All posts by artiststevel

Articles on travel

The Still Life Painting-Memory versus Setup

I have never been much for the still life-I tend to paint landscapes, seascapes, anything nature oriented but recently because of Carmen’s’Delicious Caterings’ food as art and art as food tag line-the first of many still life became a necessary project.
It’s hard to paint on demand, for me anyway-I either feels it or not. The first painting was of a still life of an August picnic, complete with watermelon-kind of the centerpiece, grapes, tomatoes, peppers and the corn on the cob to finish off the picnic. I set up the still life on a wooden board and stared at it intently with nothing moving. It was one of the hardest paintings because it just didn’t do anything for me. I had the basic idea of the sky and the warm greens in the background and the foreground seemed to just lie there. All I can say is through discipline I found a place between capturing the still life as it is and weaving in my own feeling of the late August picnic seemed to fight against each other-logic and simple rendering fight as it always does with the creative and the figurative idea of the day. This is what I paint, even in the landscape-I rarely paint the place, it’s more the feeling of the place and usually when the logical rendering becomes stronger than the feeling of the place it seems colder to me.

The second in the series is an autumn gathering of pumpkins, squash and a cornucopia of good colors and flavors. Again the feeling of the sky was the first things that really jumped out at me and the under painting seemed to capture it so perfectly that it jump started the next step. This time I did not set up a still life-I gathered images and relied more on memory. The sudden and rich flow of paint seemed to surprise me. The painting pretty much did itself. The colors of autumn work so well against each other and the fact that I love the cool answer to summers’ heat seems evident in the way the painting took shape-also I must admit that the previous painting was done during a time of great creative block and this second in the series is at the beginning of the unraveling of my creative slump. Several other paintings began to take shape at the same time, but even still I weigh the difference between painting from passion and memory versus painting a set up still life and for me the memory works better than the real thing.
Articles on travel

Learning to see again

Learning to See Again

I photograph things that don’t make sense. It’s when you question their sense or try to alter the basic idea for the sake of others interests or the sale of such photographs does the image become plastic and contrived. I used to shoot fences in the field, sunsets on the edge of simple roads without the idea of selling them. My only downfall was actually selling a photograph and changing the way I looked at shooting.
At one time it was trying to find abstract images to show interesting patterns in nature but if you’re not really excited about them, how can you possibly convince the viewer to be. I shot a photograph for an electronics firm which I worked for a week trying to get it the way it needed to look for the ad-unfortunately for me was that the success of that photograph stirred my ego. Suddenly instead of an artist with a tool, I became a professional photographer looking for the next image to sell and nothing good would come of this.
I remember I had connected with a stock company and was trying to find an image of a taxi in traffic or a police officer standing near a crowd, the scavenger hunt does not lend itself well to creative spirit. I remember the last photograph I didn’t take that really messed my whole sense of photography-a bouquet of flowers on a gravestone was reflecting the early afternoon sun, it was in Palestine Texas and instead of shooting it, I thought about it, how and why should I shoot it and where would I sell it-I passed it by and my punishment was a lack of being able to see beyond the obvious.
This weekend I got away from my life, I feel almost like a ghost in a sweet purgatory, I got to look back as a child would on photography with not the slightest fear of getting it right or wrong and suddenly simple things become photographs to me, they say things beyond what they are at a basic level and that is what I believe elevates the snapshot to the insight on our everyday lives.

With the feeling of peace and confidence I have begun shooting freely and I see a bit of a difference in the outcome, it’s less about how the photograph comes out and more how I initially see it. The scavenger hunt of photography is how objects, images and their colors appear to the artist eye tell their stories-it is our jobs as artists and photographers to tell their stories and let the viewer find their own stories in those images. I am excited for the future of my photography as I have learned to see again.
Articles on travel

Van Goghs’ Last

Van Goghs’ Last
You were thirty nine
And unjaded
How did you do it
There’s a madness to beauty
And you mastered the art
Anyone who knows about him
Would realize where I’m going
Or went
Slashes of blues and purples
The yellows turn to gold and red
Streaks of crimson across the ceiling
A sunset over the brides head
The landscape of poppies in distant fields
The blackbirds
Did you find an answer
And was it in cold black steel
A silver flash across the sun flowered field
Did anyone tell you it was taboo
To feel
Rich red hues answer questions
About that day
Black shadows and rich glorious corn
As the sky becomes all starry at night
Did you spend too long in those yellow halls
Those broken shadows and faceless walls
The poor, the hungry, the sick, the poor,
Didn’t you ever wonder what if
One more
One final view from the beauty of madness
One last stroke of color mining emotion
From a dark place
Did they ever tell you not to feel
Might as well put all your colors away…..

Let this beautiful canvas finally heal?
Articles on travel

The Electric Hour Appears

Electric hour approaches,
The yellow leaves and the brilliant greens
Stare through the window
With a voice of pacific breeze
I can smell the flavors of rosemary and fennel
Colors on the edge of gardens
Bursting out for one last show before autumn comes
I sit in the cool window seat
I feel the season change
Crows mock the afternoon light
I stare from a vantage point, high above the golden leaves
In spirals on concrete 
walkways and the sea beyond the sky
Blue green and sailboats tilted in the gentle breezes
Still tired from the walk up mountains
In deep green forests
With smiling faces out of breath
A drink of warm red wine on the corner
cars pass by in routine

I am outside the membrane
A stranger to a peaceful place
The pacific breeze through windows 

wakes meI feel the calm of this peaceful life
Basil adds the hues and flavors tasted
Green tea and sparkling water
If I take a breath I might wake up
And all of this would be gone

If I open my eyes all of this will be gone
There is a current that twists and strives inside
As constant and violent as the tide
I feel the sadness for every fallen leaf
I feel the sadness for time passing
and the beauty of days elicits the emotional response
quiet in the other room
the silence of an early afternoon fall
2014, afraid of watching time pass by too quickly
Afraid of life and time awaits me
I’d take a breath but I’m afraid of waking
And stirring my eyes,
witness the stream of time
                                                                      Like sand through loving fingers strive
                                                                      The electric hour approaches

                                                                      And soon it will be night…

Articles on travel

Evolution River Series: How imagination becomes reality.

It is amazing to watch a writers’ vision become reality. I have been fortunate to work for a few years now with a writer from Tucson Arizona; R.L. Clayton. We started with an image for his first book, an image  that was only as clear as a photograph in his mind, this is where the artist becomes the mind reader. What’s most important in this step of the process is to truly listen to the client, not just create what you think would be great but listen to what they see and make it reality for them. We  worked together to create the image of a new form of humanity that lived on the sea in large ship-like crafts that looked more like cities. He had the vision of the DNA Helix and how the man’s DNA was evolving into a new species of man. The cover for the first book in the evolution series was born; Sea Species.

What followed was an initial website dedicated to the book Sea Species and exciting updates on the books to be included in the trilogy. The next installment was the Envoy, a book about how man has left the sea and reaches to the  universe as his species evolves. The cover pretty much painted itself, it was a planet scene and the vision was a bit easier to describe than the previous cover. The colors were vivid and where initial book cover was predominantly red, violet and green became the color scheme for the second book. The colors of both books worked together to complement each other and in the future that would be very important to tie the series together.

We weren’t far into updating the site and adding the cover to the list of products he was creating when the third in the series was to be described. While we were working on the covers, the books were being perfected and even now the last in the series was on board to be written and perfectly finessed as only the passion of a writer would insist.

The third book in the series made the first book seem as if it were an easy image to perceive from word to picture. The idea was a network of lights, a glowing tendril of creation that would finish off the series with the same mystery and drama that started it. Over several weeks of going back and forth with images that kind of worked, that definitely didn’t work and finally and ultimately the image of Genesis was created. The writer had a strong image of what he wanted and would not bend from the original idea and concept and in the end we were able to create an image we were both proud of.

Since the beginning of the series we have created a video that encompasses all of the books. It is an introduction to a very exciting series of books on the future evolution of man and it takes the viewer on a journey from sea to the stars and beyond. Check out the website and let me know what you think of the Evolution Series by R.L. Clayton.

Articles on travel

Carmens Delicious Catering

I love to learn how people turn what they are passionate about into a lucrative profession. I met a caterer today and my initial task was to improve her website, what I discovered was an artist whose medium was food and who’s canvas was the upscale clientele she catered to.
Her name is Carmen Cortez of Carmen’s delicious catering and I got more from the interview than just business related stories. She described a passion for connecting with people and how listening to her customers has enabled her to please a large group of patrons with varied tastes and distinct needs.
After asking what I would like for lunch and making sure I had no allergies or specific preferences, she made me a wonderful steak sandwich and chips with a ice cold bottle of Perrier with lemon. Maybe it was the fresh crisp vegetables and how the colors complemented each other on the plate or how the steak was perfectly cooked and seasoned or the atmosphere of the open space on a bright sunny afternoon but eating the sandwich was a wonderful experience in itself.
I was impressed with how and why she became a caterer. She had finished raising her children and ready for the next chapter of her life. She put together the two things she was good at-cooking and connecting with people, that mixed with her love of art and creativity and her catering business was born. We talked about how the foods from other countries became American staples such as beer from Belgium, and spices from India and other far away place. Her knowledge of people and places infused into her passion for food. We discussed her thoughtful process in perfecting her menus that changed monthly according to the freshest produce and meats she could find. As a fellow artist and foodie-I enjoyed being a spectator to the canvas and all I was required to bring was my interest and my appetite, mission accomplished.
I enjoyed a great conversation with a gifted caterer who found a way to infuse her love of food and art to bring people together for a meal, an occasion that her customers would not only enjoy but remember for a long time. Stay tuned for more interviews with other artists, photographers and others who live their lives and do their business creatively.


Articles on travel

What’s so great about running track?

This is a view from what I would consider a nonathletic person, okay I have two left feet unless I’m scuba diving but I don’t love treading water unless I’m scuba diving but that’s a whole other story. I watch my son who is every bit of the athlete and has a true passion for it and I notice a common theme and an appearance of those that have a passion for athletics.
I had the pleasure of sitting in the stands waiting for my son to do the long jump-track meets can tend to be very long and strengthen our ability to be patient. While I sat in the cool breeze of July-yes it was a very strange day in Texas- a cool, almost cold day in July-2014. It was a regional meet and the energy and excitement was amped up because this is what they’ve worked so hard for all year.
I watched the athletes and the parents, as I tend to do, being alone with no conversation of my own, I like to people watch. First of all, when athletes run track there is a loser, a winner and those somewhere in between, the most amazing thing is that I didn’t see one child dissolving having lost the race. In this generation of making sure our children never feel the slightest feeling of losing, I watched very young children giving their all to be the best they can be. They compete against each other, they compete against their previous times and they compete against themselves and after they all feel a sense of accomplishment not a feeling of shame as some unseen power seems to think they will if they lose.
I have even heard of a team being accused of bullying when the other team wins, I just don’t understand that premise. You learn as much about life losing as you do winning. Keeping our children from loss and the realization that they need to work that much harder is only a negative thing if well-meaning parents make it so. I see kids with real trophies, that are competing for real rewards not some slip of paper that everyone gets just for showing up.
Seeing these young people with a sense of accomplishment and passion for what they are involved in gives me hope for the future of our youth. I also get to see families come together; there is no race here, no rich or poor, no politics, none of those buttons that the government and the media keep insisting on pushing. I believe that a track meet brings everyone together for a good reason and the product is community, true heightened self-esteem and a purpose that you can see just by watching these young kids.

I don’t believe you should force your child into anything, they need to be allowed to pursue their passion and great things will come from it, the biggest task is helping them to find what interests them-I think we are at our best when we are chasing our goals and working to be the best we can be as people, families or in this case an athletes, this is what I feel brings out the best in people.
Articles on travel

Indian Shores: Paradise to Ourselves

It’s been a long time since I mused from a kayak but here it goes. All I can say is that I missed it more than I even thought. There is something about being out across a mile of open water in harmony with everything-okay maybe not everything. The wind picked up and was pretty dramatic, a storm came through and the breeze was a welcome break from the heat we had endured.
You can see the bottom, stingrays, sea robins, crabs and other things I couldn’t quite identify. Fishing is almost a secondary process to the whole thing. I did something different on this vacation-if you focus all on one thing whether it be photography or fishing you lose sight of what is all around you. I spent some time on a pier and yet instead of stressing about bait and looking for fish, I just relaxed with a camera, not trying to capture anything special just out there for fun. 
I watched stingrays feeding close to shore, numerous turtles and a few redfish coming close to the surf where we as fishermen would have loved to find them but not at that moment. There is a beautiful thing about being an observer, you tend to notice smells of the ocean, people and their interactions and just how amazing it is to be near the ocean. 
As exhausting as it is  being in the extreme humidity and heat, my son wanted to go fishing before sunset and against my better judgement-I went down to the beach, no fishing rod, not even a camera which I later really regretted. I sat for several hours watching my son out there fishing, with a  bit of concern for his well being-he later mention there was a shark out in the surf as he was fishing. I swear a hurricane wouldn’t damper his enthusiasm for the sport of fishing. That period of time was just amazing-I watched two beautiful girls dance and pose on the beach as if they were young aspiring swimsuit models-don’t assume anything as they were pretty much just silhouettes by the bright sun that was going down behind them. I met a young Indian woman and her companion as she photographed, I watched and listened to the black skimmers that had made claim to the beach as their nesting sites and they were quite bold and aggressive. As I finally decided to call my son in due to a lack of light-I realized how much more you can focus and enjoy what’s around when you do nothing and just be present. I listened to the waves and watched them rise and fall and it was magical.
But back to Kayaking-we didn’t catch anything but we didn’t miss anything either, I stood in a  school of bait fish and just enjoyed being in the ocean, the water was a cool relief to the heat. Luckily for all of us the storm moved in and if it weren’t for the fear of being struck by lightning, the colors, the smell and most of all the incredible breeze was unforgettable. The ride home wasn’t as easy as the ride out though due to heat exhaustion and a cross wind that we had to fight with every paddle.
One more observation a bit off the subject, I like the ocean much better when your child feels a bit of fear, in one year we went from kids staying in the shallow surf to swimming out to the first sandbar. I liked it much better before-apprehension is a bad thing but a little bit of fear or caution is a good thing-I learned I still do not love treading water for any period of time but that is a story for another time.

Articles on travel

Why shoot photography and the future waits to be captured-what will you shoot today? Tomorrow?

original photography, Balcony, backlit image

I finally bought a new camera, it has been years that I have been working with a film camera and now I have finally arrived at the digital era. I have been very critical about photography lately, what I like, what I don’t like, good photography versus snapshot photography. The hardest thing now is what to shoot and why shoot. I need to have the same high standard and expectations for my own work realizing that just because I see an image or scene as special it is my job to show at least most of the audience I am sharing it with why I think the image or scene is so important that I needed to capture it for others to see.

I have mentioned previously that there are several reasons for shooting photography. The first and my most common reason is to capture something to paint later. I really don’t much have to worry about exposure or even composition as I just need information to support my memory of the scene. The next and second most common is the snapshot-take a photo to save a memory, again the mechanics of the photo isn’t that important as long as I capture the image and do justice to the memory which inspired the shot in the first place.

Art by Gordon, Florida, Indian Shores

The third reason demands quality and the highest skills of the photographer, the commercial journalist idea, capture an image to tell a story usually to go with words, for every photo worthy of telling the story and being printed there are many that just are high-end snapshots-I must admit shooting a lot of these.

The final and most demanding for me is the photograph for art sake. I believe it is our job as photographers to capture the scene satisfactorily in the first place and would prefer not to count on after effects to make an okay photograph a masterpiece-I’m still a film purist after all and used to shoot low-speed slide film where if you were a stop off either way it usually meant a dark image or a burned out image. The problem I am having at the moment is that with a  lack of knowledge of the new camera I can only hope to get good snapshot images for now until I perfect all of the bells and whistles or even more important, learning to force the camera to allow me to shoot in a manual option like I used to shoot with my old Pentax K1000.

Cat image in light
I am excited to see where my current vision will take me and if I can tell a story that will interest my viewer or capture a work of art that makes the viewer need to look again. I would love for other photographers to answer this post with their best image-tell us why it’s your best image and tell us why you think you captured something special. Explain also what particular category your photograph fits in. I look forward to your favorite images and more importantly your stories.

Articles on travel

Reasons We Create

I will definitely need the readers’ help on this subject because to make a statement and explain my position on the subject can only give one artist’s opinion. I have always been a representational artist of nature and the landscape, in fact, I have only recently fully understood the purpose and beauty of abstract or modern art.
My first and basic description of art is at its most simple form it makes you feel something, I don’t care if you are disgusted, frightened or moved to tears but something needs to connect from the canvas to the viewer. I realize this is where we are all different, I guess a spot on a canvas does something different to some or starts a conversation between art collectors or lovers-this to me is not what I call art.
The first and oldest premise of art was to record for posterity, somewhat like photography is to the news person, artists of old were hired to record wars, religious descriptions and the news and happenings of the day. I believe this purpose, however skilled and talented the artist is has been somewhat watered down by the lack of need, cameras and the news media and even the camera phone have not replaced but definitely challenged the artist that records time to be of great skill and detail. This is not necessarily the painting a collector hangs in his house or even collects at all but it is a necessary purpose for the artist of today.
The next and somewhat connected purpose of creating has opened up new doors in recent in the field of forensics-drawing from the remains of victims, sketch artists that can capture the portrait of someone from the description of a witness and of course the court room artist that enhances the story of a court case. Fit in this same avenue is the graphic designer that illustrates the story, helps to illustrate processes for medical or product instructions, the purpose mentioned so far is all within the realm of reality and aims to capture what truly exist without the deviation of ideas, emotions or statements of our living condition.
There is art for the sake of beauty, just the basic or even abstract depiction of a scene or abstract pattern. This way of creation captures what exists or draws simply from experience, emotion and feeling and creates what will be sought by interior decorators, it makes a statement of beauty and is approachable to the general public, there may or not be lacking of emotion or feeling but the collector is looking for something they can look at and feel what they bring to the subject, the artist is somewhat secondary in the process because the viewers feelings or memories have to do more with the image and the colors rather than the intangible feeling the painting or work evokes.
After an artist can depict what he or she sees, they can either duplicate or expand on that image to show the viewer not necessarily what exists but what the artist feels or sees. I have experienced this in few abstract artists for my tastes, again all opinion, but when the abstract or figurative artist captures an image or feeling from an intangible source and the viewer is able to enjoy that which the soul of the artist has created this is an amazing and intimate experience. Again the landscape stops being just a landscape and touches something that the viewer has taken directly from the artists palette of colors or the style in which the artist leads the viewer through the image. In my opinion when an artist captures the intangible, nothing has to be explained, it just touches the viewer and takes them somewhere where the artist dwells and this to me is the most complicated process of art because you are not just capturing an image you are creating a feeling-that which can not be explained or described. When someone sees a beautiful landscape and instead of feeling happy, they feel disturbed or sad-you have captured something that is deeper than simply paint or medium, the artist lives inside that work and the viewer is allowed to actually know who created it .
So here is where the reader comes in-what do you  look for in a painting? For the creative-what do you seek to show the viewer and what is true artwork to you? This could be a great artistic conversation.