~calamity strange~

cash, clash, culture

i am flattered to have been invited by roger knapp, director of the davenport gallery to participate in the new show that opens this month, titled “cash, clash, culture”.

as he describes the theme:  “the idea is that our economic decisions and values that we have influence our aesthetic environment and i want to highlight that tense relationship between the aesthetics and economic activity.”

i delivered four pieces to the gallery yesterday morning.  

and although the davenport gallery does participate in the first friday art tour, the artist’s reception will be held the 2nd saturday in august- on 18th from 4-7pm. 

A message from the Director of Photography of National Geographic:

but first, my two cents:

below is some very common advice and is usually ‘required’ when dealing with photo editors in the most highly regarded photography related magazines and publications.  i mean seriously, isn’t national geographic kind of the top of the food chain when it comes to mainstream periodicals with an emphasis on photography?   the editors at bike magazine are so committed to this theory that they basically make you “prove” your photo by sending the file in a format that shows the history of any changes that have been made to it since it was shot!  i see so many photos on the internet- particularly facebook- that people have just run through photoshop, lightroom, aperture, i-photo, (insert any image-editing software here) filters, or have “auto-something’d” the image.  when i was studying at SFAI (yes, getting a degree in photography) cropping a photo after the fact was completely taboo!  the goal should be to learn how to properly take the photo to begin with.  yes, nice to be able to save yourself in the event of an error with technology, but let those be the small minority… not everything you do.

A message from the Director of Photography of National Geographic:

I encourage you to submit photographs that are real. The world is already full of visual artifice, and we don’t want to add to it. We want to see the world through your eyes, not the tools of Photoshop.

Please do not digitally enhance or alter your photographs (beyond the basics needed to achieve realistic color balance and sharpness). If you have digitally added or removed anything, please don’t submit the shot.  We look at every photo to see if it’s authentic, and if we find that yours is in any way deceptive, we won’t consider it.

DODGING AND BURNING: Dodging (to brighten shadows) or burning (to darken highlights) is OK, but it should be minimal. Do not overdo it. Your goal in using digital darkroom techniques should be only to adjust the dynamic tonal range of an image so that it more closely resembles what you saw. And don’t oversaturate the color.

SOLARIZATION, MEZZOTINT, DUOTONE, ETC.: No. If you use one of the myriad alteration “filters” available in your digital photo software, please stop.

BLACK-AND-WHITE IMAGES: OK.

HAND-TINTED IMAGES: OK, but only if you’re experienced in this art.

CROPPING: OK, if it makes the photo better.

STITCHED PANORAMAS: OK, but only if the segments were all made within the same time frame. We don’t want panoramas with sections made at significantly different times. Do not change focal length when you create a stitched image. Do not stretch the meaning of panorama to include elements that weren’t in the scene as you saw it. If your entry is a stitched image, please indicate this in the caption. (A stitched panorama is created from multiple images, each taking in a different angle of view from the same position, then combined using digital techniques. It results in a wider view than can be achieved with most wide-angle lenses.)

FISH-EYE LENSES: OK, but enter at your own risk - editors tend to dislike such optical gimmicks.

HIGH DYNAMIC RANGE IMAGES (HDRI): OK, but like panoramas, only if the combined parts are made at about the same time. We don’t want final images where the foreground was shot at noon and the sky at sunset. If your entry is an HDRI image, please indicate this in the caption. (An HDRI image is created from multiple images of exactly the same scene, made rapidly but at different exposures, then combined using digital darkroom techniques. The final image, when done successfully, allows one exposure for shadows to be combined with another for highlights to produce a final image that has a greater dynamic range than is possible with a single exposure.)

more photo tips from National Geographic

and ps:  no, i’m not taking the strange yellow thing with lights on it out of that photo, not only because it was there and IS in the shot, but because it actually ADDS interest to the image.  yes, it might look more like a postcard without it, but would it be a “better” photograph?  think about it. 

back in business.

i’ve been out in the desert…  blog should be back online tomorrow.

photo taken from highway 50- looking west over the town of austin, nevada.

©kelley richardson

and one for jesus…

.puppet master.

good friday brings you: puppet master.

five days of blogging in a row!  are you bored yet?  here’s another explanation of the parts that make up the  ‘boxes’  which are officially known as “found object assemblage” pieces currently on display at chimera arts in santa cruz. from the heretics and heathens show april 1 - may 28, 2011

all of them made entirely from things i already owned and have selected for each box through a process of sifting through, laying out, changing my mind, and rearranging over-and-over-again.

• the jankiest and least stable of the boxes which required careful reinforcing so it would solid enough to display and sell- was another by-product of that purchase of a bunch of vintage bottles in corralitos.  if you ever see an ad on craigslist for “barn sale”… and you are a rummager, who likes to find hidden treasures, definitely go.  
• the relief portrait of jesus is one of those “oh, i have to have that!” moments at the santa cruz flea market from a couple years back. no idea what i was ever going to do with it, but it worked out perfectly here.
• the skull is a huge sacrifice for me, as it has lived in my studio next to my easel for years. it’s been my ‘figure study’ model for all the skeleton paintings.  i cannot remember for the life of me where i got it or when.  i already miss it.
• the skull is perched on top of two railroad stakes. i occasionally find them when out hiking near train tracks.
• the “only” in front- is a vintage rubber stamp. i have a whole box full of them… useless for stamping, perfect for art installation. i believe i bought them at mr. goodies downtown, either that or they were a gift from my mom.
• in the back (barely visible) is a small wooden boat. i’m afraid i can’t remember where i got that either!  honestly, i am the person who sees something lying on the ground and goes “keep!” that boat may have been under the stairs in the last house i lived in… not entirely sure.
• the marionette is an old christmas ornament, i bought years ago because it reminded me of rock lerum, who is a professional clown, circus arts performer, and teacher at orchard school in aptos.  i taught art next door to rock’s classroom at orchard for a half decade.  he is a fabulous man and amazing teacher. i think i meant to give it to rock, but i guess i hung it in my office and never got around to giving gifts that year- or maybe decided i liked it so much i wanted to keep it… i do love me some puppets.
• last but not least- the green spiked item (if you are not familiar) is called a “flower frog” they come in all shapes and sizes and are made for arranging flowers, and my grandmother had a bunch of them, and so now they are in my collection of all things vintage- that i mostly had handed down to me, but have created an enthusiasm for and an affinity for acquiring.  i actually do use the frogs in vases occasionally (they make flowers stand up at attention!)  but this seemed just right in this incarnation.

©kelley richardson 2o11

.highest bidder.

thursday = highest bidder

(yes, i know i just posted this photo last week.)

day four in my series of explanations of the parts that make up the ‘boxes’  which are officially known as “found object assemblage” pieces currently on display at chimera arts in santa cruz. from the heretics and heathens show april 1 - may 28, 2011

all of them made entirely from things i owned and have unearthed out of the nooks and crannies where i hide and store all the little things i collect.

• the wooden crate was the by-product of a purchase of a bunch of vintage bottles at a barn sale way out in corralitos. “barn sale” sounds so much more interesting than “garage sale” and in that particular case it really was.  i bought the bottles, the boxes were included.
• the box is lined primarily with “sold” tags that i bought several years ago when i participated in the santa cruz cultural council’s : open studios art tour.  i realized immediately that i didn’t need a hundred of them, of course, but they are such a pretty, rich red! (ask me some other time to tell you why i probably won’t ever participate in open studios again…)
• what you probably can’t make out in the photo are the seven deadly sins  and some of the other little statements about satan which are tucked in there and coincidentally are an exact match to the bloody rich redness of the tags.  sometimes you just have to get up real close and look carefully, there’s a lot that’s easy to miss when looking at art.
• behind the figure there is the cover and binding of a book about the devil
• there is also an old part of a dart-board, that i literally found lying next to a dumpster. yeah, i’m a garbage collector, whatever, i’ve always liked the bullseye motif.
• the silver cup in front is another piece from one of my uncle’s sports trophies that i mentioned earlier this week.
• at the base is a saw blade, that was actually used in one of my first sculpture pieces that i created as an assignment when i first went back to college after having babies and was trying to figure out what i wanted to do with my life (i sort of figured it out here later).   it was already painted and tied up with string.  i just glued it down ‘as is’ and added some shiny bits.  i wish i had photos of all the art pieces i’ve made over the years.
• on top of the blade, and covered in penny wrappers, is a small square stretched canvas- that i’ve had lying around in my studio for years.  it’s got an eyeball painted on it under all that paper.
• the nun doll is the only item in the entire show that i actually purchased during the several month obsessive art grind that led up to the opening of the heretics and heathens show.  i do have a bit of a weakness for Ebay.

©kelley richardson 2o11

.on brittle wings.

wednesday i offer you another explanation of the parts that make up one of the ‘boxes’- brought to you by- the collector of things.

this another of my found object assemblage pieces currently on display at chimera arts in santa cruz. from the heretics and heathens show april 1 - may 28, 2011

also made entirely from things i owned and have unearthed out of the nooks and crannies where i hide and store all the little things i collect.

• the box is a reclaimed labyrinth game that i disassembled because i was in need of another box, and the game had long since been broken.  this will explain why, if you look at it carefully, the back surface of the box is not level… it’s titled to let the game ball roll out.
• it’s coated with some brilliant handmade paper that i’d been saving for gift-wrapping, but forfeited for this piece due to it’s irresistible color and texture. 
• the metal frame within is one my first welding projects. 
• the keys are more of the same- from yesterdays post that i have from my grandparents house in ohio, and from the many turn-of-the-century furnishings that lived there.  if you’ve ever seen the keys i wear on my jacket- they are also from this collection, but specifically open the locks on my grandmother’s steamer trunk which is in my art studio and the extremely old/antique captain’s desk that lives a precarious existence in my living room in the company of large dogs and small children.
• ‘famous’ is a belt buckle that i was given as a gift…
• the little camel, is a tiny metal figurine, and honestly i have no idea where i got it.
• the metal printmaking stamp with an image of an unidentified man on it- is another from the handful of them i discovered, tucked away in a junk store in athens, greece.
• the antique bottle, although i have a collection of them, was a gift from a good friend that she found while digging up their property to pour cement somewhere in salinas, california,  perhaps it has a secret history? 
• another madame alexander doll as the centerpiece.  both my daughter’s gave theirs to me, claiming not to want them anymore, and although i have saved them for years with unknown intention… this art endeavor found all sorts of ‘heirlooms’ (if you will) at my mercy.
• she is holding a camera lens filter which i affixed a round mirror to the back of.
• and lastly, the wings, the jaw bones of what i imagine was a coyote, that i found in the desert of nevada, somewhere off of highway 50.

©kelley richardson 2o11

.where were you hiding?.

i know you’ve already seen plenty of photos of this one, but after so many questions about these boxes and the contents therein, i figure i might as well explain them.

this another of my found object assemblage pieces currently on display at chimera arts in santa cruz. from the heretics and heathens show april 1 - may 28, 2011

also made entirely from things i owned and have unearthed out of the nooks and crannies where i hide and store all the little things i collect.

this one, a self-portrait of sorts- from memories of my childhood. made from:

• a wooden box that i constructed to store seeds for the garden years ago- my first independent carpentry project…. i think i was 19 at the time.
• my madame alexander doll (scarlett o’hara: circa 1970-ish) who’s legs i replaced with larger ones from a different dime-store doll, in order to better reflect my physical dimensions.
• my grandmother’s sheet music.  she was a professional pianist, trained at the new england conservatory of music. i have boxes and boxes of that fabulous paper.
• keys from my grandparents house, and from the many turn-of-the-century furnishings with built-in locks that inhabited the space that i explored on secret missions so many years ago.
• the figurine of one of my uncle jim’s sports trophies. 
• a sterling silver baby spoon from my seemingly endless collection of family heirlooms.
• a photograph of my my grandparents with my mother and her brother, taken in 1947 at their home in mansfield, ohio.
• a skull collected from the utah desert.
• a metal printmaking stamp with an image of a temple on it- that i discovered, tucked away in a junk store in athens, greece.
• bullet shell casings, collected from a variety of places.
• vintage bottles- (i have a ton of them).
• an artificial rose.
• a bicycle chain ring.
• and two antique nails through the palms of her hands.

©kelley richardson 2o11

.religious experience.

one of my found object assemblage pieces currently on display at chimera arts in santa cruz.  from the heretics and heathens show  april 1 - may 28, 2011

made entirely from things i owned and have unearthed out of the nooks and crannies where i hide and store all the little things i collect:

• a velvet lined flatware tray from my grandparents dining room sideboard
• shells found in baja
• antique bottles
• horse shoe
• antique rubber stamp
• polarizing filter
• a mouse skeleton fished out of the rain gutter on our garage
• various hardware items
• vintage rhinestone earring
• skull charm
• bicycle chain ring
• the center piece is a vintage madame alexander doll.

©kelley richardson 2o11