Our House-DAC In January 2009 I had two of my photographs shown in the “Our House” exhibition at the Durham Arts Council. Venice Hospital, Venice and Chenonceaux Chateau, Loire Valley, France DECEMBER 19, 2008 – FEBRUARY 15, 2009 OUR HOUSE Works by DAC Board, Staff, Faculty and Students Semans Gallery Public is Invited to a FREE Artists’ Reception, part of Downtown Durham’s Third Friday : Friday, December 19, 2008, 5-7...

Visual Art Exchange I submitted two pieces of artwork for the “Unfettered” exhibition at the Visual Art Exchange, in Downtown Raleigh, April 6-24. The one that was accepted was my Acorn Attic Antiques photo (left), taken in Wilmington. When I saw the dolphin, I was reminded of  William Eggleston’s tricycle image. It took me a long time to learn to appreciate his work because it is so stark and dispassionate. So it is a bit ironic that my first-ever photo accepted into a significantly competitive show was inspired by Eggleston, and is not very indicative of the majority of my...

From 2008-2009 I was in two different studios in the Carter Building and was  open for most First Friday art walks before I decided to design, build and move to a home studio. However, I am still very much a part of the Carter Building community and now manage the  Carter Building...

Breaking Free, Linoleum Cut Print, Edition of 20, $50 unframed. Breaking free was inspired by Picasso and the German Expressionists and was selected for inclusion in the Emulous Exhibition at the Visual Art Exchange, in Raleigh. Exhibition details: Emulous (desirous of equaling or excelling) June 6-27, 2008 First Friday Reception: June 6, 6-9pm This exhibition will be filled with the work of famous artists – recreated by local artists. A tradition in formal art training, reproducing the work of masters is a great way to learn their technique. Artists can mimic an existing work or create original...

When I lived in England I tried to see as many exhibitions as possible. These visits were very formative and have substantially affected my visual arts career. I have only had time to start writing my thoughts on the first two listed. Check back from time to time as I continue to post drawings and reviews. England Citizens and Kings: Portraits in the Age of Revolution, 1760—1830 |Royal Academy of Arts | This was a very difficult show for me to absorb. Quite simply, I was overwhelmed by the volume of works on display; it was a huge collection, I only had an hour and It was quite crowded the day I...

Winslow Homer was a “Yankee to the bone,” during a time when all of America was falling in love with the European aesthetic. American society during the post-Civil-War industrial boom was war-weary and wanted to forget about home for a while so they found solace in European Old World art and architecture. Whistler became an expatriate and America artists followed him en masse. Sargent became the darling of the wealthy on both sides of the Atlantic, but on their return, many American artists could not sell their European style paintings because the wealthy wanted to buy only from authentic...

large edited image | large unedited image | related: Abelardo Morell In my previous studio in the Carter Building in Downtown Raleigh I blocked out all my windows with black foam so I could also use it as a darkroom. In the middle of one of the south facing windows, I cut a little circle out of the foam core and then stuck in an old metal film canister open on each end. When I developed old-fashioned prints, and I needed it to be dark, I just pluged the hole. On bright days, when I turned out all of the lights and unpluged the hole, the room was transformed into a camera obscura and I could see a dim...

Pinhhole Photography, Second Edition Adventures with Pinhole and Home-Made Cameras Plastic Cameras: Toying with...

I have about 20 to 30 photobooks that I use for teaching purposes. Here are a few that I use to teach practice, theory composition and history. I cart these around to the various venues where I teach and make them available for student use during class. The Pencil of Nature (out of print) Eugene Atget (Aperture) Julia Margaret Cameron (Phaidon 55s) Alfred Stieglitz (Aperture Masters of Photography) James Vanderzee (Phaidon 55s) Henri Cartier-Bresson (Photofile) Walker Evans (Photofile) Koudelka Don McCullin (Photofile) Sabastian Salgado (Photofile) Witness in our Time: Working Lives of Documentary...

The Pencil of Nature, William Henry Fox Talbot The Pencil of Nature, in the words of its author, Henry Fox Talbot, was intended as “the first attempt to publish a series of plates or pictures wholly executed by the new art of Photogenic Drawing, without the aid whatever from the artist’s pencil.” Talbot went on to stress that the images were “depicted by optical and chemical means alone, without the aid of any one acquainted with the art of drawing.” The series was published in London between 1844 and 1846 in six separate fasicles. (The word is from the Latin facisculus...