Over, Under, Sideways, Down
Paradise Valley, Montana
2011

Quick, what’s the next line in the song?

The Beast
Livingston, Montana
2011

An apparent four-winged raven-like creature.

A Walk on the Beach
Lincoln City, Oregon
2010

A couple of ravens out for a stroll along the beach. At least I think they’re ravens rather than crows, hard to tell for sure. If you believe the claim that crows hop while ravens walk then they must be ravens. But there doesn’t seem to be much consensus that that adage is really true.

The Adjudicators
Bozeman, Montana
2010

A popular image from my Opus Corvus exhibit. To me they bring to mind judges in their black robes gathering to hear an important case.

The Gesture (Badlands)
Omaha, Nebraska
2011

A closeup of a statue of some homesteaders out working their fields. The rugged tension in this guy’s hand seems quite symbolic of the struggle it must have been to make a living on the land in the 19th century. It reminded me of a song by Bruce Springsteen that addresses the issue, at least metaphorically (or should I say uses this concept as a metaphor for other struggles):

Bandstand
Salt Lake City, Utah
2011

At sundown, some stage scaffolding casts an interesting shadow pattern on the backdrop of the bandstand at the Utah Arts Festival.

The Gesture (Freedom)
Topeka, Kansas
2011

From a sculpture at Washburn University. The sculptor created the piece to commemorate cancer survivors–either all cancer or perhaps just breast cancer, I don’t recall–but in any case freedom from cancer is a precious freedom indeed.

Losing Your Edge
Omaha, Nebraska
2011

There was a ride much like this at Joyland, the local amusement park where I grew up. It was one of my favorite rides in the park. Now I have no interest in getting on such a thing. I like to think it’s because I’m older and wiser, but it’s probably just plain being old that explains it.

Foreign Exchange
Topeka, Kansas
2011

Japanese gardens, or at least tokens from Japanese gardens like this lamp are very popular in this country. I’ve never been to Japan but have to wonder, do they have American gardens there? If so, what token icon do they feel most symbolizes an American garden? Perhaps a garden gnome, or maybe a pink flamingo. Hopefully it’s not one of those plywood cutouts painted to look like a lady bending over exposing her bloomers that seemed so popular in the Midwest for a while.

Pac-Man
Topeka, Kansas
2011

On one level this image comes across to me as having some serious emotion and artistic value, and is deserving of a name reflecting that impression. But on the other hand I don’t think anyone who was around during the early days of video games (and paying attention to them at all) is not going to see the more obvious interpretation. So I guess the question is can an image that has that kind of reference be taken particularly seriously. It’s kind of like trying to take the William Tell Overture seriously having spent considerable time watching Lone Ranger reruns as a kid. (There’s a photo floating around the family archives somewhere of me at Christmas in a Lone Ranger outfit. Hi-Yo Silver!)