Artistic photography is not just about finding new ways to see things. Its also about finding new things about oneself. This morning I woke up and decided I HAD to post something today. Looking back through my archives I found this image from a recent trip to KC. Not sure why I captured it, but at the time it just felt right. I’ve always been attracted to geometric shapes, lines and form. I think this is why I am so attracted to architectural photography.

With the power of the internet and this image I found something out about myself. You would think at close to 40 years of age you would know yourself, but as an artist I don’t want to. I believe that once you know everything about yourself your art will loose its ability to convey feelings and emotions. With nothing left to discover, art becomes cold and lifeless.

While there is not much life or warmth in this image it does represent a structured part of myself. One that feeds on form and composition.  I do not have a traditional education. My art comes from within and is not restricted by taught ideals, but what I discovered today is that I have found a traditional art theory that fits my way of viewing things. What I found was that I have an attraction to the formalism style of art.

According to wikipedia.org “…formalism is the concept that a work’s artistic value is entirely determined by its form–the way it is made, its purely visual aspects, and its medium. Formalism emphasizes compositional elements such as color, line, shape and texture rather than realism, context, and content.”

Reading this was like finding your lost keys. While I probably have stressed harder over loosing my keys then I have trying to find out how to “classify” my art, it was still a little bit of a relief. I knew these types of art theory classification existed just never took the time to understand if my approach ever fit into one. While I like the concepts of formalism and intend on dedicating a gallery to these types of images, it will remain just one aspect of my art.

I titled this image Full Moon. I could have easily called it Sun Raise or Sun Set, but I think you get the picture…no pun intended. I look forward to seeing where this is heading check back

So some friends of mine brought their newly adopted antique dodge motor home to Church one day. It only proves the point…always bring your camera even to Church. This thing was AWESOME! I could have taken pictures of it all day. While we were standing around basking in all of its glory  I captured this shot. I like it in that it almost looks like the handle is taunting George and George is just not sure what to do about it…anyway I’ll rummage through all the other shots to see if any of them are good for posting otherwise I’ll have to get with George again and set this one up for a real photo shoot.

A while back I was working on trying to get a picture to enter in a contest. I stopped by the side of the road nest to a corn field. The objjective of the contest had to do with lines or rows or something. Being raised in the Midwest I naturally thought corn! Well, needless to say you don’t see any pictures of corn fields on my blog…the pictures didn;t turn out. But while standing on the side of the road frustrated because I knew my corn field idea was a bomb I say this across the road. It just goes to show that sometimes the way to find a shot is by not looking for it.