Thursday, August 9, 2012

effigies



"shadow of magnifing glass" (c) 2004 george elsasser



EFFIGIES (2004-) Work in progress, I began in the fall of 2004. These images are created in the camera and not manipulated in the computer. They share a similar spirit to drawings I made that are shown in PHOTOGRAPHER'S PENCIL.What I think these share with the drawings is a deliberately looser approach to making images than I have practiced for most of my photographic career. These seem to present themselves much more like thoughts than any of my other work. 

They are "quick" if I may. Out of all my photographic work these seem to be somewhat narrative, a quality I have not consciously pursued in my work. This work is still very new for me so if there is other stuff going on, I have no handle on it at this time.

leela

"reflection in old glass" (c) 2006 george elsasser


LEELA (2005-) Work in progress, I began in the summer of 2005. These images are seen through the camera, they are not manipulated in a computer. After being involved in this work for awhile I realized this work takes many of the things I learned from images included in PARTICLE POOL and utilizes them in a different way. It is interesting to note these images did not begin until 4 years after that body of work seemed finished to me. 

That body of work seemed to end prior to my visit to the WTC in December of 2001 at which time working on art to me began to feel really inconsequential and unimportant in such a world. 

This newer work similar in spirit, seems to have evolved simply by doing my job and getting back to work but took a number of years to surface. 2002 now seems was a gestation period of little work and much burn out from drawing, painting and photographing heavily prior to that.

incidents & interesections

"snow covered car" (c) 1987 george elsasser


INCIDENTS & INTERSECTIONS (1987-) FORMAL STATEMENT: I explore those points in my visual life where the natural and the artificial meet. The conflicts, tension and ironies thus generated appear to be analogous for corresponding meeting places in our inner lives. Some viewers have remarked on the presence in my work of conflict between thought and feeling, conscious and subconscious, [reality] and [dream]. There are inner boundaries that are implied by the exploration of visual boundaries in my images. Theses images are not [formalistic] in the sense that formal relationships constitute the essence of the works’ meanings; rather, their main thrust is the use of formal visual relationships to stimulate awareness of relationships within ourselves. 

Often I do not understand the point of many of my images until long after I have made them. Part of being an artist is being a sensitive viewer; much of the fun of the process comes from being stimulated by my own work.