Flying Boy Over Truro by Fran Forman

I Take Refuge in Roses by Josephine Sacabo

ENGAGEMENT PEONIES by Brigitte Carnochan

Rachael Elizabeth Short

Lone Oak 1985 Edna Bullock ©Bullock Family PhotographyLLC

Listening to the Sky By Beth Moon

CECROPIA-GUARUMO By Ivonne Hop

Xanthus by Susan Friedman

And So She Liberated Herself by Liz Huston

Fading Perceptions by Joanne Teasdale

Shaylyn Yellow and Shaylyn Orange, ©France Scully Osterman, gum dichromate

A Pair by C.R.

Heart of Glass by Carolyn Hampton,2013

Thank you, for sharing.

]]> http://rfotofolio.com/2013/02/17/it-bears-repeating/ Mon, 18 Feb 2013 05:49:40 +0000 rfotofolio http://rfotofolio.com/2013/02/17/it-bears-repeating/ “The advice I like to give young artists, or really anybody who’ll listen to me, is not to wait around for inspiration. Inspiration is for amateurs; the rest of us just show up and get to work. If you wait around for the clouds to part and a bolt of lightning to strike you in the brain, you are not going to make an awful lot of work.

All the best ideas come out of the process; they come out of the work itself. Things occur to you. If you’re sitting around trying to dream up a great art idea, you can sit there a long time before anything happens. But if you just get to work, something will occur to you and something else will occur to you and something else that you reject will push you in another direction.

Inspiration is absolutely unnecessary and somehow deceptive. You feel like you need this great idea before you can get down to work, and I find that’s almost never the case.”

Chuck Close

Twisted Sheets©France Scully Osterman

Roman Loranc

Heart of Glass by Carolyn Hampton,2013

Floral Dance 3 by J.R.

Rachael Elizabeth Short

Fading Perceptions by Joanne Teasdale

Orchids in Time By Josephine Sacabo

Beth Moon

White Egret Flight by Bob Sadler 2011

Buckeye-Pearl by Roger Aguirre

Thinking of Imogen by c.r. 2013

Color Light Abstraction by Wynn Bullock

...and thank you Chuck Close

More to come…

More to come…

Lone Oak 1985 Edna Bullock ©Bullock Family Photography LLC

Rfotofolio feels there is room for everyone in art. In photography and in all art we are all “copying techniques” that the masters made. We would have no photography, if not for Imogen, Edward, Paul, Wynn, Henri, Andre, Ruth, Tina, and the ones that came before them.  None of us work in a vacuum, but hopefully we all try to follow our own path and voice.

Should we not take the photo of a shell because Edward Weston did such an amazing job?  No more nudes because Ruth Bernard gave us her work.  Landscape photographers put away your cameras, Ansel Adams has been here.  Color still-lifes and nudes, Paul Outerbridge had a knack for that.  Light painting, Wynn Bullock did it decades before everyone.  Most of these artists supported  their artistic community, and did not lose their individual vision.

As artist we struggle to find a way to express our creative selves.

As art lovers we need to school ourselves to see a genuine work, or mere copies.

When rfotofolio began we where only going to focus on black and white photography, but then we realized that would be so limiting, and in art you don’t have to ‘fit in’.

We hope you enjoy having the chance to hear from the artist in their own words, and to share in the beauty they create.  We look forward to sharing more art in the days ahead.

Roman Lornac

Tree in Asylum by Joanne Teasdale

Beth Moon

Allen Birnbach

Edna Bullock, Tree and Wall, West Pinnacles, 1985. © 1985/2012 Bullock Family Photography LLC

2012 was the first year for Rfotofolio, and it has been such a gift getting to know photographers from near and far.  To have them share their art and time, to tell their stories, we feel this enriches us all.  We also wish to thank the people who follow our site and hope that being able to visit us has become a welcome part of their day.  We want to thank  everyone for their generosity, and support, and look forward to the next year of sharing, creating and learning.  More to come…….

Beso by Ivonne Hop

Morgan Fisher

Kim Weston

Allen Birnbach

Carolyn Hampton

Craig Varjabedian

Sea Palms, 1968 by Wynn Bullock © Bullock Family Photography LLC

Bob Sadler

Roger Aguirre Smith

Chris Kovacs

Cody Edison

Three Nudes on Dunes by Edna Bullock 1990,© Bullock Family Photography LLC

Beth Moon

Liz Huston

J. Rosenthal

Creative Isolation by Liz Houston

Coast by J.Rosenthal 2012

Beth Moon

White Pomagranites J.Rosenthal 2012

Pair by C. Rosenthal

Texture and Light Five by Roger Aguirre Smith

Chris Kovas

Landing By Bob Sadler 2012

Cat in Hat by Kim Weston

Carolyn Hampton

Allen Birnbach

Morgan Fisher

Ivonne Hop

Lone Oak 1985 Edna Bullock © Bullock Family PhotographyLLC

Beth Moon’s photography takes you on a journey.  From the portraits of the earths oldest and historic trees, to touching tributes that show how mankind, animals, and all living things are connected. With her care, craft and art, they get to tell their stories to us. She captures in her photographs a haunting beauty, that many of us would miss.

Where do you get your inspiration?

I find inspiration most often in the natural world, sometimes literature, certainly painting.  My children are a never-ending source. I find trying to look at the world through their eyes always gives me a different perspective.

Which artists have had an influence on you? 

The Starns, Damien Hirst, and Banksy to name a few.

If no one saw your work, would you still create it ? 

I need to be totally satisfied first and by that I mean, the end results needs to gratify my reasons for making the work in the first place, but I do not make work for myself only.  The viewer is an integral part of the format.  Hopefully the viewer contributes on some level, perhaps by sharing a similar curiosity or interest.

Can you share your creative process and how you edit your work?

I kind of work in an assembly line process.  I photograph all of the work over a period of time.  During this time I scan and digitally print small thumbnail shots that I like and put them on the wall in my office and a copy next to my bed, so I can look at them during different times of the day.  Sometimes I am glancing across the room and they look more geometric in shape without so much detail.  I am constantly taking some off while adding other shots, this goes on for weeks on end.  I also start writing notes on my artist’s statement since this helps me to clarify direction and I am an especially bad writer.  When I feel that I have enough material, I edit down to maybe 50 shots that I feel are cohesive as a group and strong individually.

Only then do I print small platinum prints of the best shots. I tape all of these up to view on the wall as a group and this time I am concentrating on the overall tones/mood/feeling.  I edit down again to maybe 25-30.   At this point I make adjustments to the printing, so contrast and tones are consistent within the group.  Larger prints are made.  At this point some of the images may not make it when they are printed large and I might have to regroup again, but this is basically how I go about getting to the final group.

How did you come to platinum printing, and Chine Colle’?  Can you tell us about that process?

I started to learn platinum printing when the first series I produced faded to green within a year of printing.  It was then I decided I wanted to make prints I could trust would not shift in color or tone.  I really like the fact the ground metals go into the fiber of the paper instead of sitting on the surface, and love the feel of a paper made in the same mill in France for 400 hundred years.

I am familiar with the gravure printing process.  I like the indent of the emboss upon the paper, it is a visual and tactile  look I appreciate.  For a new series of work I really wanted to use a heavier watercolor paper (#300 weight),  rich with texture but it was not sized for platinum printing, so I decided to borrow the chine colle’ print making method to bond a platinum print onto the heavier substrate with an etching press.

How does photography affect the way you see the world ?

Certainly, I look closer at many things.  I think photography challenges me to try to see differently.

How do challenge yourself creatively speaking?

I think there are challenges with each type of series that I’ve worked on, which is why I don’t stay with one subject matter.  I actually like working out these challenges, this way I am never bored.

Any projects or shows you would like to share?

The last exhibition I have this year takes place in Israel to coincide with a city-wide art appreciation program, put on in Jerusalem with Vision Gallery.  I have had a busy year and am looking forward to taking some time off to work on a new project after that!

Thank you Beth for your time and your art.

Beth Moon currently has a show at the Vision Gallery  www.visiongallery.com

You can also see more of her work at her site www.bethmoon.com

Beth Moon

Elizabeth Opalenik

Verve has impeccable taste in its artists … these two ladies are no exception.

Beth Moon’s photography examines the relationship between humans and earth’s creatures. Her tree images focus on their majesty and solitude. Her recent work took our intrepid artist to the island of Socotra in the Gulf of Aden off the coast of Yemen. Socotra, with a sparse and arid landscape, is the home to nine species of trees, all unique to the island. Beth’s portrait of the Dragon’s Blood Tree in Socotra pays special tribute to a distinctive tree that stands tall with a vertical trunk and an out of reach and arching umbrella canopy. Included in the exhibition are Beth’s prints from the Seen but Not Heard series, a body of work that examines the role of children in an adult world. Finally, in Augurs and Soothsayers Beth captures the regal essence of capons, feathered fowl as seen at their finest.

Elizabeth Opalenik exhibits recent images where she uses the Mordançage process. Elizabeth reconfigures the darkest emulsion of a gelatin silver print to make it into a veil or drapery. Once the emulsion is loosened from the paper she rearranges the emulsion so as to create a complementary veil that adorns the subject of the photograph, Elizabeth’s dancers and nudes. In addition, Elizabeth will be exhibiting platinum palladium prints from A Journey Home, a body of work where she photographed the Amish in Pennsylvania. Elizabeth was raised near this Amish community and found solace in their company while tending to her mother who was ill. The images in this series are very personal and yield a body of work that portrays a people living serenely and in harmony with the gentle rolling manicured landscape found in the western part of the state.

Now through June 2

For more information:

Verve Gallery