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Dear Cole,
My advice: If you're vacationing in Southwest
Colorado during the summer months, make hotel
reservations in advance!
Last month my best
friend Wayne and I drove to Durango and Dolores in
Southwest Colorado. We didn't make any hotel
reservations because there were hundreds of hotels along
our route and we'd easily find something, right?
Wrong.
We couldn't find a single room
between Durango and Grand Junction! We then called the
hotels along I-70 clear up to Glenwood Springs and still
couldn't find a single room. After searching for hours,
we were discouraged, tired and had nowhere to sleep.
So at 10:30 pm we gave up and decided that we
would drive to a Wal-Mart, purchase two sleeping bags
and sleep in the park. We were about a block from the
Wal-Mart when we saw a hotel and in a final, desperate,
sleepy gasp of hope, we stopped. What we found was a
merciful angel of hope in the form of a robust night
clerk who told us that if her last four people did not
arrive by 11 pm, the room was ours!
Determined
not to sleep in the park (dodging the local police and
vagrants) I stood defensive guard at the front desk.
Wayne positioned himself at the hotel entrance, swinging
a flashlight in an authoritative manner and telling
everyone that there was a rabid 12 foot "Hungarian
Python-Rattler" loose in the lobby!
It worked!
The four people didn't make it to the front desk and we
stayed at one of the nicest hotels I've stayed at in a
long time. Truthfully though, at that point a Motel 6
hosting a biker party would have been just fine.
The next morning, well refreshed and content, we
travelled along the Colorado River and I created the
image below.
That alone made the trip
worthwhile.
Cole
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New Images From Colorado
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(Colorado
River Spillway)
I have long been
fascinated with moving water or "Fluid
Water" as I call the images I've created with
long exposures, but more recently that interest
has included Spillways. This spillway is located
along the Colorado River, just east of Grand
Junction and the image was created last month
during my trip to Southwest Colorado.
And
so begins a new portfolio, a small one but a
start!
View
"Spillway Portfolio"
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Photographer or Artist?
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(Chauncey
Gardener was Here)
For many years
photography was not considered art, the "unwritten
rules" said that its role was to document and to
record.
For many years, I considered
myself a photographer and not an artist, bound by
a set of self-imposed rules. I believed that my
"pictures" were intended to document and record,
no more and no less. I could record what I found,
but I could not alter it.
But during the
last few years I began to feel differently, I
would rather create than document. I wanted to
show the viewer what I felt with my images.
And then 2 years ago it suddenly hit me, I
did not want to be a photographer, I wanted to be
an artist!
Being an artist is not an easy
thing for me. I did not grow up with art in my
home, did not take art classes and I've never
viewed myself as a creative person. So for me,
making the switch from Photographer to Artist had
to begin with a mental shift; I had to change how
I saw myself and my work.
Take the image
above for example. I am frequently asked if those
are my footprints? Yes, they are.
In the
past I never would have considered modifying the
environment or the photograph. Things "were what
they were" and my job was to record reality.
But what I was trying to create with this
image required my intervention. The title
"Chauncey Gardener was Here" is a reference to the
character in the movie Being
There with Peter Sellers. Chauncey was a
gardener and simpleton who in the movie's last
scene, walks on water because he didn't know that
he couldn't!
To me, this image represents
all of the things we could do if only we didn't
know that we couldn't do them! I believe that what
limits us in most in life is our own attitudes and
expectations.
This image is a lesson and
reminder to me, that I should approach my art like
Chauncey Gardener approached life; I can do
anything if I believe I can.
I am an
artist.
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Now Appearing... |
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(Mason
and the Dahlia)
Here's where my work
and I have been recently:
A solo exhibition with 23 of my images will be
at "Sideshow" in Dolores, Colorado starting
Saturday 9/7/2007 and running for two months. If
you do stop by Sideshow, please get to know
Heather Narwid the owner. Heather's the kind of
person who can do anything because she doesn't
know it can't be done!
"Clouds"
is now appearing at the Fort Collins Museum of
Contemporary Art.
MOCA Studio Tour! If you are in the area,
please stop by my home studio on either Saturday
9/15 or Sunday 9/16, from 10 am to 5 pm. I'll be
displaying new work and many old favorites.
Map
and Directions.
"The
Angel Gabriel" received 4th place in the 27th
Annual Photographer's Forum.
"Mason
and the Dahlia" has been requested by the
ArtPic Gallery in Hollywood. ArtPic has rented a
number of my images for use in movies and
commercials. Perhaps you'll be seeing Mason on
television soon!
"Clouds"
was accepted into the IAPP Juried Panoramic
Photography Exhibition.
The Sun magazine published "String
of Pearls" in their August issue and "Clouds
and Building" in their September issue.
"Self
Portrait in Snow" and "Shadow
and Palm" have been juried into the exhibition
"Not to Scale" at the Old Firehouse Art Gallery in
Longmont, CO.
Fotomat
is an online magazine based in Europe that is
currently featuring 27 of my images.
View
My Resume
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Five Great Art Quotes
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(Moon
and Clouds)
"All photographs are
accurate. None of them is truth."
---Richard
Avedon
"Everything has been done a million
times. Sometimes you use it and it's yours;
another time you do it and it's still theirs."
---Elizabeth Murray
"Creativity is
allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing
which ones to keep."
---Scott Adams
"Photography is not a sport. It has no
rules. Everything must be dared and tried!"
---Bill Brandt
"Of what use are lens
and light to those who lack in mind and sight?"
---Anonymous
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