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Posted on September 8, 2010

52 Miles
Michael Sebastian
September 8 –
  • A house and red fence with lawn and sidewalk.
  • two homes in the background of a tennis court.
    Hillcrest subdivision pool and playground area, dusk, 9/23/09
  • A lawn and walk to a row of houses.
  • The grass around a golf sandpit..
  • A coral colored house with a C on it in front of 7 bushes.
  • 3 trucks in front of a wall and sky.
  • A line of shopping carts in front of a store.
  • A tree in front of a fence with a street in front.
    New fence section, Springhurst Blvd, ca 1/2 mile north of Tinseltown Cinema, Louisville, 2/28/09.
  • A drain in a lawn.
    Summit Mall, Hurstbourne Lane at US 22, Louisville KY, 4/8/09
  • The sky and lawn with a soccer net.
  • sky and lawn with porto potties.
  • The street with home roofs peeking over.
  • A parking lot in front of a fence in front of a tree.
    Wal-Mart parking lot, Leonardwood Drive, Frankfort KY, ca. 7/10/09
  • A sky and a lawn.
  • A building behind a fence behind a parking lot.
  • a street with two sides of the street with lawn and houses.
  • A truck drives down the street.

ARTIST’S STATEMENT

For the last six-odd years I’ve driven a 52-mile commute each way to and from my practice—from my suburban home, along a busy stretch of interstate highway through central Kentucky, to my workplace in a small city, and back again at day’s end. In 52 miles I am presented with a varying tableau of topographies and seasons—a natural landscape marked by the handiwork of people whom I rarely see. I pass homes small and large, modest and palatial; truck stops, quarries, and industrial sites; rural hamlets and suburban shopping malls. I’ve stopped frequently, time permitting; or returned at more leisure to photograph, with no clear plan other than taking a closer look.

I’ve been fascinated by the lines, shapes, angles, patterns, and colors I’ve observed, abstracted by the speed of my passage. These geometries and forms are the initial visual draw, but others emerge: a certain quality of light; an asymmetry or incongruity that jarringly halts one’s otherwise-frictionless survey of the scene. Or a landscape of such manicured plastic faux perfection that it discomfits with its suggestion of discontent among material abundance. The resulting images have provoked in me, variously, feelings of satisfaction, amusement, ambivalence, isolation, or even vague menace. Further, they have spurred me to examine the same themes beyond the littoral of the 52-mile visual river I travel. Banal or inconsequential? Inarguably yes, in many cases. But through six years of observation, one can’t help but take notice of the stuff of one’s own world, looking for the beautiful, logical, or meaningful that coexists with the banal or inconsequential. Finding that, and hoping to capture what I see somehow, is what makes me take the next exit ramp to somewhere little known, or return again and again to the same lonely (or familiar?) cul-de-sac.

www.michaelsebastian.com

BIOGRAPHY

Michael Sebastian was born in New Orleans, and grew up in Baton Rouge, Louisiana and Dallas, Texas. He starting making and developing photographs around age eight (thanks, Mr. Treat) using the Kodak Brownie of renowned “my-first-camera” cliché. Once its brittle Bakelite finally yielded to his ham-fisted ministrations, he graduated to an n-thhand Zeiss Ikon Contina with a broken light meter, which further disappointed him by failing to bounce resiliently from concrete. Nonplussed, Michael wound up graduating from medical school and two residencies, photographing all the while, with greater or lesser frequency, around life’s other obligations. Along the way, he married a Kentuckian and moved to Louisville to raise two children. When not shooting, he practices anesthesiology in central Kentucky, in roughly that order of precedence. Fortunately for both cameras and patients, he now drops things far less frequently.

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  • Shop
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Floor Plan

Amy Rindskopf's Terra Novus

At the market, I pick each one up, pulled in by the shapes as they sit together, waiting. I feel its heft in my hand, enjoy the textures of the skin or peel, and begin to look closer and closer. The patterns on each individual surface marks them as distinct. I push further still, discovering territory unseen by the casual observer, a new land. I am like a satellite orbiting a distant planet, taking the first-ever images of this newly envisioned place.

This project started as an homage to Edward Weston’s Pepper No. 30 (I am, ironically, allergic to peppers). As I looked for my subject matter at the market, I found that I wasn’t drawn to just one single fruit or vegetable. There were so many choices, appealing to both hand and eye. I decided to print in black and white to help make the images visually more about the shapes, and not about guessing which fruit is smoothest, which vegetable is greenest.

Artistic Purpose/Intent

Artistic Purpose/Intent

Tricia Gahagan

 

Photography has been paramount in my personal path of healing from disease and

connecting with consciousness. The intention of my work is to overcome the limits of the

mind and engage the spirit. Like a Zen koan, my images are paradoxes hidden in plain

sight. They are intended to be sat with meditatively, eventually revealing greater truths

about the world and about one’s self.

 

John Chervinsky’s photography is a testament to pensive work without simple answers;

it connects by encouraging discovery and altering perspectives. I see this scholarship

as a potential to continue his legacy and evolve the boundaries of how photography can

explore the human condition.

 

Growing my artistic skill and voice as an emerging photographer is critical, I see this as

a rare opportunity to strengthen my foundation and transition towards an established

and influential future. I am thirsty to engage viewers and provide a transformative

experience through my work. I have been honing my current project and building a plan

for its complete execution. The incredible Griffin community of mentors and the

generous funds would be instrumental for its development. I deeply recognize the

hallmark moment this could be for the introduction of the work. Thank you for providing

this incredible opportunity for budding visions and artists that know they have something

greater to share with the world.

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