"Fine art is that in which the hand, the head, and the heart of man go together. " ~John Ruskin

Today was a really good day. I can't help but notice that it is Thursday. I tell you....there's just something about them.


I also wanted to share these images with you.

This first image is one I took awhile ago when I was first learning about the zone system - the system that perfects black and white photography. I returned to the image about a year later when I was given the assignment to make a digital image for a platinum print. I scanned in the negative b/c I remembered liking it and thought it'd be a good choice.  But as I looked at it with eyes made fresh for no other reason than that time had passed, it seemed to be.....lacking.

So I did what you see to your right.  I've been told I'm a modernist because I like to do things like this to my images. I can't help myself. I do think this second one is a much more interesting image. Don't get me wrong, I love the one above. I remember shooting it, it took about 2 hours (sometimes when there's that much frustration involved you're destined to love it if it even remotely turns out...the hard thing is being able to tell if that's why you love it or if it really did turn out well).  But then I did this to add interest.  I don't know what others think about the comparison.  I know a lot of people struggle with enjoying abstract images so I would assume maybe not a lot of people in the general public like it. As for myself, I think I love abstract art because it's all about what you feel (for me).  I definitely create based on what I feel. I love to massage an image making minute changes here and there till it just.......feels right. 

I didn't mean to be a modernist. Although, I'm not an elitist. I see why modernism in art ended and post-modernism needed to begin. I think it was a good thing based on where modernism ended up. I enjoy many art forms and in fact, that's been one of the most interesting aspects, for myself, of becoming an artist. (I say 'become' because I don't feel it was on the very edge of my personhood like it is for so many others. It seems they feel like they have no other way of living but by and through art. I highly esteem those people....several of them were my classmates, and I have before even wished I were like that. However, I had to find it buried down a bit deeper) I loved to see that the kind of art that I most admired was not the kind that was most natural for me to create. By 'natural' I don't mean easy in the sense that there was no effort or even struggle but that it just seemed to make sense as I created. Rather interesting....