Critic's Pick

Artist Statement
Evidence and Inhabitants Series
In 1972 I was watching the Fellini film Roma and was captivated by splashes of light involving sparks from a street car at night. It seems strange to me (almost absurd) that such a momentary scene became a motivation for an entire body of work that is interwoven throughout my artistic career. I call this series Evidence and Inhabitants. They are the evidence of places and people I can never fully remember, but manifest themselves in the photographs I make. Today, I am still discovering what this work reveals to me. It’s dark nature and surreal quality causes me to think that it constitutes a narrative about my subconscious life. I have always been interested in surreal art and this interest has caused me to be influenced by the photographic works of Manuel Alvarez Bravo, Clarence John Laughlin, Ralph Eugene Meatyard, and Frederick Sommer. Their work has inspired me to create the Evidence and Inhabitants pictures. I have been drawn to make these pictures in abandoned places and of inhabitants who might have or may still be living there. I search for the “evidence” of humans where very few humans currently reside. I am like an archaeologist sifting through a dream-like landscape trying to imagine what these people were like. – CJP

Bio
C. J. Pressma is a graduate of Antioch College and holds an M.F.A. in Photography from Indiana University. He studied as a special graduate student with Minor White at MIT and with Henry Holmes Smith at Indiana University. In 1970 he founded the Center for Photographic Studies – an alternative school of creative photography. The Center provided a full-time learning experience for those seeking to explore photography as creative expression. Its two galleries provided monthly photographic exhibits featuring the works of local, regional, and internationally acclaimed photographic artists such as Ansel Adams and Minor White.

In 1978 Pressma was awarded a National Endowment Fellowship in Photography. In 1979 Pressma embarked on a career as a multimedia producer and marketing communications specialist. In 1984, his seven part series Witness to the Holocaust, was released in the U.S. and Canada where it remains in distribution today. One of the first productions to use survivor interviews as the exclusive content to tell the story of the Holocaust, Witness to the Holocaust has received numerous national awards.

In December 2001 Pressma was awarded an Al Smith Fellowship by the Kentucky Arts council. Also In 2001 Pressma was selected as one of 84 artists worldwide for the landmark exhibition Digital Printmaking Now at the Brooklyn Museum of Art. Pressma’s career includes numerous solo and group exhibitions in the United States, Canada, and Ireland. His work is included in the collections of the Speed Art Museum, The University of Louisville’s Photographic Archive , and the National Gallery of Canada.  – CJP

Website

Lawrence Manning – Photographer
Griffin Museum of Photography – Critic

Artist Statement
My first trip to Southeast Asia in April 2018 found me attracted to the symbiotic life and culture of the rivers, lakes, and ocean bays of Vietnam and Cambodia. I have been rendering these captures  mostly as references or sketches to create dreamy, evocative spaces and places that transform the viewers sense of location and reality. Anonymity and references to painting are important to the mood I am attempting to convey. The alterations and enhancements, the manipulations of color and form add to the emotional response I am seeking from the viewer. There is often no consideration to reveal the content as it was.

This approach has carried over to a body of evolving work “Murder,” a yearly  annoying  invasion of crows in the town where I live, into an artistic, whimsical body of work. (A flock of crows is referred to as a “murder.” )

With my discovery of Instagram a year ago,   I have been excited to dig deeper into the art/photo universe and I gratefully receive inspiration on a daily basis from other artists who excite me. My Instagram presence features many of the subjects I love.

Bio
Lawrence Manning’s personal and professional goals and life changed when he served as a Peace Corps English teacher and independent educational media consultant in Africa from 1969 through 1976. Not only did his entire global view and perception shift, but he passionately  fell in love with taking pictures. 

In 1976 he returned to the United States and was fortunate to be hired as a staff photographer at a fortune 500 company. He learned a great deal of his craft and knowledge while on the job making technical images as well as working with portraiture and journalistic news within the company.

By 1983 he opened his own freelance business and became intensely involved and  invested in the early days of stock photography while pursuing commercial work.  This business eventually evolved into Hill Street Studios, a full time commercial media production studio.

In 2004, HSS with 21 other major producers of stock imagery formed Blend Images, the first stock agency dedicated to producing ethnic business and lifestyle imagery. His commercial and stock   images have appeared virtually everywhere in the world from small marketing campaigns to large scale advertising campaigns. 

By 2016, the photography world had changed. With the evolution of the internet, the ubiquity of everyone being a photographer, and the saturation of stock photography, business declined and  he began to seek projects that would challenge his creative needs, to give himself assignments and challenges,  and  commit his time and passion to creating a new more individualistic artistic style.

In the past two years he has seriously been experimenting, altering, and enhancing his images in post production and the production of art prints. His art often is an enhancement of what might be termed “street photography” to more dreamlike impressions with a painterly look.

Instagram

Website

Artist – Kevin Hoth

Critic – Griffin Museum of Photography

Artist Statement for Everywhere And All At Once
Ansel Adams said–somewhat cheekily–the hardest part of photography is knowing where to stand. This is
essentially an acknowledgement of the importance of the camera’s coordinates in space or the vantage point of the maker. I use a mirror within the landscape as a way to combine two vantage points – in front and behind me – in one frame. Representation of photographic seeing tends to be from one vantage point or coordinate in space – you extend a ray from your eye to the scene. I’ve often felt this is a representational limitation since what we may experience as seeing is a three dimensional, multi-sensorial experience. By creating images that combine multiple scenes–albeit from the same vantage point–my aim is to create a two-dimensional image that evokes a more whole representation of seeing. The series locked into place when I realized I could line up horizon lines from these multiple spaces or line up objects–clouds and rocky peaks, for instance–to unify different spaces within the singular frame. Though the idea of landscape may carry with it certain metaphors, I use the landscape as a sort of blank canvas or background layer (to use the language of Photoshop) devoid of social cues or commercial symbols. I use a circular mirror as a reference to the shape of the eyeball and to the fact that all images — whether formed in the brain or projected onto the capture plane — are created optically as true circles. -KH

Bio
Kevin Hoth is a photographer whose work focuses on three distinct areas: the manner in which multiple spaces can be formed into a singular frame, how emptiness can be visualized and depicted, and how meaning is ascribed in photographic representations. Kevin’s work has been shown in over eighty exhibitions nationally and internationally including most recently at Walker Fine Art (Denver, CO), The Houston Center for Photography, The Center For Fine Art Photography (Fort Collins, CO), The Colorado Photographic Arts Center (Denver, CO), and online in Humble Arts Foundation New York’s Year In Reverse. Fraction magazine also recently featured his portfolio Everywhere And All At Once in Issue 105. Kevin has made photographic work for over twenty years spanning diverse processes such as polaroid manipulations, digital manipulations, film photography, and video installation art. Funfacts: He did a stint as a full-time graphic designer for Amazon.com, made an interactive garment way back in 2006, and played bass in a Seattle band during grad school that did a studio gig at KEXP-FM. Kevin was born and raised in Wisconsin, but has lived in Spain, Nantucket, Georgia, South Carolina, Utah, New Mexico, and regular Mexico. Kevin has taught graphic design, multimedia art, and photography at numerous universities and currently teaches in the Technology, Arts and Media Program at the University of Colorado Boulder. He lives with his daughter Anya in Boulder, CO and gets regularly woken up by coyote cries, owl hoots, and horse whinnies.

Curriculum Vitae
Kevin Hoth lives and works in Boulder, CO
He is represented by Walker Fine Art, CO

Education
University of Washington, M.F.A. Photography, Seattle, WA (1999)
University of Wisconsin. B.S. Art, Madison, WI (1994)

 Select Exhibitions (Photography unless otherwise noted)
* Indicates Solo Shows

**Indicates Two-person Shows

Year In Reverse. Humble Arts Foundation. http://hafny.org/ (2018)

Members Juried Show. Houston Center for Photography. Houston, TX. Juror: Rebecca Senf of the Center for Creative Photography (2017)

Juried Members Show 2017. Colorado Photographic Arts Center. Denver, CO. Juror: Rebecca Robertson, Photo Editor PDN/Photo District News (2017)

Landscape 2017: Center for Fine Art Photography. Fort Collins, CO. Juror: Lisa Holpe of Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (2017)

Flipside: An Alt Angle to Photo Processes. Art Students League of Denver. Denver, CO. Juror: Samantha Johnston, Director, Colorado Photographic Arts Center (2017)

Postcards From El Camino Real, Wonder Press, Boulder, CO (2016)

Ice. 530 Gallery, 530 Santa Fe Drive, Denver, CO* (2016)

Postcards From El Camino Real. Charleston Music Hall, Charleston, SC* (2015)

Mobiles – Madelife, Boulder, CO* (2013)

Emptiness and Presence – Steel Wool Gallery, Denver, CO* (2012)

iWorld – Colorado Photographic Art Center, Lakewood, CO (2012)

Month of Photography – Faculty Show, The Art Institute of Colorado, Denver, CO (2011)

Members Juried Show – Colorado Photographic Art Center, Denver, CO (2011)

Mid-Winter Digital Art Show – Boulder Digital Arts, Boulder, CO (2011)

Under The Influence – Faculty Show – Rocky Mountain College of Art and Design, Lakewood, CO (2010)

Recent Work – The Art Institute of Charleston, Charleston, SC* (2009)

Faculty Show – The Art Institute of Charleston, Charleston, SC (2009)

Recent Work – The Art Institute of Charleston, Charleston, SC** (2008)

The Imagist – Rebekah Jacob Gallery, Charleston, SC (2008)

The Other Side – Robert Lange Studios, Charleston, SC (2007)

iShow – Modernisme Gallery, Charleston, SC (2007)

Reorientation II – REDUX Contemporary Art Center. Charleston, SC (2007)

The Changing Face of Charleston – City Gallery at Waterfront Park, Charleston, SC (2007)

Animal Time – REDUX Contemporary Art Center, Charleston, SC* (2006)

Piece, Out – Chase St. Warehouse, Athens, GA* (2005)

HeadSpinning – Lyndon House Arts Center, Athens, GA. Group show of artwork made for music packaging with designer for music acts such as REM, Drive-by Truckers (2005)

Embedded: Living With Technology – ATHICA, Athens, GA. Interactive sound garment (2005)

SOUTHWorks Annual Juried Show – Oconee Cultural Arts Foundation, Watkinsville, GA. Merit Award (2005)

Bodies in Crisis – ATHICA, Athens, GA. Video piece (2005)

Regime Change V.4 – Virtual art at athica.org. online video piece Casualties of War (2004)

Tips on Running An Orderly Household: The Big Hole Under My House. RELATIVE: Photographing Domesticity ATHICA Gallery, Athens, GA. html piece (2004)

Shoreline Drift – Redux Studios, Charleston, SC. Video projections (2003)

28th Annual Lyndon House Juried Exhibition – Lyndon House Arts Center, Athens, GA. (2003)

Product: Comments on Consumer Culture – ATHICA, Athens, GA. Digital audio piece (2003)

Make Alias: Orange Man – The Grit, Athens, GA* (2000)

Las Afueras de Oaxaca (The Outskirts of Oaxaca) – The Photographic Center Northwest. Seattle, WA.* (1999)

Publications
Fraction Magazine: Issue 105 – Portfolio Showcase (2017)

Fraction Magazine: Issue 98. http://www.fractionmagazine.com/issue-98 (2017)

Resist. Ello, Not For Print Issue No. 2. Ello.co/notforprint (2017)

Future Isms. Humble Arts Foundation. http://hafny.org/group-show-51-future-isms (2016)

Winter Pictures. Humble Arts Foundation. http://hafny.org/group-show-48-winter-pictures/ (2016)

100 Mile Radius Landscape Photography Competition. One of ten international

finalists. http://www.100mileradius.info (2015)

Colab – Autos. Terratory Journal. http://www.terratory.org/collaboration/#/autos/ (2015)

Video Screenings & Collaborations
Unfolding – Eye Level Art, Charleston, SC. Video / dance collaboration (2009)

w/ The Charleston Symphony Orchestra. Aaron Copland Opera. (2008)

The Gibbes Museum, Charleston, SC. (2007)

w/ Nomos String Trio – Halsey Institute for Contemporary Art, College of Charleston, Charleston, SC. (2007)

Handful Series – Canopy Studio, Athens, GA. Video piece for curated modern dance event (2005)

Cathode Ray Tube – Nuci’s Space, Athens, GA. One-hour video score mixed live with Jazz/Rock quartet accompaniment (2005)

Butterfly Effect 3 – Seney-Stovall Chapel. Athens, GA. Collaborations with composers. (2004)

Athens Film Festival and Music Video Showcase – Athens, GA (2004)

Spoleto Festival USA – Charleston, SC. Shoreline Drift video screened (2004)subMERGEd – Port City Center, Charleston, SC. Live Video Mixing Performance (2004)

Commandeering Spaces – City of Charleston, Charleston, SC. Video projection on downtown building (2004)

Once Twice Festival – The Johns Hopkins Digital Media Center, Johns Hopkins University. Baltimore,MD. (2004)

Bellevue Art Museum Film and Video Festival – Bellevue Art Museum, Bellevue, WA. Video The Body Photographs screened (1999)

The Butterfly Effect 2 – Seney-Stovall Chapel, Athens, GA. Video Projections for four new classical compositions performed live (2003)

Hyper-Caligari – LaGrange College, GA. Video for an electronic musical score by professor Mitch Turner (2003)

Crossover – Canopy Studio, Athens, GA. Video projections for a dance, visual, and music performance (2003)

Puzzle – School of Music, University of Georgia. Video projection piece for electronic musical score (2003)

Visceral: The Subjective Body – Looping BUTOH performance by WHITE CRANE STYLE at ATHICA (2003)

All Small – Eyedrum Gallery, Atlanta, GA. (2002)

New Season – Museum of New Art, Detroit, MI. Yard Work shown (2002)

The Butterfly Effect – Seney-Stovall Chapel, Athens, GA and Atlanta, GA. Two hour-long evenings of new classical composers performing alongside my original video work. (2002)

Looping BUTOH – Electric Performance Night, Eyedrum Gallery, Atlanta, GA. Collaborative performance as White Crane Style (2002)

Japancakes – Nuçi’s Space. Athens, GA. 60-minute video projection for the band Japancakes (2001)

TOG – New Media Institute. Athens, GA. Video accompaniment to live webcast of Powerbook audio duo (2001)

New Music & Dance: Movement + Sound / Composition + Abstraction – Roger Dancz performance hall, School of Music, UGA, and Ballroom Studios, Atlanta, GA. (2001)

Film and Video Festival – Plan B Evolving Arts, Santa Fé, New Mexico. Video piece screened (2001)

TOG – X-ray Café, Athens, GA. Video Performance with laptop music duo (2001)

The Orng Drum – Eclectic Electric, Lyndon House Arts Center, Athens, GA. Self-produced video, movement and sound piece with live musical accompaniment (2001)

Performances
Pecha Kucha – Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art, Boulder, CO (2010)

Slideluck Potshow – Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art, Boulder, CO (2010)

Knee Jerk: A History – ATHICA, Athens, GA. Solo slideshow performance (2005)

Tips on Running An Orderly Household: The Big Hole Under My House – Solo slideshow performance for RELATIVE: Photographing Domesticity ATHICA Gallery, Athens, GA. (2004)

LANGUAGE HARM – Atlanta Poets Group at Eyedrum Gallery. Atlanta, GA. Solo performance with video (2004)

Tips on Running an Orderly Household (The Big Hole Under My House) – INFO DEMO #5, ArtSpot,Atlanta, GA. Solo slideshow performance (2003)

How to Get That Old-Timey Feeling – ATHICA, Athens, GA. Solo slideshow performance at ATHICA for the closing reception of Visceral: The Internal Body (2002)

My Acne – ATHICA, Athens, GA. Solo slideshow performance for Visceral: The Subjective Body (2002)

How to Talk to Small Children – ArtSpot, Atlanta, GA. Solo slideshow performance (2002)

How to Get That Old-timey Feeling – ArtSpot, Atlanta, GA. Solo slideshow performance (2002)

My Acne – Eyedrum, Atlanta, GA. Solo slideshow performance (2002)

Verge vs. The Orange Man – 10th Annual Mental Health Benefit. School of Music, University of Georgia. Athens, GA. Collaborative performance with modern dance company (2000)

Relevant Professional Experience
Instructor (August 2014 – Currently)

Technology, Arts & Media Program, ATLAS Institute, The University of Colorado, Boulder, CO. As fulltime Faculty, I have developed and taught our new IMAGE curriculum (Photography and Digital Image making, critical evaluation, and theory) as we have become a Major (previously a Certificate and Minor program). I oversee three adjunct instructors and make sure they are following my curriculum as well as collaborating with me on developing course content. I also teach my course Alternative Digital Imaging and my newest course Video Art Installation.

Freelance Photographer / Videographer (1999—Currently)

Self-employed freelance work in commercial photography, digital imaging, video production.

Lecturer (January 2011 – August 2014)
Technology, Arts & Media Program, ATLAS Institute, The University of Colorado, Boulder, CO. Teaching Digital Media 1 courses covering html, css, Dreamweaver, Photoshop, GarageBand, Final Cut Pro, and After Effects. I also teach Fundamentals of Digital Design (the history and practice of graphic design) and my new course Alternative Digital Imaging (a blend of analog and digital image making within an experimental context).

Photography Instructor (Fall semester 2011)
Photography 2/3/4 – Advanced Traditional Black and White Photography. Naropa University. Boulder,CO

Photography Faculty (June 2010 – May 2011)
Photography Dept., The Art Institute of Colorado, Denver, CO. Teaching Digital Photographic Illustration 2, Web Portfolio2, Principles of Digital Photography.

Adjunct Motion Design Instructor (May 2010 – August 2010)
Taught video editing with Final Cut Pro. Communications Design Dept., Rocky Mountain College of Art & Design, Lakewood, CO

Photography Faculty (April 2007—December 2009)
The Art Institute of Charleston, Charleston, SC. As adjunct professor, teach core courses in Photography and digital imaging, studio, lighting, and fine art photography. I was responsible for designing my own course outlines and syllabi, creating relevant class projects and writing and coordinating exams. During this time teaching I continued to do my own independent research including gallery exhibition and related freelance commercial work.

Related Activities
(2017) Curator – Student Work from TAM for Month of Photography 2017. ATLAS Institute, Universityof Colorado, Boulder, CO

(2015) Curator, The End of Light exhibition. Month of Photography 2015 Show. Madelife, Boulder, CO

(2013) Guest Panel – Advanced Studio Arts Final Critique. Naropa University, Boulder, CO

(2013) Guest Portfolio Reviewer. American Institute of Student Architects. University of Colorado, Boulder, CO

(2012) Contributing Cinematographer – TINY: A Story About Living Small (http://tiny-themovie.com/) Documentary film, which premiered at SXSW in the spring of 2012 and has shown and continues to be shown at many film festivals across the country

(2010, 2011) Guest Artist – Visual Arts Department. Naropa University, Boulder, CO

(2008) Panelist, Creatives in the Commercial World, Think-Tech Conference, Trident Tech, North Charleston, SC

(2008) Judge, City Paper Annual Photography Contest

(2008) Guest Speaker, Alterman Studios, January

(2007) Guest Speaker for Visual and Computational Thinking, College of Charleston Art History Department

(2007) Discussion Moderator and Panelist, iShow: You Are Where, Modernisme Gallery

(2006-2007) Board Member, REDUX Contemporary Art Center

(2006) Panelist, Contemporary Art & Business, REDUX Contemporary Art Center

(2006) Guest Speaker for Contemporary Art course, College of Charleston Art History Department

(2005) Panelist, Embedded: Living with Technology, ATHICA, Athens, GA.

Website

artrəˈbyo͞oSH(ə)n/
Made up noun by the curator.

Overarching Idea
The action of regarding something (in a photograph) as referencing an art piece, art medium, art form, art style, movement or artist. Made up definition by the curator.

Grace Weston – In our on-line gallery selections from Short Stories/Tall Tales

Artist Statement
In this ongoing series, “Short Stories/Tall Tales,” the artwork addresses anxieties common to adulthood through child-like fantasy scenes. The use of miniature characters, constructed sets and vivid colors allows Weston to play with weighty issues in a lighter way. The selections for Art·tri·bu·tion from Short Stories/Tall Tales either have references to an artist, art piece(s) or art style or movement.

Grace Weston Biography
Grace Weston creates narrative photography in her studio with staged vignettes that combine humor with psychological themes. A 2015 Artist Trust Fellowship Award recipient (Washington), Grace was nominated in both 2014 and 2012 for Portland Art Museum’s Contemporary Northwest Art Awards. In 2012, her work was received with acclaim in her first European solo show at Paci Contemporary in Brescia, Italy. Grace received honorable mentions in the International Kontinent Awards 2013 and Center Forward 2013. She was a finalist in PhotoEspana’s Descubrimientos 2009 and one of the Whatcom Museum (Washington) 2008 Photography Biennial’s “Nine to Watch”. The Oregon Arts Commission honored Grace with an Individual Artist’s Fellowship in 2006. Public collections include those of the Portland Art Museum, University of Oregon, Seattle Public Utilities Portable Artworks Collection, Photographic Center Northwest, Portland Community College, 4 Culture King County, and the City of Seattle. She has exhibited widely in the United States, as well as in Europe and Scandinavia. Her work has been featured in print magazines in Italy, Spain, China, and the Netherlands, as well as on many international online magazines. Grace’s work is included in the book Microworlds, published in 2011 by Laurence King Publishing (UK).

Grace has also been commissioned to create her unique style of staged narrative photography in the editorial world, illustrating writings in “O the Oprah Magazine” and “Discover Magazine”, and creating the cover imagery for CDs, books and several city magazines, including “Portland Monthly”, “Seattle Metropolitan”, and “Pittsburgh Magazine”.  In July 2013, Seattle’s weekly paper The Stranger featured one of her images as the cover.

Gallery representation includes Paci Contemporary (Brescia, Italy), Wall Space Gallery (Santa Barbara, CA), and on-line through Photo-Eye’s Photographer’s Showcase (Santa Fe, NM).

Statement for Tidelines
At the confluence of the Atlantic Ocean and Nauset Inlet at ebb tide on the Outer Cape, the outgoing tide stencils mountain ranges and deserts on the sand, leaving strands of sea weed and small stones scattered in its wake. Just after sunrise or in the gloaming, the sky creates mountains of its own. It is the world transforming itself into other realities, every day, again and again, each day different from the last. It is a continual and endless re-creation of the world at low tide.

I return to this land where the tide washes ashore every day and night, sweeping wide the sand between the marsh and dune. It is a challenge to return again and again to find the familiar landscape utterly remade. I am unable to preserve these ephemeral displays except by taking note and watching. Perspective challenges the eye to make sense of scale and of everyday familiar shapes that have been distorted by the tide.

– Vivien Goldman

Bio
Vivien Goldman is a fine art photographer who lives in Brookline, MA and spends much of the year on Cape Cod photographing. She began her career as a large format black & white photographer, and several years ago incorporated color and digital technology into her practice. She has exhibited her work in group and solo shows nationally and internationally including the 4th Biennial of Fine Art and Documentary Photography in Berlin, Germany; the New York Photo Festival, PRC in NYC exhibition in Brooklyn, NY, and the Danforth Museum’s Community of Artists annual exhibition in Framingham, MA. She has had solo exhibitions of her work at Hebrew College and the Boston Psychoanalytic Society and Institute in Newton, MA. Her work has been exhibited at PhotoPlace Gallery and Darkroom Gallery in Vermont, and she was a finalist in the 7th and 8th Annual Julia Margaret Cameron Competitions of Women Photographers.

Vivien was a Project Manager for International Development Projects at the Harvard Institute for International Development before going back to graduate school and earning an MLIS at Simmons College with a major in photographic archives.  She has studied photography at the Maine Media Workshop, the New England School of Photography, and attended numerous workshops on the zone system, darkroom and alternative processes.

Website

Artist Statement
My current work started as an archival exercise, isolating and distilling the cultural messages packed into the pages of American mail-order catalogs, with a sharp focus on popular portrayals of women. Over the past three years, I’ve created two distinct yet related series of portraits from these catalogs. My collage portraits are hand-cut from the original 1940’s catalog pages, and feature reworked fashion models as super-heroines and goddesses. My image transfer portraits incorporate elements of collage, photography, and calligraphy, and depict women from 1970’s bra ads as fierce deities, and 1940’s models as compassionate ones. As a unified body of work, this collection of contemporary portraiture combines a documentation of popular representations of women in advertising with an attempt to obliterate the collective meaning of this representation.

My academic background is in Religious Studies, with a Buddhism and Art concentration. My art reconciles this background with my interest in the effects of popular culture on feminine identity. In school, I was most influenced by my study of Zen painting and calligraphy and Japanese woodblock prints. Along with my preference for paper, the aesthetic of my portraits is largely informed by my interest in the art of Japan, including my use of negative space and the way I sign my pieces with a red ink seal. Also, the expressiveness of the eroded edges of my image transfers recalls brushstrokes in Japanese ink painting and calligraphy. Currently, as a professor of World Religions, I have a renewed interest in Hindu imagery, especially depictions of female deities. I notice parallels between the poses, gazes, and hand gestures of fashion models in advertising and deities in Buddhist and Hindu art. As a result, the way I combine religious imagery with commercial images of women, creates a pantheon of sorts. The women featured in my work strike me as familiar, but with a difference; they stand out to me because I see something out of the ordinary in them. After years of working with these catalogs, I’ve developed an emotional relationship with the models, many of whom reappear in the catalogs year after year. I see in their poses a dignity and strength that stands in sharp contrast to contemporary representations of women in advertising. My impulse is to reinterpret their roles as divine beings, thereby activating a subjectivity that the original context of these images obscures.

This transformation of image and meaning offers the viewer an opportunity for a shift in perspective. Through collage and image transfer, I layer various materials and markings, like old paper, fingerprints, and gold rings, suggesting that through a process of transformation, we may see more clearly the work of culture on women’s bodies. My work considers the influence of the exterior, projected feminine ideal on interior ideas of identity, and ways in which the values of the dominant culture are encoded in commercial images of women. I find that these models of femininity are worth another look to allow for other ways of seeing them.

Bio

Blythe King’s art reconciles her background in Religious Studies with her interest in the effects of popular culture on female identity. Featuring reworked images of fashion models from American mail-order catalogs from the 1940’s and 70’s, Blythe’s collage and image transfer portraits suggest that through a process of transformation, we may see more clearly the work of culture on women’s bodies.

In 2013, Blythe transitioned from owning and running a creative online retail business, working with vintage textiles, to a renewed dedication to her art practice, working with images of women from vintage catalogs. Since then, her work has been exhibited throughout Virginia, including the Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art, and nationally, including galleries and art centers in Pennsylvania, Illinois, Georgia, South Carolina, and Washington D.C.

Blythe was born in Pittsburgh, PA, and currently lives and works in Richmond, VA.

http://cargocollective.com/blytheking

Exhibitions

2017 New Waves 2017, Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art, Virginia Beach, VA

Other Worlds, SE Center for Photography, Greenville, SC

33rd Annual Juried Exhibit, National Collage Society, Union Street Gallery, Chicago Heights, IL

CHOP SHOP, Candela Gallery, Richmond, VA

Pieced Together, Sulphur Studios, Savannah, GA

Curriculum Lab, Studio Two Three, Richmond, VA

Work 2017, True F. Luck Gallery, Visual Arts Center, Richmond, VA

2016 Solo Exhibition, How to Take a Compliment, Richmond Public Library Main Branch, Richmond, VA

J. Sergeant Reynolds Community College Faculty Art Show, Richmond, VA

Bling it Out, Iridian Gallery at Diversity Richmond, Richmond, VA

Flesh + Bone II, Hillyer Art Space, Washington D.C.

Wings from Chains, Athenaeum Gallery, Northern Virginia Fine Arts Association (NVFAA), Alexandria, VA

Poetic Logic, Sweetwater Center for the Arts, Sewickley, PA

Trending: Contemporary Art Now!, Target Gallery/Torpedo Factory, Women’s

Caucus for Art (WCA) exhibition, Alexandria, VA

Within Reach, Artspace Gallery, Richmond, VA

Work 2016, True F. Luck Gallery, Visual Arts Center, Richmond, VA

2015 Refresh, Page Bond Gallery, Richmond, VA

Work 2015, True F. Luck Gallery, Visual Arts Center, Richmond, VA

2014 Undiscovered, Gallery Flux, Ashland, VA

Work 2014, True F. Luck Gallery, Visual Arts Center, Richmond, VA

2013 5th Annual Juried Art Show, Riverviews Artspace, Lynchburg, VA

Think Small 7, Artspace, Richmond, VA (Biennial International Miniature Invitational)

Devotion, Liz Afif Gallery, Philadelphia, PA

Abstraction and Reality, Fredericksburg Center for the Creative Arts (FCCA), Fredericksburg, VA

All Media Show, FCCA, Fredericksburg, VA

Radius 250, Artspace, Richmond, VA

All Media Show, Art Works, Richmond, VA

Fellowships/Awards

2016 Second Place Award, All Media Show, Crossroads Art Center, Richmond,VA

2013 Best in Show Award, All Media Show, Art Works, Richmond, VA

Honorable Mention Award, All Media Show, FCCA, Fredericksburg, VA

2000-03 Graduate School Fellowship Award, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO

1999 Outstanding Student of Art/Art History Award, University of Richmond, Richmond, VA

Publications

2017 6th International Photography Annual, Manifest Gallery (forthcoming)

2016 Trending: Contemporary Art Now!, Women’s Caucus for Art, CreateSpace

Independent Publishing Platform, p. 54, 2016.

Kolaj Magazine Issue #15, Spring 2016

Alexandria Quarterly Spring 2016 Issue

The Adroit Journal Summer 2016 Issue

Teaching Experience

2013- present Art Educator, The Visual Arts Center of Richmond, Richmond, VA

2013- present Adjunct Professor, J. Sargeant Reynolds Community College, Richmond, VA

2000-02 Graduate Teacher, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO

Education

2003 University of Colorado, Boulder, CO

M.A. Religious Studies, Buddhism and Art concentration, magna cum laude

1999 University of Richmond, Richmond, VA

B.A. Religious Studies and Studio Art, cum laude

Related Experience

2004-13 iSockits / blytheking.com, etsy.com/shop/blytheking

Founder of iSockits, an online retail business offering a line of fabric sleeves

made from repurposed materials and tailored to fit a range of personal electronic

devices. Featured in Macworld Magazine (January 2011), Frankie Magazine

(January 2011, August 2010), and Antigravity Magazine (May 2009)

 

Artist – J. Felice Boucher

Critic – Griffin Museum of Photography

Statement

The body of work “Wabi Sabi” is the earliest work of these images. It came about because of my interest in perfection and how the Japanese view and honor imperfection. “Wabi-sabi represents a comprehensive Japanese world view or aesthetic centered on the acceptance of transience and imperfection. The aesthetic is sometimes described as one of beauty that is “imperfect, impermanent, and incomplete .”*

The majority of people do not have symmetrical faces . So I began creating a new person by cutting and flipping the image so that I was using the same side of my model’s face for both sides which created a new person. However, in some of the images I started adding something that was not perfect or symmetrical.

The next body of work depicted in the slide show here are from “Deified.” These are my most recent work and are images created from a hodgepodge of interests; my love of light, design, graphics, faces, painting, etc. So created each image after being moved for different reasons; by the beautiful face of teller at a bank and asked her if she would model for me (Goddess), and then I ended up photographing her sister (Blue Scarf), or loving the wall paper made up of maps in an old sea captain’s house in Harpswell, Maine (The Map Room), or loving the profile of an amazing waitress I met at a restaurant (Artist’s Muse), or the grace of my son’s friends daughter (The Quiet Girl ), or the mysteriously beautiful woman who was the girlfriend of my neighbor (Cardinal Sin), or the quiet observing personality of my granddaughter (Blue Bird). So each time moved by something, somewhere, someone.

I named this body of work “Deified” because the women in the images have been transformed from mere mortals to goddess-like beings or deities…making them divine. I create these images for myself; my place of quiet…my form of mediating.

The last body of work shown here is “Animals.” These images followed “Wabi Sabi” and came about after reading a book on death and dying; Living Meaningfully, Dying Joyfully by Geshe Kelsang Gyatso. I wanted to create images of beauty and death.

felice at feliceboucher dot com
Brunswick , ME

* wikipedia

J. Felice Boucher CV

Select Recent Exhibitions & Publications & Awards

2016: Professional Photographers of America “International Diamond Photographer of

the Year”

2016: Canon Par Excellent Select Award ( One photographer in the country is chosen by

~International Canon to receive a $6000 camera)

2015: Professional Photographers of America “New England Photographer of the Year”

2016, 2015, 2014: Maine Professional Photographers Assoc. “Photographer of the Year”

2015: Professional Photographers of America, North East District, Highest Scoring Print

1Case, 1″ + 2″” Places in Portraits

2014: Professional Photographers of America, North East District, Highest Scoring Print,

only score of 100, “Canon Par Excellence Award” (Awarded $5000 of equipment)

2014 : Still Point Gallery, “Best of Show” Summer Issue

2014: Professional Women Photographers 39’• Anniversary Juried Show NY

2014: Professional Photographers of America, International Print Competition 2nd Place – portraits

2013: Professional Photographers of American Platinum Award

2012: Pace Galleries, F[Yeburg Academy, “Strangers & Others” Group Show

2012: March B+W Magazine, Special Color Juried Edition

2012: San Francisco International Photograph Juried Exhibit (only 40 images chosen

Internationally)

2012 : PhotoPiace, Middlebury, VT, “Poetic Objects” Juried Photography Show

2011: Professional Women Photographers 36th Anniversary Juried Show

2011: Photographers Master Cup, 5th Annual Photography International Awards

 

Education:

Professional Photographers of America; Masters, Craftsman, Certified

Maine College of Art; BFA

Aging Romania
Critic: Griffin Museum of Photography

Statement

Romania’s population is getting older with each generation. Economic instability and lack of job prospects have decreased the country’s birthrate and at the same time people simply live longer than they used to 100 or even 50 years ago. Romania’s aging population is a topic of public discussion but only in terms of money. Pension fund deficits are making news headlines at least twice a year within governmental budget decisions. Public policies regarding the elderly though are seldom thought of, let alone planned and approved by public authorities.

Is longevity a gift in Romania or rather a commodity that expires if people’s money run out?

About

Ioana Moldovan is a freelance photojournalist, documentary photographer and writer based in Bucharest, Romania. Her work has been published by The New York Times, Al Jazeera English, Huffington Post, LensCulture, Radio France Internationale and Vice among others. She has also worked on multimedia projects funded by the European Commission and Friedrich Ebert Foundation.

In 2016 she took part in the Eddie Adams Workshop and was awarded The Bill Eppridge Memorial Award for Excellence and Truth in Photographic Journalism. The U.S. Embassy in Bucharest presented her with the “Women of courage” award for outstanding achievement in highlighting truth through photojournalism.

Ioana Moldovan was one of the ten Eastern-European photographers selected for a Masterclass in Documentary Photography by the Dutch NOOR Photo Agency. Her photos have illustrated books, were shown in theatre shows, accompanied an international event at the Grand Palais Museum in Paris, France and some were selected in the Top 40 of The Most Powerful Photographs Ever Taken on BuzzFeed.

website: http://ioanamoldovan.com

Disturbing the Spirits

Trees teach us about belonging; they remind us that life doesn’t need permission to prevail. Trees are sanctuaries. If we listen closely, we can learn the ancient law of life. They are seen as powerful symbols of growth, decay and resurrection. They have played a prominent role in many folktales and legends and have been given deep and sacred meanings. But, a tree’s longevity can lull us into a false sense of immortality. It is this very impermanence that I long to understand through my photographic explorations. There is an ineffable natural beauty…. too great to be expressed or described in words

In this series I am using imagery to convey my “feelings” about the state of nature, the nature of trees, and how to express their connection to past, present and future. By obscuring a portion of the image through a veil, I strive to heighten the remaining reality through discovery and reflection.

Can Artists Heal Nature

As human actions impact the natural environment, can artists heal nature? Does art bring “special powers” to the table? If so, what are they? What is ‘art’? What is ‘nature’? What needs healing? What arrogance! Disturbing the Spirits deals with both reality and time (past/present/future) and my growing attachment to the healing powers of the natural environment. My life has taken a turn over the last four years. I returned to my place of birth in the US Midwest after leaving my home of 20 years. I left my California home with a range of emotions, from deep regret, loss and grief to longing and anticipation of what was to come; there is a new life brewing within.

I have been searching for meaning in my new life and have taken solace in the nature of this region…. its ever-changing seasons bring about an awareness of the fleetingness of life. I have an obsession with disappearance, of revealing only bits of reality and obscuring the rest through a veil of obscurity.

Ellen Jantzen

www.ellenjantzen.com

I was born and raised in St. Louis, but moved to California in 1990 to attend FIDM in downtown Los Angeles. Here, I obtained an advanced degree in Fashion in1992. After working at Mattel Toy Co. as a senior project designer, I became disillusioned with the corporate world. Having been trained in computer design while at Mattel, I continued my training using mostly Photoshop software.

As digital technology advanced and newer cameras were producing excellent resolution, I found my perfect medium. It was a true confluence of technological advancements and creative desire that culminated in my current body of work.

– Ellen Jantzen

Ellen Jantzen is represented by Susan Spiritus Gallery in Newport Beach, CA, Bruno David Gallery in St. Louis and Qlick Editions in Amsterdam.

Critic Statement

Elizabeth Stone’s imagery is a pursuit of observation, reflection and wonder. Diligent and patient she courageously lets her work lead her through discovery to understanding. We are the beneficiaries of her keen insights and meticulous unearthing of inscriptions in plain sight as she lends her viewer a breath-taking glimpse into the magnitude of the order of things. Like a Mary Oliver poem, an image composed by Stone, holds sacred secrets, a loving awareness of the infinity of the natural world and all creatures that move upon it. Stone reflects our place in the wild awe of it all.

The following compilation features work from four separate series; Positive/Negative, Making Tracks, At the Horizon,  and 40 Moons. Each full series is available to view at  http://www.elizabethstone.com.

Artist Bio

Elizabeth Stone is a Montana based visual artist whose work explores perception and mark making by combining her study of photography and drawing with biology and digital technology. The duality of art and science is a strong influence and she frequently looks to the natural environment as a point of departure when considering her own place  in the world and the marks she makes. Influenced by artists as diverse as Harry Callahan, Cy Twombly and Agnes Martin, she uses a strict practice to push what  is expected of the photographic medium.

Elizabeth’s studies of place and passage of time typically extends for years before she produces a

portfolio of limited edition prints. She is grateful for the many artist in residence fellowships that she has been awarded which provide her with concentrated focus for creating original work while engaging in stimulating intellectual dialog with other artists.

Critic Bio

Sybylla Smith is an independent curator, educator and consultant of fine art photography. Smith has curated over 25 solo and group exhibitions featuring work by 75 international photographers in exhibitions in Boston, New York, Mexico, and Columbia. As an adjunct professor, guest lecturer and thesis advisor Smith has taught at Emmanuel College, Hofstra University, Wellesley College, Snow College, Harvard University, School of the Museum of Fine Arts/Tufts and School of Visual Arts/New York. She teaches a unique curriculum focused on creativity and concept development for photographers. As a consultant to arts and educational organizations Smith recently worked with Lesley University College of Art and Design on developing and implementing event and educational programming for Irving Penn: Beyond Beauty, a traveling exhibition of 148 images originating from the Smithsonian Museum of American Art. Smith collaborates with individual photographers to edit, sequence and write about their work.