Worn Out Dream Pony, Montana 2012

I think the dream of a white picket fence kind of life grew old and died back about the time Leave It to Beaver left the air.]]>

Three Fallow Fields Bozeman, Montana 2012

Not really fields I guess, but garden plots in the community gardens around the corner from our house after yesterday’s modicum of new snow had been melting for a while. The different snow patterns are due to each plot owners unique way of tilling the soil after the harvest last fall. Originally I had these three images lined up side by side, the way the plots are actually arranged for real and also the way I prefer my triptychs in general. But in order to fit such a wide combined image on the blog page each individual shot had to be too small to appreciate very well, so I went with the vertical arrangement. Unless you think it was a stroke of compositional genius to line them up vertically; then it was a creative decision not a pragmatic one. :-)]]>

Back Door Tableau Three Forks, Montana 2012

The not-so-grand entrance to an old grain elevator in Three Forks. Tableau is my new grand name for photos that I can’t think of a better descriptor for. I think it will become a very useful weapon in my own personal art-speak arsenal. When I’m feeling really art-speaky I plan on using the more pretentious spelling “tableaux” although apparently that’s actually just the plural form of the word. But I think adding the x to the word makes it look ever so more exotic–worth a little singular-plural confusion don’t you think? And really, given the current apparent state of the art in artist’s statements, who’s going to really care? None of it seems to make any sense anyway. There, now I’m feeling better. I’ve been working on a proposal for an exhibit the last couple of days and have been struggling trying to write something I think will interest the potential curator but at the same time won’t feel embarrassed to have normal people read. I think I’m walking a dangerously fine and potentially self-destructive line between taking my photographs seriously but not their promotion. But I’ve always thought that if you can’t make your work tasks meaningful, at least make them a fun challenge. (Here’s hoping that curators are too busy to read artist blogs!)]]>

A Theory Shot Full of Holes Springhill, Montana 2012

God speed the plow…. By this wonderful provision, which is only man’s mastery over nature, the clouds are dispensing copious rains … [the plow] is the instrument which separates civilization from savagery; and converts a desert into a farm or garden…. To be more concise, Rain follows the plow.

 

 –Charles Dana Wilber

  This is the punchline to a now much discredited climate-change theory that lead to a good deal of unwarranted optimism in the homesteading of the Great Plains a.k.a. the Great American Desert in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and later to the creation of a great number of decaying monuments to that optimism.]]>

crow and raven photographs is currently on view in the viewing drawers at the Blue Sky gallery (a.k.a. the Oregon Center for the Photographic Arts) in Portland. The photos are part of a juried collection of portfolios by regional artists selected each year. You can read more about this program here.]]>

Trial Balloon Budapest, Hungary 2011

I saw this balloon just casually making it’s way down the center of the street near the courthouse one day. O.K. I don’t think it was really near the courthouse (although I’m not sure where the courthouse was), I just said that so that the humor in the title would make more sense. The strange thing is that the balloon stayed about this elevation for about two blocks in its travels in spite of several cars driving by it.]]>

Dogs Playing Poker Budapest, Hungary 2011

This was at a drinking establishment called the For Sale Pub. That name reminded me of a bar I used to go to near the airport in Alaska called the Fly by Night Club that opened up in a building that was notorious for short-live restaurant/bar ventures. Their motto was “Going out of business in the same location for 10 years.”]]>

Five and a Half Attitudes Budapest, Hungary 2011

I’m back in Budapest it seems (figuratively, not literally).

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Ivy League Chicago, Illinois 2011

The east lawn of the Chicago Art Institute.

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