took notice. Her dark hair, glasses and trousers contrasted with the bright background. But it was her scissored arms and legs moving across the frame accentuated by a slow shutter speed that make her so dynamic.

Passerby

Here's another image from my Phantoms series on view now at Art Sites, 651 W. Main Street in Riverhead. I hope those of you not too far away can make it to the opening reception this Saturday evening, July 9th from 5 to 7 pm.

This phantom was taken in Miami on the strip in South Beach as I ate my breakfast and watched people pass by. And here's my artist statement which came out more like a poem about what inspired the series:

As I move through life, human beings seem to be disintegrating. I see a face here, hear a voice there, but then they're gone. Blurred, garbled, disjointed... they're all around me. Sometimes I see them, smell them, touch them, sometimes not. They walk by, sometimes we connect for a few moments, sometimes not. They are in my heart, my mind, but mostly on my phone and my computer. They pass by in cars, in the mall, in the park, on the street, sometimes not. They are living, breathing, moving past me, sometimes not. Perhaps they are phantoms, perhaps not.

Canopy

Around now we're all sick and tired of the winter. Enough already. It's so bad for me that I can't seem to find any inspiration to take photographs around here. I've covered the ice, the snow, even the train tracks. A week has gone by and I haven't taken one photo...

So today I decided instead of braving the cold and trying to overlook all the dirty snow that still lingers, I'd continue to reflect on the week of warmth in Florida (I've been back for only a week).

Here's an aluminum canopy framing the palm trees in a municipal square. While South Beach is known for its Art Deco architecture, there's also an abundance of contemporary sculpture that caught my eye. Many of the gates, doorways and public spaces are adorned with intricate metalwork bending in all directions.

For all its associations with the old and the infirm on the inside, I found Miami to be a place with a healthy appreciation of the new on the outside.

Escape

If you were wondering where I escaped and missed posting last week, the answer is Miami. Arriving on Super Bowl Sunday, I stayed right on the strip in South Beach in the heart of the Art Deco district across the street from the ocean. For the first few days, I wandered around in disbelief feeling guilty that my friends and family were home freezing. How could it be 80 degrees and sunny in this place when most of the country is covered by snow?

When I accepted my good fortune and let go of the guilt, I started to look around and appreciate the architecture and tropical colors. Since I was focusing on people on the street for another project, I hadn't taken any sightseeing photos. But on the last morning there, I spotted this Chevy BelAir parked in front of the Edison Hotel and raised my camera. Its canary yellow was a wonderful complement to the Wedgewood blue. If it wasn't for the motorcycle parked behind the car, you might think this image was taken in 1955 when this car came out, a year before I was born.