Raw From The Road, August 16, 2016

Getting Real?

Nothing is less real than realism, Details are confusing.
It is only byselection, by elimination,
by emphasis that we get at the real meaning
 of things.

Georgia O’Keefe, 1922

While studying photography at USC, I was Inspired by the work of Georgia O’Keefe and I wanted to create a collection of literal images which could exist in multiple art-forms realistic or not.

This was my final project of the semester in 2003.

I took these photographs with a film camera and during the process of printing I was intrigued by the connection of these images to vistas of the land.

I noticed that they mimicked the earth… red, parched, rolling textures and beautifully rich in color.

Some started to imitate topographic-like images, as if the photographs were taken from above.

Aerial photographs of the earth in Arizona, Utah or New Mexico came to mind.

The hills, valleys and crevices….orange, pink and deep burgundy, colors of the sunset, colors of canyons and mountains, colors of skin.

I processed and enlarged the images, expanding their literal reality into more of an abstract version.

Now, what I notice in nature is the replication of the human body in flowers or on the bark of trees; a dew drop on a pink hydrangea, a fossilized tree in Big Sur or the dirt in the red desert and canyons of New Mexico.
Human or Nature?

Is it sexual?  Perhaps. That’s up to the viewer.

Whatever myths or truths surrounding the work of Georgia O’Keefe, I loved creating this body of work and I’m grateful for the inspiration to delve into the literal aspect of what could be derived from a painting.

Thank you Ms. O’Keefe.

Tread gently,

Robbie