A Year of Art at the Library

2008 – A Year of Art at Tompkins County Public Library is made possible in part by a grant from the Community Arts Partnership.

"MANIPULATED REALITIES"

Curated by: David Watkins, Jr.

While it may be a subject for debate, photographers have been "manipulating" images since photography began.   Early photographic artists used myriad tricks of light and chemistry in the darkroom to either create something new and different or simply improve their final image.   It can be argued that the simple act of placing one's eye to a viewfinder begins to manipulate what an ultimate viewer of the image will see and respond to.   In todays' digital world, the ease and sophistication with which images can be changed to misrepresent "reality" causes those responsible for reporting news much concern about responsibility and ethical values.

This show is not about image change for misrepresentation or documentation.

It is about purposeful artistic manipulation and creation ­– pushing the images' potential for art, for emphasis, for challenge and personal expression.   All of the works in this show begin with a photographic process – a camera or scanner.   The "how and why" for each artist is described in their own words on subsequent pages.

The following photographer / digital artists are participating in this show:

• Stan Bowman
• Jay Hart
• Jan Kather
• Daniel McPheeters
• Joleen Mahoney Roe
• David Watkins, Jr.

"Photography is more than a medium for factual communication of ideas. It is a creative art."
  - Ansel Adams

STAN BOWMAN
"Pixel Two " (Click on image and larger view will open in a new window.)

"Pixel Painting"

Sometimes I am reluctant to refer to myself as a “digital artist” because often people do not know what that means. A digital artist can be a photographer, a common assumption, but also many are involved with other digital media far beyond this such as video, animation, music and sound, performance, etc. Many of these artists are looking for new art forms, exploring how digital technology can be combined with traditional art media, or how it can stand on it’s own.

I am one of those explorers searching for new forms. I am also interested in exploring and defining what may be some of the unique characteristics of digital media that make it different than traditional art forms like painting or sculpture. On one hand I find the “pixel” as a standard building block of most digital works, and on the other the potential for “exact repetition” of pixels as two defining features.

This series is called “pixel paintings” because first, to create the work at all, I have to apply the pixels by hand on a computer screen (painting). Moreover I zoom in to the pixel level of an image to feature the basic building blocks of a still digital imagery. At the same time I also create exact repetitions of groups of pixels, which is another defining characteristic of digital imaging. Finally behind it all I am seeking to express my emotions which center around the great excitement I find in this digital exploration and the pleasure in creating mostly abstract shapes and colors out of pixels.

This work is also about “Manipulated Realities”, the theme of this show, in that by zooming in to the pixel level the viewer is invited to see the abstract structure of digital images of the external “real” world. Moreover by working digitally I can use the great powers of the computer and exceptional graphic software to explore “manipulation” in vastly greater dimensions than ever before.

JAY HART
"Wabash" (Click on image and larger view will open in a new window.)

Elevation surfaces (pixel arrays filled with height data) have become much more refined in the past three years, and with them we are now able to depict the variety of broad-scale regional beauty - where neighborhoods can be nested within the natural arrangement of state-sized features. With printing advances we can also see a series of scales as never before, and learn of our environment in a data-free manner.

Materials and Techniques:

I use elevation data (mostly from NED or the Space Shuttle) to create vertical views of shadowed and color-graded heights. These are often overlain with true-color Landsat image mosaics, rendered translucently to let through the underlying layer of topo-shadow and hue, giving the work a three-dimensional appearance. Choices in color ramping and shadow direction are used to highlight specific parts of the landscape, while leaving the remaining areas as a background matrix. Often these broad views illuminate features and patterns of which even local residents had been unaware.

The pieces are as unsymboled and unlabeled as is the ground itself.   Choices of composition are usually driven by a combination of focus and landform story.   Here the earth is the artist, and our perceptions of our surroundings are enhanced by subtle data manipulations that reward study.

Jay Hart
Clearwater Graphics
336 Pennsylvania Ave.
Trumansburg NY 14886
www.earthpattern.com
607-387-4880

Jan Kather
"Peace Elmira, New York " (Click on image and larger view will open in a new window.)

War is Peace
Freedom is Slavery
Ignorance is Strength

George Orwell’s famous words in his 1949 novel Nineteen Eighty-Four provide the framework for me to consider the state of today’s world. As predicted in the novel, we accept routine censorship by   “doctored” information as a way of life. What better way for me to comment on this phenomenon than to protest the Iraqi war with “doctored” images of my own?

The digital images displayed here have been created since the attack on the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001 and the consequent American invasion of Iraq on March 19, 2003. Through image manipulation, I question the meaning of patriotism as well as the wisdom of settling disputes by sanctioning an ongoing massacre of people.

This collection of images has become an iconic protest of war, as well as a grave commemoration of all those who have suffered, including the U.S. military fatalities and their families who grieve, the thousands of wounded soldiers, the estimated 600,000-1,000,000 Iraqi dead, and the estimated 4.5 million Iraqis driven from their homes. I ask you to pause for a moment to remember those who have sacrificed their lives while engaged in this controversial, unpopular American war.

Jan Kather
June, 2008
www.jankatherphotography.com

DANIEL McPHEETERS
"Succulent " (Click on image and larger view will open in a new window.)

Although my professional education was technical I have always felt a tension between my interests in science and engineering and my passion for art. This tension can occasionally become a synergy. Most recently, this has become the case with my digital collages. I have been taking photographs as a hobby for many years. As a teenager I built a darkroom and spent many hours developing my pictures and manipulating the images. As technology changed I abandoned the traditional darkroom for the digital darkroom. I am self-taught in several image-editing programs and combine my photography and computer skills to create artworks that have been described as lyrical and mystical. I am fascinated by symmetries and how they seem to appear everywhere in nature. As an avid gardener I have taken thousands of botanical photographs. By manipulating pictures of flowers and foliage I create alternate realities that reflect naturally occurring symmetries, yet have a surreal feel to them.

Daniel McPheeters
PO Box 93
Brooktondale, NY 14817
www.sculptedimage.com

JOLEEN MAHONEY ROE
"Time for a change " (Click on image and larger view will open in a new window.)

This work is dedicated to the memory of Eden Joseph Roe who continues to guide me on my journey for answers to life’s questions.

“Sweet as Care Bear at big school and a Mad Maniac at little school”, that was Eden’s response at five years old when asked if he was a good boy in Kindergarten and Day Care. A poet from a young age, words just seemed to flow, always making us laugh with his wit and humor. He was a joy, the boy I thought I would never have to worry about. But that all changed and on June 17, 2005 as I held my 24 year old boy at Albany Medical Center and I asked why, not why me, not why my family, but a question directed at Eden, “How did you let this happen?”. Just one more party and a deadly mixture of alcohol and drugs; Eden would never be able to make us laugh or share his poetry, music, wisdom and knowledge. He was gone and our family was forever changed.

As Women, our children come into this world through us alone and when they leave, they leave us with a hole in our heart, in our womb and in our soul. Nothing can ever fill the void, but allowing me to die along with Eden was never an option. As Mother Jones once said after losing her entire family to Yellow Fever: “Pray for the Dead and fight like Hell for the Living”. Our family and our lives will never be the same, but there is a burning need in all of us to go on, a need to continue to create, and a need to reach out and share our story with others, in an effort to save one life, one family. “Sorroe” is dedicated to mothers, mothers who have lost sons and to my mother, Ithacan, Florence Mahoney and my mother in law Margaret Roe for teaching me to be the best mother I could be and instilling my inner spirit with the strength to endure.

Also to Jim and Seth for helping me through the past three years as we have learned to embrace the signs, I love you both. And to my amazing grand children Hollande(9) and Zholi(8), who with me, Jim and Seth traveled to Washington, DC in 2007 loaded with Holga cameras ready to shoot images for what would become this piece. I’m not really sure who shot the images that I used, however, for me, it was an unforgettable family project. “Time for a Change” is dedicated to all those in this country who believe that there must be an alternative to George Bush’s War, a war that never needed to be started and to the youth of our nation who should continue to speak out. Eden, I thank you for your song and your courage to write this piece five brief months before you passed away. We all love you!

Joleen Mahoney Roe
PO Box 248
Hannacroix, NY 12087

DAVID WATKINS, JR
" Chihuly Glass and Greenhouse" (Click on image and larger view will open in a new window.)

My photographic work, primarily digital, is strongly influenced by my early training as a graphic designer. My subjects are botanicals and landscapes, natural and human made. Many of the photographs are taken in my own extensive perennial gardens and in the Ithaca, New York area. I find inspiration in the textures and patterns created in nature by color, light, weather, age and natural predators. Most of my images are straightforward. Some are manipulated or enhanced only to emphasize the subject or to improve a less than perfect exposure. More recently, I have been experimenting with extensive manipulation in Photoshop to achieve a final more artistic vision. In many cases an image presents the opportunity to answer the question: “What more can it become?” Images captured digitally and transferred to a computer offer the photographer/artist a myriad of new and creative possibilities.

David Watkins, Jr.
Fine Art Nature and Landscape Photography
201 Hillview Place
607-272-2147
dow1@cornell.edu