Recently published visual art & descriptions.
Thief
Code Gallery black & white art contest (published)
This work captures how the will for survival supersedes all hesitation, obstacles, and perception of purpose. The intentions of design can become futile in the face of the imperative. The use of black and white in this photo is borderline satirical because there is surely no stark drama in the curiosities and eating habits of suburban rodentia. By naming the piece 'thief' it says more about us as the observers than it does the subject matter. We start out wanting to feed the birds. But I say, let the squirrels eat the seeds.
Awake Without a Dream
Code Gallery black & white art contest (published)
In my 20s I went through an existential realization that there is a possibility that nothing actually exists. This piece is about the eerie feeling you get when you look in the mirror and see your life from third person and for a moment you are not you but merely piloting yourself. A soul can be lost at "see". Inevitably there is something pulls that you back out of that feeling and you don’t notice it happen. As a musician this thought manifested after I saw a picture of a lighthouse in a calendar, then got in my car and drove down to find it for myself and take my own picture to prove to myself that it was real. This corresponds with the beginning of the epic 10 minute folk song 'Avocados', which is on "Rich Art", one of my older, poorly produced, wrought with improvisation, music albums. As the narrator goes on a quest for meaning, he is presented with snippets of good and bad advice from everyone he encounters, only to have no real means of discerning their merit. The song pulls together many abstract and concrete themes into what becomes a frenzied upheaval of imagery. Some have called it a 'millennial anthem'. If you sleep without a dream you are one of the lucky ones. If you are awake without a dream you are crazier than me.
November
Ten Moir color orange art contest (published/finalist)
I am primarily a writer and musician. For visual art I do like to do my own album covers. Most of my music albums have a strong concept album theme like 'Inspired by Star Craft the game' or 'the impact of Polar Exploration in the early 1900s'. My submission to the Orange Art contest comes from a photo I snapped of a dumpster at a pumpkin drop-off in my home town. This allows residents to not hassle with them as they rot in early November. I saw it and thought my goodness how wonderfully sad that image is. All these pumpkins started together in the patch, grew up, went off into separate homes, got carved, and got tossed. The fun has been had and the dance is over for the jack-o-lanterns. I especially like the geometry of the light, how it cuts at an angle where only a few little pumpkins in back get a peak above the shadow, and then you have the pumpkin in front who is perhaps the optimist amongst them. He still wants more life and isn't ready for November yet. I also love that it's a clear day. I think it snowed that Halloween. But this photo can only be taken in the first week of November. The pumpkins cannot lie. The winter will come, and the candy will get eaten. This is life lived and the edge of death.
Superego
Code Gallery patterns art contest (published)
This work was created using an orthogonal spiral grid of the artist's initials. That image was then filtered through the spherical reflector mod tool in zGameEditor. Then the work was given enhanced texture with digital layering techniques. Superego represents the Freudian moral center that emerges in childhood, ever at interplay with the id, and ego (instinct and perception respectively). In the image the initials have morphed into organic curved figures that appear to be conversing or watching over the lower level identity initials.
We Become Ground
Code Gallery patterns art contest (published)
This work was made by overlaying mosaics of blue and red circles. Each succession added rotation and texture for the final output. The color selection represents opposing sides in a battle. As more layers are overlaid, the circles become increasingly square-like. Layers of checkers take on form of the checkerboard, as do deceased warriors become part of the land which is later a new battlefield. We have no way to know the true count of how many of our human ancestors fought each other, and where, and why.