Explorations

First Exploration

Balance

Not Present

Fireworks

Elegy

Woods Man

Dreams of Days Gone By

From Here To Eternity

Lost Dreams

The Fire

Life

Emergence

Suspicions

Topographies

Looking Under the Surface

Welcome Back

Libraries are great places.  I love them I can learn from new books and grow my avenues of creativity.  Last week I checked a new book in the local library, "Photoshop for Artists".  While I am pretty experienced at Photoshop I keep to doing what I know.  The key enlightenment for me, from this book, was the use of Layer Blending.  I had known about Masking and Opacity / Fill manipulations, but I found a new world of creative solutions with the Blending.  This book wasn't written for just photographers.  It was written for visual artists incorporating design, drawing, painting, and photography.  Once you open your eyes to how others solve problems it can create new possibilities for your own creative solutions.

I know I will hear it from photography purists that these are just computer manipulated graphic design.  Anything where you do more than exposure correction in Photoshop is considered computer manipulation by these purist, but then I have always qualified what I do as photographic-based art having also done graphic design.  The ironic thing is that Photoshop is actually a paint program that approximates what can be done in a dark room.  I started doing sandwich and manipulated prints in both the b&w and color darkrooms at the University of Washington twenty years ago.

Well as I have said before figurative art is not necessarily sinful, even if it delves into sexual symbols that have as much to do about life, death, and eternity as they do about creation and ecstasy.  People are not evil if they are happy or content with their physical appearance, quite the contrary, trying to make people guilty about their physical appearance is evil.

These images are not meant to be sexist or racist.  Yes, most of them do not have males in them but that is because of the images I had taken that I found to work in these Blending explorations while also addressing those issues that are in my subconscious mind.  Yes, they were made by a male.  I can't change that, then again they were made by someone of the human species so I have that in common with all of the subjects.  They do include a wide variety of ethnicities and yes, I am of mixed ethnicity.  By the way, the couple in my 'From Here To Eternity' were happily married, and I presume still are.

Editions are limited to twenty in their original size.  Unframed, unmounted, and unmated prints are priced at $200.  Framed, mounted, and matted prints are priced at $500 (includes frame's glass).

Subtleties

I know I will take some flack for this series. Everything from "They're too subtle," to "They reveal too much." Some may say they are sexist without looking closely just because they take a quick look but don't see. Others will say, "They are perverse," without noticing art throughout history has looked upon the human body and said like God did after he created the human body, "It is good."

As for me this series is looking at altered textures and contexts. These altered images covering up or blending with the image below are loaded with so many ideas. Like I have said in our subconscious we ponder subjects that we don't reveal to the public (except for those willing to risk rejection). Just pondering something does not mean that all of the suggestions that enter our mind are accepted, sometimes it is to make our minds react to something.

Of course this series also talks about beautiful clothing. I hear it from someone who gets upset that young women (and hey, for that matter, men do the same thing) like to dress attractively. As if drawing attention to something beautiful is wrong. To me I think it is wrong to tell someone to ignore that an aspect of themself is beautiful (appearances, sense of humor or whatever) and to hide it. Well I will never be a fashion designer or a seamstress (can't sew and don't plan to learn) but appearances are a natural thing for a photographer to be interested in.

I also believe that we cover up and create more social dysfunctions by culturally repressing such discussions. We create villains when sometimes there shouldn't be a villain and sometimes we make something villainous by enforcing repression. Sometimes we can become the villains by self-censoring ourselves.
I didn't title any of the pieces as I thought that it would be better for people to put their own labels on them. Usually I don't like it when artists use this "out" from entitling pieces but I am only revealing what is in my subconscious and you can reveal the contents of your own subconscious if you wish.

May 20, 2010

Preparation For The Big Night

Nightmare 01

Hostage

Fountain of Life

The subconscious is alive in all of us but some want to deny that it is there, or only acknowledge it as dreams. The importance of the subconscious however is that it is our mind dealing with such concerns and questions of acceptance, loneliness, existence, permanence, love, fear, etc. Those that want to deny or put aside these aspects of our mind thus also put them aside in the soul leading to hypocrisy and worse problems of self-identity. It is only in addressing these subjects that we can grow in our own self-identity and thus our relationships with others.

April 24, 2010

Stormy

Relationships

Weightless

Cryptic

Stairs of Disillusionment

Traditional

The Shadow

The Long Road Home

Hallways

Submission I

Primal

Remembrances I

Serenity

Anyone Else From Gushi Here?

Concentration / Ignorance is Bliss

Confinement

Coming Attractions

Recognitions III

Enjoy, please don't overanalyze. I do believe we are working things out in our subconscious minds, sometimes it is things we don't even want to admit that we are working out. I am letting somethings out of my subconscious mind but some images are just cool.

I am addressing the issues that come through dreams; life and death, the struggle for survival and to create the next generation, to be forgiven and to forgive. Our dreams are where we attempt to solve the conflicts in our lives that our conscious mind tells us that we can't solve without a change in our character. By admitting what is in my mind does not say that I act on every impulse, just, that like others, I have thoughts that I ponder and do not know all of the answers to.

Thank you Ralph Gibson for Somnambulist.

All images are copyright Matt Jarvis from the period 1991 through 2010.

Contact the photographer to inquire about authentic prints with provenances for collectors.