Why Art

Making art for  money is probably not a very good motivation.  If I had worked part time somewhere equal to the time invested in developing my scanner art, it would be a nice little sum.  Probably in the 10's of thousand of dollars.  But life and art are not just about money.  Money is OK, don't get me wrong.   I'm not trying to be Gandhi. 

I think we humans want to express ourselves.  I remember a conversation with a high school English teacher many years ago.   I told her I believed the most important things as humans we could do would be to communicate clearly.  I still believe that, its just that it isn't so simple.  I often think words, whether written or spoken get in the way.  It would be great to write the new great American novel.  But everything in writing has been done, and done, and done again.   Creativity as a writer is a truly monumental task.  Not that there are not great writers.  There are many, and I enjoy them.  Just as there are great photographers and painters.  Unfortunately, I think some artists turn to just being weird in an attempt to be original.

When I first stumbled onto scanner photography I saw an opportunity to do something creative and different.   In a world of almost 7 billion people at this time of writing that is truly unusual.  I had no training in art.  The greatest thing in my favor was my ignorance.  I didn't know what it would look like.  I was like a five year old with a new box of crayons.  Pure creativity and exploration.  I did not know composition.  I had to learn.  I knew I wouldn't be the only scanner artist out there.  Therefore, my goal was to eschew the easy stuff and push the limits.  That is still my goal.  Sometimes I think I succeed.

Life is like art.  It isn't easy.  If it is easy, how much are you giving up by not exploring your own limitations and your potential?  Life is something to be creative with.  What are you good at?  It might be that flower garden in the front yard.  Do people stop to look at it?  If they do, you have succeeded. You have communicated something important.
Robert

Unstable world

The recent massive 8.9 earthquake in Japan reminds us all as to the fragility of our civilizations on this planet.  Modern civilization has only existed for a fraction of the geological age of the earth.  I live within about 400 miles of the great caldera in the center of Yellowstone National Park.   The chances are that it won't explode in my lifetime and maybe not for another 100,000 years.  However it will explode at some time, and everything I consider normal will be altered forever, it not exterminated.  Much of the wildlife and plant life of the mountain west may not survive the blast.  How does this relate to art you might ask?

Everything we know and see will not survive forever.  It is temporary.  Art is a way to appreciate the world and the life we find around us,  Flowers have existed for millions of years.  Hopefully the flowers we see will exist millions of years from now.   Yet I know that the plants and animals we see, at this point in history will not exist forever.  Extinction is inevitable.  This is not meant to be a lament.  It is a statement that we should appreciate the moment.  Appreciate the world and those around you.  It is a very special moment in time. 

In my perspective, I make no distinction between a single flower and a range of mountains.  Each has value and beauty.  Each exist, but will not exist forever. The zen of life and art is to create in this moment of time and to know that it will not last. 

The flower is
it has no need to know
to understand
no desire to clarify, justify, or falsify

The flower does not wonder what is
yet it is
 a fingerprint of that which is.


Robert

Springtime

While out walking today I saw the first true sign of spring.  The first white fuzz  of the catkins on a aspen tree.  Catkins are tree flowers.  It is still cold and snowy here in the high Laramie valley in southern Wyoming.  We have months of cold and snow left, but the days are longer and hope creeps back into cold bones.  I can feel the increased heat from the sun, life returns.

There is truth in the seasons.  Life has seasons, it springs forth and falls back.  There are cold long dormant times of life and there are the long never ending days of summer.   It is easy to place value on the spring and summer, but all seasons have value.  Accept the seasons of your life, each has a place within the rhythm of life.  Life, like art is not complete without all the elements.  What would life be without a beginning, a middle, and an ending.

Robert

Scanography and Photoshop

I will create a new blog which will deal exclusively with scanner photography techniques and graphic art in photoshop.  It will be scanography 101 so to speak.  I will try to be detailed in a step by step description of my techniques and art style.  I will create a link for this new blog soon. 

Check back and read along...

Robert Louis Fleming

Antarctica

I spent six seasons working in the Antarctic at McMurdo Station.  It was a place of incredible beauty and incredible desolation.  The Antarctic is like being on another planet.  A planet devoid of life.  It made the fragility of life on this planet not an intellectual exercise but a gut level reality.  It deepened my appreciation of all things.  Our planet is literally alive, but not everywhere. Even on our rock there are places where life does not exist, at least nothing you would recognize as alive. 

It was also disconcerting to look up at an alien sky, a night sky I did not recognize.  Nothing was familiar, nothing to align myself with.  I can almost imagine how astronauts feel.  The common and the ordinary were gone.  I have found that making scanner photograpy images forces me to engage with my environment, to observe it and to see it with fresh eyes.  I never stop looking now, it is a gift. I am more aware of my world now.  Stop to look at that leaf, look at that flower, look up once again at that night sky, and realize that the common and the ordinary are anything but common.  Everything is a miracle.

Robert

Blue Collar Artist

I am a blue collar artist.  It originates with growing up in Wyoming: with going fishing, sleeping on the ground, cooking over open fires, picking chokecherries, gooseberries, wildplums, stacking hay, and walking in blizzards.  There was little or nothing between the self and nature. Nature is the ultimate artist.  Some call it God.  Nothing we do as an artist will supplant or surpass the earths natural aesthetic.  Appreciation of beauty is not taught.  Beauty is inherent in the world.  Perhaps the best we can do is attempt to share our view, what we see, and what we feel.

Therefore I try to be practical, to make art that is immediate, instinctive, and without explanation.  A sunset is not explained, it is.  The world is full of skilled painters and photographers.  It has all been done.   Scanner photography has given me the chance to do something a little different, to change focus, perspective and scale.  The images are recognizable as real but with a surreal element.  Maybe that is the only thing that nature does not express well, which is the human element.  Our desire to express our experience and our emotions.   My hope is that whatever your beliefs or background you may find elements in my art which resonate.  It may be all we ever understand of each other. 

Robert

Scanner magic

I have been asked many times to explain how I create my images.  I usually give the standard answers about using a scanner as a camera and digital  manipulation in photoshop.   But as with any art,  there is a moment of magic when all of the elements come together for that  "aha!" moment.  As the saying goes, "I can't define art but I can know it when I see it".  I have scanned thousand of images into the computer and most of them went straight to  delete.  After years of working with scanner images, I have developed my judgement about which images are worth trying to process in photoshop.  Image processing is very time intensive.  Twenty, thirty, or sixty hours into an image is not when to decide it is a failure. 

The first things I look for are subject texture, dimensional qualities, color, and interest.  Working within that context, I want to develop the image compositition.  Computer photography enables one to experiment with composition in real time until the desired balance is achieved.   The other important image quality is background colors.  Background colors are created with colored papers.  The colors must in some significant way complement or contrast with the image subject.  It is an art not a science.  When these elements come together it becomes magic.  Hence the title of this little blog, "Scanner Magic".   Which also leads one to one of the qualitative scanner photograpy sites on the web.     http://www.scanner-magic.com/index.html



Enjoy

Robert Fleming

scanner techniques technology

I am not an expert in how a scanner works.  A scanner sends out a bright light much like a photocopier in every office and the sensors pick up and interpert the signal reflected off the scanned objects.  This is a very simple description of a complex machine and internal programming, which is quite frankly, beyond the understanding of most of us.  Having said that, we still can learn to manipulate and use a scanner operating system in creative and artistic ways.  I will of course write posts on relevant techniques I use with a scanner as time goes on. This link gives some basic understanding of scanner techniques.http://www.photo-vinc.com/articles/Flatbedscanner/Flatbedscanner.html

My greatest desire is to focus on the artistic result and the motivations of the artist.  Art and life are as intertwined as blood and breath.  One does not exist or function without the other.  How does a camera work?  How does a TV work?  I don't know.  I am more interested in the results of their use. 

Bob

Scanner Photography introduction

This is the first installment of my thoughts and ideas concerning the art form called scanner photography.  A flatbed photo scanner is used to capture or create images directly from the objects themselves.  A photo is not taken and then laid on the scanner.  The scanner is the camera. 

The second part of scanner photography, at least my unique style, involves many hours in photoshop.  Adobe Photoshop has many tools available for manipulation of images.  I will not attempt to explain those many tools right now.  Over time,  I will write short blogs on how I use the various photoshop tools.

Sounds easy enough...and in some ways it is.  Remarkable images can be created in moments with a simple scan and proper photo editing.  However if one pushes the limits and capabilities of the process it becomes as complex as one wishes or desires within the overall creative process.  After almost nine years I don't feel I have mastered everything, nor have I accomplished all I want to achieve.   It has become a lifelong work in progress.

Scanner Art has become for me, a technical journey, a social journey and perhaps most importantly a journey of what one sees, what one believes and what one wants to attempt to share.

Welcome along

Robert Fleming