When I was about 4 years old, my preschool teacher was somewhat alarmed when I insisted on coloring a woman’s hair green. It wasn’t random, I wasn’t color blind. Maybe I was predicting the punk fashions a few decades later. But more likely it was just early signs of my later affinity for abstract art. I further absorbed the notion of transforming reality–or creating a new reality– during Saturday mornings wandering with my father through the contemporary art galleries at the Baltimore Museum of Art, particularly enchanted by the works of Matisse and Picasso. (Either would have also given that woman green hair.) For the past 30 years, and more seriously in the past few years, my photography has refocused on my early interest in reinterpreting what I see, be it the unintended patterns of rust and paint that become landscapes or city skylines, or the intended, digital juxtaposition of multiple photos or photo and painting. How can I enhance my vision by reorganizing an image, in the viewfinder or after the fact? The magic of digital photography and digital editing has opened more opportunities to “reinvent”, as has my growing fondness for the street art (purposeful or incidental) of city alleys and old storefronts. And as a practicing psychologist for 30 years (retired now for 20), no doubt my art has been influenced by the notion that the human eye interacts with the human brain in idiosyncratic ways that redefine reality. We each see our own version of what’s there. And what’s not. Perhaps that defines art generally, and it certainly defines abstract and nonrepresentational art. My relatively recent foray into acrylics and mixed media work is a logical extension of my photography, and in fact is taking more and more of my artistic energy. My photography also finds its way into my mixed media projects.
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